North Devon Wedding Network; How to Choose a Wedding Cake

​Gone are the days when everyone had a royal iced fruit cake with lots of piping on it. You know the ones we mean, that your grandparents & possibly your parents had! These days there is so much more choice for your cake. So, we would like to introduce our award-winning cake makers Claire from Claire’s Sweet Temptations & Jax from Jax’s Cakes ‘N’ Bakes.  Both of our wedding cake makers have years of experience behind them and below we have included some of their top tips on how to choose the best wedding cake for you. 

​Styles of wedding cakes
To start with we will tell you more about the styles of cakes you can have. There are four main styles of cake. They are naked, semi naked, ganached and fondant finished. 

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes Photo by Fraser Marchbank

Claire's Sweet Temptations

Claire's Sweet Temptations

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes Photo by Freeformimages Photography

​As you can see from the pictures, the first three styles are perfect for a rustic wedding. You can add fresh florals, fruits, chocolate drips and other sweet items. The fondant cakes are perfect for an elegant wedding, you could adorn the front with handmade sugar flowers. That being said if you wanted a fondant cake at your rustic themed wedding or a naked cake at your more traditional themed wedding. We are all about your wedding, your way! 

​When should you book the wedding cake?
There is a lot of information out there about lead times on wedding cakes, but we asked our experts and they said; as soon as possible! This is because both of our wedding cake makers work alone, although will collaborate together on bigger projects if required. They can only do a certain amount of wedding cakes per week to make sure that every cake gets their attention to provide you with the wedding cake of your dreams! 

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes

Claire's Sweet Temptations

​How do you choose a good wedding cake maker?
With the rise of home bakers its very important to choose a wedding cake maker that knows what they are doing. Claire & Jax are both registered with the local council, with a 5-star food hygiene rating. As well as this they both hold full insurance. Finally, they both offer tastings & consultations. One of their biggest tips is to try the cake and see previous work and reviews. Make sure it suits your tastes & style, as each cake maker has a different style.  Jax & Claire both deliver and setup your wedding cake on the morning of you wedding. Making sure everything is perfect and how you want it for you day. 

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes

Claire's Sweet Temptations

​Why shouldn’t you have your mum/aunty/friend make the cake?
This question made our cake makers cringe! They both said that even though some people can create a delicious cake, when it comes to your wedding day you want it to be perfect! If you wedding is in the height of summer, Aunt Flo may not know the best way to stabilise a wedding cake, you don’t want it slowly melting throughout the day. Or the equipment required to stack a cake with out it falling over. As well as this you will want your friends and family helping you get ready and enjoying the lead up to the wedding, not stuck in a kitchen baking and missing out. 

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes. Photo by Adam Lowes Photography

Claire's Sweet Temptations

​Wedding cake trends for 2021/2022
Living on the beautiful North Devon/North Cornwall border we see a lot of rustic weddings in marquees & barns. Our experts agreed that current trends for 2021 are small intimate wedding cakes, a lot of which are in the rustic style. With 2022 being larger wedding cakes, adding more colour & personal style, through sugar flowers & other decorations. However rustic wedding cakes are still strongly a trend for 2022. 

Claire's Sweet Temptations

Jax's Cakes 'N' Bakes

​Five top tips
We asked our lovely wedding cake makers what would be their five top tips.

1. Remember to ask guests about dietary requirements and let your cake maker know. Usually these can easily be accommodated.
2. Have a good look at your cake makers website. They will be a gold mine of information and advice and there will often be a price guide and a size guide.
3. Before you meet with your cake maker, make a list of everything you want to ask. It’s easy to get chatting and then forget to ask something.
4. Think about your design before a consultation, or research ideas that you like & don’t like so you can help your baker design a cake that suits your tastes.
5. If you want a big wedding cake but don’t need lots of portions ask about dummy tiers.

How to book your wedding cake
Finally, we will leave you with how to book your dream wedding cake with our suppliers.
www.clairessweettemptations.com
www.jaxscakesnbakes.com
Or check out our suppliers page for more information on them both.