The wedding cakes made of sushi and pork pies
CHOOSING the perfect wedding cake used to be, well . . . a piece of cake. Now, it’s just as likely to involve a pork pie, pile of doughnuts or hunk of cheese.
For it seems many brides and grooms are shedding tiers — with a survey last week revealing only 18 per cent of couples have an oldfashioned fruit cake.
Even those who plump for the conventional choice are opting for vanilla sponge or chocolate brownie underneath the elaborate icing.
For the more daring, ‘ naked’ wedding cakes are all the rage — un-iced sponge with buttercream filling. The sponge is on show, often adorned with flowers and fresh fruit. When Angelina Jolie married Brad Pitt last year, their ten-yearold son Pax made them one.
Other couples, however, are going completely off-piste. Particularly popular is a display of sickly sweet American- style cupcakes, often decorated with edible photos of the bride and groom.
Pillars of profiteroles, heaped displays of oozing doughnuts, towers of fudge or crepes sandwiched with cream are also hits.
These innovations could be due to the rise of social media, in particular the Pinterest photo-sharing website, where brides go for inspiration. It could also be explained by people’s desire to match their cake to their unconventional venue.
Jo Wheatley, a former Great British Bake Off winner, says: ‘Wedding venues are not what you would expect any more.
‘Lots of places other than churches are getting licences — from treehouses to caves. And I think people want something unique as their centrepiece to go along with that.
‘Also, a lot of people aren’t lovers of fruit cake. If you pick a lighter option, it will actually get eaten by the guests.’
Jane Asher’s firm offers a Chocolate Explosion wedding cake, with Maltesers springing out from the top, for £320.
Fudge Kitchen makes ‘ fudge sculptures’. A centrepiece made out of 120 mini cream fudge slices comes in at £240.
And who said a wedding cake had to be sweet?
A couple from Bristol chose a cake that was half Marmite with chocolate and half vanilla for their wedding in 2011.
Heck Sausages, a small firm in Yorkshire, have had lots of requests for sausage wedding cakes (something they are seriously considering) and even demands for a Yorkshire pudding, sausage and gravy cake.
Or how about a fishcake? A sixtiered, 320-piece sushi wedding display from sushirolls.co.uk costs £520, including delivery. Marks & Spencer sells a wedding cake made of five cheeses (£155), as well as a three-tiered pork pie (£99), held up by traditional white pillars.
Godminster goes one further with an eight-tiered, 10kg ‘cheesecake’ for £229 — the top layer is a waxed Cheddar in the shape of a heart.
The British Cheese Board says the trend has been growing for a decade. But it warns: ‘Avoid particularly strong- smelling cheeses, especially in summer. If a strong cheese is a must, check your venue is sufficiently air-conditioned.’
One custom with traditional wedding cakes was to keep hold of the top tier and ‘feed’ it with brandy or sherry until the arrival of the first child, whereupon it would be served at the christening.
You will not be infusing these newfangled creations with alcohol, or be able to preserve them safely for more than a few hours.
ANdthe crucial photo of the bride and groom cutting into their cake may look a little less impressive if they are pictured trying to break into a macaroon or mini doughnut.
However, Edd Kimber, winner of the first series of The Great British Bake Off, who has made macaroon towers and tiered cheesecakes for wedding receptions, says it is a fashion that suits cakemakers.
‘I love anything inventive and different,’ he says. ‘I don’t really like making traditional wedding cakes. It is a style that doesn’t suit me and it is work I don’t really enjoy.
‘In the end, it is what the bride and groom want and I find people aren’t necessarily sticking to wedding traditions as much these days. Instead, they are making new traditions of their own.’
In short, if you really want to be a 21st century bride, say cheese. Or sushi. Or pork pie. Whatever you do, don’t let them eat actual cake.