Ever since high school, Kelly Parlier has known exactly what her wedding cake
would look like.
During her senior year, the Nashville, Tenn., resident was working on a
project for school in which she had to plan the details of a wedding, from gown
style to toasting flutes. While looking in a magazine to find ideas, she came
across a cake she fell in love with and decided that the creation had to be at
her wedding some day.
Parlier kept her wedding file for nearly eight years, and when the time came,
a bakery in Gatlinburg, Tenn., made her dream a reality.
“I have always loved ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and the cake is actually called
the Mad Hatter cake. I never even looked at another cake for my wedding,” she
said.
When Parlier married longtime sweetheart Aaron Parlier, their cake, with
crooked, topsy-turvy layers, was frosted in brightly colored fondant icing. It
had several flavors, including one layer of Parlier’s favorite, carrot cake. It
served 125 guests at a cost of $550, and was the talk of the reception. She
responded to an e-mail query about wedding cakes.
“Nobody in their right mind is mean enough to tell a bride they look bad on
their wedding day, but honest people will tell you if they really liked your
cake,” she said. “Everyone loved it, or at least thought it was so different
from the average wedding cake. ... They talked about it all night.”
Cakes have evolved from a minuscule wedding day detail to all-out shows of
style. As weddings get more sophisticated, brides are tying in the cake with
wedding themes and colors. Some brides are choosing sand castle-shaped cakes for
beach-themed weddings, or cakes decorated with monograms or quotes. And many
couples don’t stop at one cake, either. Grooms cakes, largely a Southern
tradition, are gaining popularity as couples seek to offer guests a variety of
flavors and incorporate a little of the groom’s style into the special day.
Endless options
Dorothy Pitcher, owner of The Cake Shoppe in Bartonville, Ill., says the
options for wedding cakes are endless. While three out of four cakes she creates
are simple stacked cakes, The Cake Shoppe has created many specialty cakes over
the 28 years it has been in business. They have created a sand castle cake with
edible seashells and coral. One couple were beekeepers, and for them the shop
created a beehive cake, Pitcher said.
Pitcher says sometimes a bride will bring in a photograph of a cake she
likes, but often they need assistance.
“When I sit with them and look through the albums, I’ll mark which ones catch
their eye and I can tell what (styles) they like by watching them. Then we
design it together,” she said.
Bonnie Krohn, pastry chef at Cyd’s Sendsationals in Peoria Heights, Ill.,
said ganache — a mixture of cream and chocolate — and rolled fondant are popular
icing choices. Fondant is a pliable icing that has a smooth, porcelain finish.
Simple is in
The simplest of wedding cakes start at about $1.50 per serving and can go as
high as $15 per serving in larger cities. And different types of frostings and
fillings can add to the cost.
Donna Draher of Trefzger’s Bakery in Peoria Heights says a popular choice is
a simple, white stacked cake garnished with fresh flowers that match bouquets or
centerpieces. These cakes can be a more affordable choice, she said. And it’s
more economical to have a display cake for the bride and groom to cut and sheet
cakes in the kitchen that can be cut and served to guests.
Asian flair
Newlywed Rebecca Ancira said the sweets were important at her New Orleans
wedding, as both her family and her husband’s family eat dessert first. In
addition to having a traditional wedding cake — almond flavored with various
fruit and chocolate fillings — they also had a variety of sweets including
monogrammed bite-size pastries. But what stole the show, she said, was their
Asian-themed groom’s cake. Ancira’s husband, Wes, teaches and studies martial
arts as a hobby. The groom’s cake was a 3-D pagoda house made of chocolate pound
cake with chocolate buttercream filling. It was displayed with one of Wes
Ancira’s ceremonial swords and an ikebana-inspired flower arrangement.
The cake, which cost about $300 and fed 100 guests, was made by Haydel’s
Bakery in New Orleans. The bakery is known for their 3-D cakes, particularly
their replica of Louisiana State University’s Tiger Stadium.
“When I got to the groom’s cake I was stunned,” Rebecca Ancira said. “I
couldn’t believe how amazing it looked. Immediately I went looking for Wes and
brought him over to see the cake. We both just kept circling the cake table
trying to see the cake from every angle.
“The groom’s cake was definitely a highlight of the reception and one of the
things that helped make our wedding memorable.”
