1. Elegant Chocolate Cakes

Traditionally, bridal cakes are vanilla, but chocolate is making a comeback – and in a very fancy way. Rather than seeing boring chocolate cakes covered in white fondant, we’re seeing cakes that celebrate the fact they are chocolate. Expensive chocolate truffles, chocolate candies, and delicate chocolate detailing are all very trendy for the upcoming season.

2. Vintage Cakes

Cakes with a vintage feel are also popular for the upcoming season. Instead of white, cakes are being iced in ivory and completed with ruffles, bows, and lave, almost as though they are representing vintage wedding gowns. Vintage cakes can be very romantic.

3. Graphic Designs

Piping on cakes is extremely graphic in design this season. Black and white cakes are especially popular, but so are other contrasting colors, like red and white or chocolate and pastels. Large, topsy-turvy designs featuring polka dots, stripes, and other in-your-face patterns are out, but that same concept of clean design is brought to the table with more elegant and adult-style graphics.

4. Celebrating your Heritage

Not every culture traditionally has white wedding cakes, and it is becoming more and more popular to honor another heritage instead of choosing a three-tier cake with flowers. Options like stack cakes, Dragon & Phoenix cakes, and other wedding cakes from around the world are popular choices.

5. Fresh Flowers

Flowers being used on wedding cakes is nothing new, but we’re seeing a move away from sugar flowers and toward fresh flowers instead. This is especially true with brides who want light, simple designs featuring just a few blooms on the cake.

~ Milk: Milk goes well with most baked goods, and will bring your guests back to their childhood. You have even have a “milk bar” that includes not just regular milk, but also flavors like vanilla milk and strawberry milk!

~ Flavored Coffee: Most couples make coffee available at their wedding receptions, but consider going above and beyond the regular decaf/regular options. Offer flavored coffee, special blends, iced coffee, and even coffee with a shot of cream alcohol.

~ Hot Chocolate: At fall and winter weddings, hot chocolate serves as a really nice complement to most cakes. Explore the flavor options you have, and make sure to provide lots of marshmallows and whipped cream.

A stack cake is named such because it has many layers stacked on top of one another, like a very taller layer cake. Each guest brings one thin layer of cake, usually plain white/yellow or flavored with ginger, apple, molasses, spices, or other related flavors. As the guests arrive, the family of the bride traditionally stacks the cakes, spreading a layer of apple preserve or apple butter as a filling between each layer.

Obviously, this isn’t the best cake idea if you have hundreds of guests attending your wedding, but it can be a really interesting spin on a wedding cake if you’re having a smaller reception. You can read more about stack cakes at Appalachian Heritage Magazine.

Photo by thebittenword.com via Flickr

Not every cake looks this beautiful.

Most weddings aren’t perfect. That doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a great day. However, if there were problems with your wedding cake, you should receive compensation. Here’s what to do if you weren’t happy with the wedding cake you received.

~ Take lots of pictures. After the reception, you want to be able to prove to the bakery that the cake was damaged, poor quality, or otherwise not what you ordered. You don’t deserve a free cake for a small scratch in the icing, but if you paid for a designer cake and it arrives lop-sided, you should get some of your money back.

~ Save pieces of the cake. If the problem lies with the taste, save as much cake as possible to prove to the baker that there was a problem. Just because the cake is edible doesn’t mean it is what you ordered. Cakes that are burnt, under-cooked, or the wrong flavor, you deserve compensation.

~ Don’t wait to voice your concerns. If you have a wedding planner, have him or her call the baker and voice the complaint right away. Otherwise, have your maid of honor or a family member call the next morning to talk about the problem. Don’t wait until you get back from your honeymoon.

Remember, on your wedding day, you’ll tend to be overly-critical of everything. Cake decorators aren’t miracle-workers, and every cake will be slightly different. Before you get upset about your cake, take a breath and ask yourself: is it really that bad or are you simply too hard to please? Don’t let bridezilla take over!

