Let Them Eat...Cupcakes?

If you've been following the trends in desserts or wedding sweets it's obvious that cupcakes are all the rage.  Cupcake flavors range from the perfect vanilla or chocolate cupcake to designer flavors.  If the cupcake is a 'plain' flavor the likelihood is the icing is laced with a special liqueur flavoring or some special toppings.  Sometimes the tops are fancy fondants in unique shapes that will make any wedding guest swoon! I love this pink floral look! You can almost smell the flowers.

As a bride it's your choice to make whether to go with the fancy designs and plainer flavorings or a cupcake whose taste will take your breath away! These two samples from Cake In A Cup and Lealalicious, are the designers first attempt at haute couture cupcakes I'd say they turned out pretty near perfection!

Gold Embossed Wedding Cake

How do you feel about having this fancy gold wedding cake be the highlight of your wedding reception? It's sure to steal the show, and will likely cost a fortune as well!  This cake from City Sweets and Confections and posted by Calligraphy by Jennifer on Facebook is gorgeous gold with a cream colored flower attached.  Designed by Deborah Lauren this gold standard of a cake Brides Magazine said this cake 'pairs the luster of an Indian sari with a classic peony crafted from sugar.'  The cake is embossed fondant and if you have to ask what it costs...you can't afford it! This cake would be great with a bride wearing a gown with gold trim or a wedding with metallic accents.

Black, White and Pink Wedding Cake

Black and white and a hint of pink, this sweet table wows guests with the selection of cakes in an assortment of black and white designs.  Choose to serve one, choose to serve them all.  Your guests will be wowed! Photo courtesy of Hot Pink Brides. Get the look of shopping in Paris with cakes that look like hat boxes.  Use Eiffel Tower's for centerpieces and some black and white ribbon napkin rings. Put the name of the bride and groom on top of the cakes.

Rainbow Wedding Cake

Let the colors in this cake blow away your guests at your rainbow theme wedding! It's perfect for your theme and will have your guests oohing and aahing! Tiny dots of icing in graduated colors will wow your guests.  This cake isn't your usual wedding cake, but non-traditional brides will love it's bright colors that make it look like a rainbow! Nice work by The Rise and Shine Bakery.  They make this cake in smaller versions as well in case you don't need one that towers as high as this one does.  Or if you're looking for a great looking cake for any occasion head over to their web site and see their gallery of cakes.

Paper Wedding Cake Flowers? Pros and Cons

Brides have come up with more and more ingenious ways to decorate their wedding cakes, but these paper flowers by the Etsy artisans Sunny and Stumpy.  They have been specially created to preserve their beauty and protect them from the icing.  Do not try to use plain paper flowers for cake decorating. The listing is for 20 flowers, but I'm sure you could contact the seller if you wanted more (or less), and wanted to place a special order.   

Sunny and Stumpy specialize in paper crafting, especially flowers, mostly ranunculus.  Colors and papers vary. 

If you plan to try to make these yourself using one of their templates, be sure to add something to protect the flowers from the icing.  This is a project that would necessitate intensive testing before your wedding day. 

Miniature Wedding Cakes

Interested in making your own mini-wedding cakes? Chicago Metallic makes it easy with this easy to use mini-wedding wedding cake pan. This great pan is available on Amazon, but if you're thinking about making enough for all your wedding guests, I'd suggest purchasing more than one or you'll be baking for YEARS!

The pans come with recipes designed just for these pans.  Reviewers thought these were great cakes, and since they were designed just for use in these pans, unless you're planning a lot of trial and error you might want to use one of these. 

 Photo courtesy of Austin Wedding Blog

Use buttercream icing to easily ice your mini-cakes. Cover a mini cardboard circle or

square with desired color 6" foil. Place cake on foil. Place cake in freezer. When hardened, remove from your freezer and ice with a very thin layer of icing to seal
in the crumbs.  When icing the thin layer try stirring in a little bit of water into the buttercream
icing to thin. Let set room temperature, about 30 minutes.  The icing will form a crust.  Then ice over first coat with a softened buttercream icing.

Photo courtesy of Planning the Perfect Wedding Day

Use an 8" spatula for smoothing icing.  Then use tips #1 or #0 for writing or string work.  Use tips #23 or #13 for borders and tip #101 for roses and flowers.  Cut a tiny V in the point of a parchment bag to make the leaves. 

Photo courtesy of Planning the Perfect Wedding Day