The time between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day is often referred to as “engagement season” with a high percentage of couples getting engaged during this time. Since so many couples are newly starting their wedding planning journey, we reached out to some of our vendor friends to help give more insight into planning different parts of your wedding.
When it comes to choosing your wedding cake, you might have a favorite flavor or a general sense of how you want it to look. Many couples, not being bakers themselves, are not familiar with cake structure, different styles of baking, and the time involved with intricate designs.
With the help of Buttercream Bakeshop and Connie’s Cake Creations, these two are sharing their insights on the wedding cake design process and passing along helpful information that all couples should consider when looking for their wedding bakery.
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Connie’s Cake Creations with photo by Kelly Ewell Photography
What are some of the things that couples should ask about when looking to select a cake for their wedding?
- If you have a strong opinion about the type of buttercream you like, it might be a great idea to ask the bakery what type of buttercream they make. I love all and every buttercream, but American buttercream is the sweeter, thicker buttercream whereas Italian or Swiss meringue buttercreams are slightly less sweet and are a bit lighter and slicker. Usually a bakery will specialize in one or the other, so if you’ve got a passionate opinion about your buttercream, then it’s best to find out what you’ll be trying at the tasting. – Buttercream Bakeshop
- One of the things couples don’t realize when planning a wedding is that if they choose a holiday weekend, they should book their vendors very early. A lot of wedding advice books suggest booking your cake 30-90 days ahead, but if you want a certain vendor, then you should book much earlier than that. – Connie’s Cake Creations
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Buttercream Bakeshop with photo by Rebekah Emily Photography
What are some of the things that couples might not realize about wedding cakes that you think they should know?
- Let’s unravel the myth of the dummy cake. A lot of people associate dummy cake with cheaper cake. The fact is that it doesn’t necessarily mean cheaper. We love to do dummy cakes accompanied by cutting cake for several reasons. For one, a tiered, decorated cake is usually baked on Wednesday before a Saturday wedding, whereas sheet cake can be fresh baked the night before. Also, when you cut into an extra tall tiered cake you are going to get some crazy cake slices! Sheet cake can be cut into perfect rectangles, making your presentation beautiful. You can also have the sheet cake sliced and ready to go, removing any lag time between the ceremonial cake cutting and when the guests receiving their slice. And don’t forget weather, especially here in the DMV! Heat and humidity can strike at any time and wreak havoc on a real cake. But dummy cake can stand the test of time. As far as pricing, we price our dummy cake the same as real cake. When you think about it, we are decorating the same amount of cake and baking the same amount of cake as we would be if it were a real cake. In addition, we need to add the slice of cake for cutting and we need to purchase the custom dummies. It is actually more costly for us, but we truly believe it is the best option for a beautiful, delicious, worry-free cake at your wedding! – Buttercream Bakeshop
- Most brides contact me by email to set up a tasting appointment, but you’d be surprised how many of those emails leave out important details. It would be great to include the date, time, and location of the wedding and ceremony, and the number of guests they’re expecting. These are all factors I’ll need to consider for your cake. When we get to giving estimates, I try to have couples send me photos of cake designs they like so I can give them a more accurate quote. I also encourage couples to choose different cake flavors for different tiers of the cake. It doesn’t alter the costs and gives your guests a choice of what to eat. – Connie’s Cake Creations
If you want to learn more about these bakers or see more of their beautiful work, check out their websites at www.buttercreamdc.com and www.conniescakecreations.com.
At 48 Fields, we are a Leesburg Virginia wedding venue for celebrations of all sizes.
Our rustic barns and vast fields are peacefully set in the heart of Northern Virginia wine country.
