Excerpt: Theme Wedding Cakes

the appetizer:

Wedding Cake Art and Design: A Professional Approach by Toba M. Garrett, includes excerpts and recipes like Theme Wedding Cakes; Dominican Cake; and Modeling Chocolate, aka Chocolate Plastic.

Theme

by Toba M. Garrett

Theme wedding cakes are all the rage. Couples are very imaginative when it comes to creating cake concepts that represent their lives. Sometimes the most outrageous concepts for a cake can bring a smile even to the most creative cake artists.

A theme can be anything. A couple may want blown-up balloons on the wedding cake or the cake itself shaped into a hot-air balloon; a cake decorated with marzipan farm animals; a wedding cake made of cupcakes or decorated with cookies; a cake that looks like the sea or a beach scene with pebbles and seashells and sand, all made out of sugar; a cake decorated with snack foods; a cake shaped like the pyramids; or a patriotic-themed cake with flags. The possibilities are endless. A theme cake does not have to be gimmicky; it also can be breathtakingly beautiful using classical or creative design work. It can be artistic, rustic, modern, or traditional. Almost anything can be designed and turned into a wedding cake.

These types of cakes can require a lot of planning, sculpting, food painting, and hand-shaped ornaments made out of a sugar material. Theme cakes can also be more expensive than traditional cakes, as many techniques are needed to create a couple's dream. As the cake artist, you would be wise to limit the scope of the design based on the couple's budget. Ultimately, you want a good working relationship with the couple, and the couple has the final say as to what the cake should look like. But it's important to inform the couple that the cake will be created in the spirit of the design chosen. Except for anything major, you should have artistic license to make small changes without notifying the couple, as long as those changes are done in the spirit of the agreed-on design.

Chocolate and Pink Cake

This two-tier caked is enrobed in chocolate rolled fondant. The top tier is completely decorated with chocolate miniature roses made from a rose press. The top tier and cake board are also decorated with a cluster of pink star flowers with chocolate centers.

The bottom tier has an almost transparent pink sugar drape that starts at the cake board and leads up to the bottom of the top tier. Sugar fabric roses are made to emulate the" quick" roses made from the rose press on the top tier, and pink and chocolate foliage accents the roses. The cake also has fine piping in pink that pulls the entire design together.

Black and White Cake

This is a sexy two-tier round cake that represents a cocktail dress. The top tier is enrobed in black rolled fondant and the bottom tier in white.

On the top tier is a dramatic gumpaste drape, which lies off the shoulders of the cake and is brought together with a gathered and pleated bow with a hand-pressed rose and ribbon streamers.

The bottom tier has a modern accent to it. Black and white buttons are attached at an angle on the cake. A triangle-cut gumpaste ornament is attached to the cake; it represents the dress "slightly opened." Inside the dress is hand-piped Australian stringwork with black "hailspotting" on the strings. Stringwork is also attached to the ornament.