How to choose your wedding cake

Wow, congratulations, you're getting hitched! No doubt you're starting to plan with a vengeance. One of the central rituals of a wedding celebration is the wedding cake, and it's an opportunity to have the cake of your dreams.

For me, a wedding cake is the one occasion when the appearance of the cake is just as important as the taste. Normally, in my cake-eating career, I prioritise tastiness and freshness over anything else. Gotta be worth the calories, right?! Wedding cakes, though, form part of the ceremony and majesty of uniting two individuals into one for life. Wedding cakes should be up to the job, a real centrepiece. Everyone sees the wedding cake and it's exciting to look forward to the cutting and then the eating. Even if they're already full of wedding breakfast your guests can take their piece home for later.

A cake for everyone!

One of the best things about choosing to have a vegan wedding cake, is that everyone can have a piece. In past years, as a cake maker, I found that many couples chose a wedding cake made traditionally with eggs and butter, and supplemented it with a smaller vegan cake for their vegan friends. Now, as the vegan market has expanded and guests are no longer scared by vegan cakes(!) it's much more common to go for a vegan wedding cake and everyone can partake. I think that's a brilliant development, it makes life easier for couples who now only have one wedding cake to consider, and everyone is happy.

If you want to see some of our beautiful vegan wedding cakes, please have a look at our wedding cakes page.

Top tips for choosing your perfect vegan wedding cake

Here are my tips for making your decision on a cake you'll love to look at and love to eat:

1. Choose your colour scheme. Likely you already know how you envision your wedding day. What are the colours you see? Will your wedding cake tie with them, or stand out in a contrasting palette?
2. Choose your style - rustic, semi-naked? Or an opaque and stylish buttercream covering? Do you want a gothic, brooding style, or a fresh style for spring and summer? Consider the season of your big day, you ideas can be inspired by it. You will also want to think about how many tiers you'd love your wedding cake to have!
3. Fresh or formal? Do you want flowers on your wedding cake? Or a simpler, pared down look?
4. Flavours. What cakes do you love to eat? Make sure you get to eat your favourite cake on your wedding day!
5. How much cake? For me, there's no such thing as too much cake, however, after a three-course wedding breakfast, your guests won't necessarily have lots of room. At weddings, traditionally the portion size is a "coffee portion". There's also the option of a "dessert portion" in place of, well, dessert, at the wedding meal. We are always happy to give you guidance and the benefit of our experience in choosing the size of your wedding cake.

Choosing your wedding cake flavour (or flavours)

Part of the enjoyment of planning your wedding cake is choosing the flavours. If you're having a wedding cake with two or more tiers, you can have a different flavour for each tier! What a bonus! Our vegan wedding cakes are available in a range of classic favourite flavours, including one or two of my own favourites; I'm a nut-fiend, so Hazelnut Praline and Pistachio Praline are up there for me, along with Almond & Cherry. The flavours we offer are:

Vanilla | Victoria (select strawberry or raspberry jam) | Chocolate | Chocolate Orange | Lemon | Toffee Crunch | Pistachio Praline | Hazelnut Praline | Almond & Cherry | Carrot & Walnut | Coffee & Walnut | Battenberg

We offer wedding cake samples in a tasting box sent to your home or workplace by post. You choose your favourite four from our flavours, and we bake them freshly for you in mini-sized cakes, and ship them the same day using a tracked next-day delivery service. You can have your own personal tasting session, with other members of your wedding crew, or just the two of you, in the comfort of your own home, and let us know what you thought. Don't forget to decide which cake you want most of, as this will form the bottom tier of your wedding cake (the biggest tier).

To gluten-free, or not to gluten-free?

Do you need some of your cake to be gluten free? You can choose to have one (or more, or all) of your vegan wedding cake's tiers made gluten free. In a multi-tiered cake, each tier is separated by a cake board, so there is no cross-contamination between cakes made with wheat flour and gluten-free cakes without. Alternatively, you can choose to have some gluten-free vegan cupcakes made and decorated to match the main cake.

Wishing you happy deliberations in all aspects your wedding planning! Helen x