Budgeting For The Cake ~ What You're Paying For

Wedding cakes are a work of art and many man hours can go into creating the masterpiece. It's important to know though, that most of a your wedding cakes cost will be in your choice of icing, the cake decorating, the size of the cake tiers and how many servings you'll need.


1. The wedding cake icing or frosting: as a bride-to-be you have the choice of rolled fondant icing, marzipan, real white or chocolate icing, royal icing, chocolate ganache and flavoured buttercream. Rolled fondant and marzipan are the most expensive, as a fair bit of labour goes into rolling a perfectly smooth and even canvas for limitless cake decorating options. (Very easy to tear during the process if not applied properly).
2. The wedding cake decorating: cake decorations will vary according to which icing you pick. If it's rolled fondant, the decorating ideas are limitless. When the fondant is completely dry, it is firm and perfectly smooth. However, if you prefer buttercream, your best choice for decorations are fresh or silk flowers, buttercream or ganach based decorative patterns or swirls and/or decorative satin ribbons around each tier.  TIP: even though buttercream is a delicious choice, for melting reasons, do not choose buttercream for a summer wedding. The buttercream will not stand the test of time.
3. Wedding cake tiers and layer structure: the more cake layers or tiers your choose, the more costly you cake becomes. The size of the tier also need to be taken into considerations.

Here's an example:
1. Type of icing you choose, example: rolled fondant icing, royal icing or buttercream icing. The intricate cake decorating example: creating the edible flowers, motifs and decorations. And last but not least the structure of the cake. Whether it be layered or tiered, the actual size. The larger the wedding cake, or more complex in design, the greater the chance of the cake collapsing. So extra measures and time goes into securing the structure.
2. The icing, decorating and assembling of a layered or tiered cake. And the least amount of cost will go into the cakes in ingredients.
3. The larger the wedding cake, or more complex in design, the greater the chance of the cake collapsing. So extra measures and time goes into securing the structure.
4. The precautions the cake designer makes, the greater the wedding cake cost.Huge wedding cakes can easily collapse and some cakes can only be assembled at the wedding reception.

These are just some of the hidden costs.The following are some beautiful works of art for inspiration: