Introducing our Wedding Cake expert Jessica Lauren, founder of Jessica Lauren Cakes

Long gone are the days where a wedding cake has to be 3 tiers of rich fruit cake iced with marzipan and stiff white icing. Sponge is by far the most popular type of cake for a wedding these days and with sponge the flavour options are endless. This means that one of the most exciting parts of wedding planning is the cake tasting. However the expanse of options can quickly become overwhelming. Here are my top tips for picking the flavour(s) for your wedding cake:
- Having a different flavour for every tier is possible. However make sure you consider that the largest tiers will provide the most servings compared to the smaller top tiers. So you won’t be getting an even split of flavours if you have different flavours for each tier.
- Think about who your guests are – what type of flavour will be most popular with them.
- Are a lot of your guests from an older generation that might be expecting a slice of fruit cake?
- Are there going to be lots of children attending and should the flavour cater to their tastes? You might not want to include alcohol in the flavouring if there was going to be many children.
- Pick a safe flavour for the bottom tier, one that you know will be popular with your guests.
- Use the smaller top tiers for the more unusual flavours you might like.
- Can the flavour you pick help to tell your story as a couple? For example I have made a red velvet wedding cake for a couple who were engaged in New York and a green tea flavour wedding cake for an Asian couple.
- Think about what other food you will be serving during the day to ensure your wedding cake flavour does not clash with your dessert. If you are serving a chocolate dessert with your wedding breakfast then your guests may not want to follow that with chocolate cake.
- If you want to serve your wedding cake for dessert many venues & caterers will plate this with cream and fresh fruit. Pick a flavour that will finish your main meal well.
- Perhaps you want something a little different from the normal. This doesn’t have to be a bespoke flavour nobody has ever tried before. Think about ways you can enhance classic flavours. For example you could make a classic vanilla sponge taste more tropical by using a passion fruit curd rather than traditional raspberry jam. Or you could make a chocolate cake even more rich and boozy by using Baileys buttercream. The options are endless.
- Think about the time of year – lemon is a really refreshing flavour to have during the summer, where chocolate may seem a bit rich on a hot day. Similarly in the autumn & winter you might want to choose rich, warming flavours over light and refreshing ones.
- Consider incorporating the flavours of the season into your cake. In December adding orange zest and cherries soaked in kirsch to a chocolate cake gives a really festive flavour. Or in the summer use fresh strawberries when they are at their best.
- Most importantly pick a flavour you will enjoy, its your wedding day and your wedding cake so the bride and groom need to enjoy it as well as the guests!
- A bonus tip would be to keep either the smallest tier or reserve a little portion of cake to enjoy together the following day. I have had couples tell me before they were too busy greeting guests and partying on the dance floor to get a piece of their cake before it was all gobbled up. Saving some cake for yourselves means you don’t miss out & its also a great hangover cure the next morning!