Cutting the cake is a traditional ritual of love and promise for a lifetime of feeding the bride, and the bride feeding the groom. Our new look at wedding desserts finds a variety of fun ideas. Along with beautiful cakes we see petit fours, individually decorated, cupcake trees, tuxedo strawberries, hand painted icing flowers, wedding cookies, chocolate fountains with fresh fruit and the classic frozen Dove Bars are leading the trends.

WHAT’S NEW

Dessert tables or stations with a variety of items for people to choose from are taking the place of the layered and tiered cakes. Brides and grooms opt for a decorated one-layer cake to cut for the ceremony photo and then provide an array of celebration dessert ideas for their guests. Some other new on the horizon businesses give a bride a beautiful wedding cake with one layer of real cake to cut into and the rest served from sheet cakes. These great fakes are rented, beautifully and creatively decorated with a less pricy quote. Another new trend from the cake bakers is to offer you a small free anniversary cake for your first anniversary celebration.

We see many brides opt for individual table cakes with a two-tiered cake for the bride and groom to cut. Organic, Vegan and diabetic ideas are prevelant with the wedding cake makers. Just ask or search for vegan wedding cakes.

The New York cheesecake still reigns a favorite with deserved applause for the variety of recipes and flavors to be enjoyed today. The Stacked Cake is in and often completed from a square, heart shaped or hexagon baking tin. 50% more of the orders appear to be chocolate, or at least one layer in chocolate. Traditional fruit cake and grooms cakes are still being done along with ethnic favorites.

ICINGS & FILLINGS

White on white seems to be less popular, the fondant or icing pastels and roses plus hand made flowers appear consistently on the icings. The new excitement is the icings requested in lime green, hot pink and orange. The bright colors are often brought forth with all types of flowers; cascades of roses, orchids and theme or unique or personal message cake toppers. Predominate for cakes, you will find a variety of fillings with raspberry, coconut, passion fruit, mango, mocha, almond, strawberry, ganache, chocolate fudge and apricot appearing at the top of the order list.

SERVING

Get the guest moving is the new goal of a wedding. They move through the buffet line or food stations, the beverage bar, the cake or dessert & coffee stations, cigars and port serving area – around the room to mingle and visit at the food stations and meet one another.

The dessert/cake table is traditionally considered a centerpiece to the reception and should be decorated accordingly with a floor-length cloth, flowers, rose petals, candles, and cutting instruments. We often see the bridesmaids bouquet lain here. In the 90’s we often saw cake smeared on the couples' faces - but that too is going out of the picture. Select the area for setting up your cake - out of the sunlight. with a photographer's eye on the setting. You do not want an ugly backdrop for you cake, no exit signs or bathroom arrows to be in the picture. A sturdy table is very important and out of thefoot traffic area. It is important to have the cake delivered and set up by a professional.

Cutting large wedding cakes should be completed by someone with knowledge and experience. The cake may not go as far as hoped, or you may have too much left over. So having the person with experience is important to the task. We are adding photos for Wedding Cake in the Photo Gallery photos for exciting wedding cake and desserts are linked in WeddingLinks.com throughout the world. Traditionally, one layer is kept, carefully wrapped and frozen for 3 to 6 months. I know some say the first year's anniversary. But, most cakes taste terrible after a year of freezing.