The popular image of traditional wedding cakes is almost a cliche: tier upon tier or rock solid white icing, encasing a dense fruit cake, a miniature bride and groom perched on top. The cake is ceremoniously cut and then hardly any of the guests actually eat it, already sated with the sumptuous wedding feast. The contemporary trend of wedding cakes in South Africa is seeing the traditional cake left behind by the creative or elegantly styled one.
Modern bridal couples are thinking twice before blowing the budget on an imposing traditional wedding cake that will go unappreciated except by the photographer. It really does make a gorgeous prop after all! Instead they are choosing their favourite flavours and commissioning luscious cakes that beg to be eaten: rich chocolate truffle cakes, light sponges with delectable fillings, spiced carrot cakes, all can replace the traditional rich fruit recipe as the base, perhaps with each tier a different flavour to spoil your guests with choice.
When it comes to frosting you no longer have to stick with the classic white fondant. Creative cake makers can go wild with design and create beautiful cake finishes in all sorts of colours to match your wedding theme. The cake can be prettily covered with flowers, adorned with crystals and jewels, or swathed in decadent chocolate icing. It may make the choice of wedding cake more difficult, but your cake can become a proud centrepiece at your wedding reception, an expression of your own style and individuality.
Some bridal couples are abandoning the wedding cake altogether at less formal weddings. Instead they might commission tiers of beautiful cupcakes, presented in a similar stacked format, but easy to give out individually to guests, either as part of dessert or to take with them as they leave. Individually wrapped chocolate brownies given out as wedding favours are another option. Nowadays there is plenty of room to stamp your own flavour on your wedding day and no need to stick to the old traditions… unless you happen to love rich fruit cake, of course!
There are plenty of specialist South African wedding cakes suppliers to choose from. They all have their own individual styles of cake decoration and their own exclusive recipes. The only difficulty is that ordering a creative wedding cake adds one more difficult choice to the bride’s wedding planning: what colour, what flavour, what decoration, which baker?
The cake may be a small part of the wedding reception, but it is an important one. Your guests will remember a delicious and beautifully decorated cake and it will certainly feature in your wedding photos. So take time over choosing and commissioning your wedding cake and make sure it reflects your style and individuality, beside tasting wonderful.