~ Does the cake need to be refrigerated? Most cakes are fine as long as they aren’t in direct sunlight, but depending on the type of fillings or cake you choose, your cake might need to be refrigerated if it is delivered more than an hour or two before being cut. Not every reception hall had space for you in their refrigerator if you don’t ask for it ahead of time.

~ What time will the cake be delivered? If the reception is at 5 PM, your cake decorator might schedule delivery for 4 PM. That would be fine…if that wasn’t directly in the middle of you saying your vows! Someone needs to meet the delivery person to ensure that the cake is what you ordered, so unless you have a wedding planner that doesn’t have to see you at the alter, make sure that the time works for you.

~ Have you delivered cakes to my reception hall in the past? If your cake decorator isn’t familiar with your reception hall, they could be late when delivering it. Don’t rely on their GPS. Write out very clear directions from the bakery to the hall, including landmarks, route numbers and road names, and estimated miles or blocks. They should also have the cell phone number of your wedding planner or a member of your wedding party in case they get lost.

It’s your wedding, so you shouldn’t have to serve the cake. But who should?

~ The Catering Staff: You can ask your catering staff to cut the cake, but be prepared for them to charge $100 (or sometimes even more) to provide this service. If the caterers provided the cake as well, they might do it for free, but in general, you’ll pay extra for cake serving.

~ A Member of your Wedding Party: If you want to save a little money, you can ask your maid of honor, best man, or even mother to cut the wedding cake. Make sure that you go over how big to make the pieces, or they could cut them too large and you’ll run out of cake.

~ Serve Yourself: The other option is to allow guests to serve themselves. If you chose this method of serving cake, make sure that you cut the cake yourself. Otherwise, the first guests in line could take very large pieces, leaving little cake for everyone else. Serve-yourself options are best for simple, one-tier square or rectangular cakes, which are easier to cut than multi-tier round cakes with lots of decorations.

This small two-tier cake is available from Freed’s Bakery of Las Vegas. Check out the website or call 702-456-7762 to order.

If you’re too afraid to have a totally black cake, an option like this, from Tracey’s Cakes, might be a better option. Their bakery is located in the UK, and you can contact them at (01844) 347147.

This peacock cake is stunning and perfect for a modern wedding. You can order it from ABC Cake Shop & Bakery, located in Albuquerque. Call 505-255-5080 for more info.

Carrie’s Wedding Cakes, based in Sandy, Utah, is one of the many bakeries that makes edible flowers for wedding cakes. Check out these beautiful options, and consider contacting Carrie’s Wedding Cakes via their website or at 801.571.1620 to schedule an appointment.

The Wrong Cake: Call your cake decorator right away. Many bakeries have several weddings every weekend, so if you have the wrong cake, that means that your cake is also somewhere, perhaps traveling to a wedding that’s in the opposite direction from your location. The sooner your bakery knows there is a problem, the sooner the right cake will arrive at your reception.

Marks: Whoever delivers your cake should inspect it for problems that could have happened during travel so that they can be fixed. However, if you pick up the cake yourself of the problem occurs after the decorator leaves, you’ll have to deal with the mark, dent, or other imperfection yourself. Can a decoration be moved to be placed over the mark? You can can also turn the cake so that the mark is in the back and not noticeable as your guests come into the reception – just make sure you pick up the topper and turn it to face the front again.

Flavor Problems: Mistakes happen. If you cut into your cake and see that it is red velvet when you ordered chocolate, don’t panic. At this point, there’s not much you can do except enjoy the cake you’ve been given. Check out each layer – just one might be wrong. Save a piece of the cake to show the bakery after the wedding is over. You should get a partial refund for the mistake.

What are edible images? Essentially, they’re printed pictures, but instead of ink, the printer uses food coloring, and instead of paper, the printer is loaded with very, very thin sheets of fondant or another sugar-based surface. The printer works in the same way that a typical computer printer works. In fact, there are actually kits that can be used with a regular printer. That means that bakeries doesn’t even have to own special equipment to offer this service.

Of course, if you happen to be working with a bakery that doesn’t have an edible image printer, you don’t have to count this idea out. You can order edible images. Companies like Icing Images allow you to place an order, which you can ship to you or directly to your baker for use.