Information
to have ready for your Baker
The number of guests you anticipate
Your cake preference (bring photos, magazine clippings, etc.)
Bring swatches of your wedding colors
Do you want to have the top tier frozen for your first anniversary.
Time and location of delivery
Use of large or heavy cake topper
Questions to Ask
May I see a book of your designs?
Can I schedule a tasting?
The contract
Your contract should describe the specifics of the cake: filling
and icing flavors, colors, decorations, cake top, number of servings,
delivery date, time, location and set-up.
Tips
It’s never too early to reserve a baker for your wedding.
Start shopping for your cake 4-6 months before the wedding.
Don’t forget to set aside a separate table to display the
wedding cake. Decorate the table with rose petals, fresh flowers,
etc.
ICING TYPES
Buttercream: The traditional icing served on every store-bought birthday cake you've ever had. It's rich and creamy and is easily colored or flavored, and is used for fancy decorations like shells, swags, basketweaves, icing flowers, etc. Since it's made almost entirely of butter (hence the name), buttercream has a tendency to melt in extreme heat, so it's not recommended for outdoor weddings.
Fondant: Martha Stewart's favorite. This icing looks smooth and stiff and is made with gelatin and corn syrup to give it its helmet-like appearance (it's really very cool looking). It looks the best when decorated with marzipan fruits, gum paste flowers, or a simple ribbon, like Martha likes to do. Although not as tasty as buttercream or ganache, fondant does not need refrigeration, so it's the perfect icing to serve at your outdoor wedding.
Rolled Fondant is an incredibly smooth, matte, elastic icing that gives your cake a flawless, porcelain-like finish which is a fine canvas for intricate decorations. It is rolled out like a pancake, draped over each layer or the cake and smoothed out before the edges are trimmed. Because fondant-iced cakes are labor-intensive to make, they tend to be more expensive.
Royal Icing: A mix of confectioner's sugar and milk or egg whites, is soft when it's piped onto the cake, then it dries to a hard finish. It does not need to be refrigerated. It's traditionally used to create leaves, flowers, and other edible decorations - not to cover the entire cake.
Ganache: This chocolate and heavy cream combination is very dark, and the consistency of store-bought chocolate icing. It can be poured over cakes for a glass-like chocolate finish or used as filling (it stands up beautifully between cake layers). Due to the ingredients, however, it's unstable - no heat or humid weather, or the icing will slide right off the cake.
Marzipan is a sweet, smooth paste made of ground almonds, sugar and egg whites. With its moist, chewy texture, it can be placed beneath other icings or used as the final icing itself. It can also be colored and molded into flowers or other ornamental shapes, as a flavorful alternative to sugar or gum paste.
DECORATIVE OPTIONS
Gum Paste: Gelatin, corn starch, and of course sugar make this concoction that produces the world's most realistic, edible fruit and flower decorations.
Piping: Icing decorations like dotted swiss, basketweave, latticework, and shells. Icing comes out of a pastry bag fitted with different tips to create Different looks, which can range from simple polka dots to a layered weave that you'd swear is a wicker basket.
Pulled Sugar: If you boil sugar, water, and corn syrup it becomes malleable and the most beautiful designs can be created. Roses and bows that have been made from pulled sugar look like silk or satin, they're so smooth and shiny.
Dragees: These hard little sugar balls are painted with edible gold or silver paint and they look stunning on a wedding cake.