An ultimate guide to getting the most out of your Wedding Cake. With some seriously tasty additional dessert ideas.

The amount of wedding cake that does not get eaten on Wedding Days shocks me. Yes I know, I have a sweet tooth, I am a cake monster but still! You buy this epic cake and sometimes it doesn’t even get a lick. For reals? Yep. More often then not, a Wedding Cake will be displayed and at some point whisked off to storage for use the day afterwards or to be cut up and distributed at a future date. You will have so much cake to share, Some will be happy to take cake off your hands but an Aunty is going to tell you they couldn’t be take all that sugar home.

It eventually gets used, that is not so bad? Let me tell you how you can have you Wedding Cake and eat it! And it will make your Wedding Guests very happy!

This is how they do in Netherlands

A Dutch bride showed me this one and I like how they roll when it comes cake in the Netherlands. After the Ceremony, wherever you are holding the Ceremony. In a suitable space the Wedding Couple will lead the guests to the Wedding Cake, cut the cake for the quite normal photo op. Then the couple after feeding a little piece to eat other, serve the guests Wedding Cake! The guests eat cake with tea, coffee, soft or not so soft drinks. It is a nice time to give guests a taste of something sweet after the Ceremony. And it fills the gap between the ceremony and the Wedding Reception / Cocktail Hour and the formal Dinner much later.

If you are unsure if this is a good idea. People have most likely spent time getting ready, traveling to the ceremony, had pre ceremony chats, the ceremony length of time and they a now quite happy to get a drink and something to eat!

Serving the Cake

I think it is fun idea, but I don’t want to serve all that cake myself. Traditions are cool but the greatest modern tradition is There are no Rules. Put a twist on whatever you want to do on your Wedding Day, make it your own. Cut the Cake and run, serve a few pieces and hand over the task to someone else. The key thing is to communicate and have a little plan.

If you don’t even want to cut the beautiful Wedding Cake, you could have cupcakes in the flavours you love. Or even have the baker pre-cut non display cake: eating cake so that it is ready to go and feed your guests!

If you are serving, get the conveyor belt going: cutter, plater, server. You don’t want to make a meal of this! If you are handing the jobs over to family/friends or staff, get them in there and get the sweet times rolling.

Locations

Religious venues

Most religious places are community based and they will have there own or will be connected to a community space. This space could be perfect to have your Wedding Cake and eating it. Guests have travel to and will most likely be travelling onwards to your Reception Venue. So it gives them a nice breather post ceremony. It actually gives people a chance to have the chats, then when they meet back up later at the next location, they are already connected that day.

Non-Religious Venues

Locations vary and facilities vary too, if an indoor back up is needed your ceremony specific venue may not work. Check with the management what the rules are, what solutions they can offer. Naturally it may be a great spot for cake.

Cake in the garden! Whatever the location, is the weather likely to go in your favour and is the natural flow of things for people to wander and congregate outside. It doesn’t have to be anything special, it can be super casual, once they don’t get hit by a bus. If the outdoor option is nice, then all for it!

All in One Venues

You might be in the same venue morning, noon and night. If so there is no doubt the venue can accommodate this. The pro move is: the space the cake is displayed in and cut, can that space be different to the Drinks Reception and Dinner Reception spaces. If and only if, the space will be used for a dedicate period of time. Say if cake time is going to be 1 hour, then drinks is 90 minutes, then on to banqueting room. You might want to shake things up and keep people fresh and perky. New scenery.

If the cake and drinks time is merged into one, and not too long (2+ hours is getting long by the way). Then there is no major problem. You can have your cake and eat it in the same space as drinking!

Look at that sweet ass fresh cream, fruit, chocolate, red velvet, naked sponge cake. Sweet Devine! You couldn’t leave that out in the air all day. Think of the taste of freshy baked goodness hitting your lips. Aunty don’t mind your hips, get some of that in to you!

That cake looks awesome, I want my guests to see it. Take a photo of it. Enjoy the artistry!

This cake was cut 1 hour after the guests arrived. They was a cutting time displayed for the guests on arrival and there was an announcement for the big moment. It is all about communication. So your brother isn’t on the other side of the estate and missing the craic when the potential icing on the nose happens.

In general, one of the themes of our advice is communication. It gives your guests the opportunity to take part, confidence in the whole occasion, removing some uncertainty and confession.

I don’t want to cut my pretty cake, it is magnificent!

Feed them donuts and scones! Seriously, you might have a cake that is designed so personally and made so well that you want it to be a centre piece for the whole day. Still want to give your wedding guest something sweet? Get the baker to make servable portions of the cake. Go in a different direction and do a donut wall, donuts tower cake, donut mountain! (ok enough with the donuts).

Of course, summer days, ice cream is great, get a van or cart to come to your ceremony location.

See, you can still have your wedding cake and eat it!

What is wrong with cutting it up and sending it out to people…

Damn straight! Cake whenever you enjoy it, is good. I was told you can’t eat cake in the morning and i just want to say that is just lies! With my own Wedding Cake, I was on down time at home for 2 weeks after our wedding. I took up drinking coffee and ate my wedding cake. There was still so much after cutting it up on the day for night time sweet treats on the dancefloor, packing it up for family who wanted their tradition block to take home. That I could eat cake a few times a day on my lazy couple of weeks.

We didn’t freeze any of the cake, but yes that is still a thing. Freeze your wedding cake, have it so many years down the line. Or never! Just let it freeze!

Sending cake out to people. I have been there when aunty is saying I can’t take that home with me, the diabetes, the boys, whatever her excuse is. You may have the great intention of giving people a lovely piece of your day after the celebrations, but they might not take it from you!

The boomers want fruit cake!

Give it to them, just because mum wants the traditional fruit cake doesn’t mean it has to go into your modern messy chocolate bonanza. Gran might even make the best fruit cake north of the river so let her. Display it beside the official cake. Give her all the acknowledgement and serve it. People have endless tastes so savoury to sweet is not a bad idea.

Desert buffet

While we are here. I want to propose something of desert lovers dreams. I have been in fancy country houses were we eat the same meal that the wedding guests eat, sometimes every course, oh it can be heaven. Then desert time comes and the big greedy eyes on me swoon over the treats being dished out. None for me though. What! Seriously, you gave me soup but I can’t have those tiny blobs of deserts (don’t worry, some cheeky talk to a waitress and all is forgiven when i get a sneaky plate). Anyway, the most shocking thing is, the waste. Some people just do not eat desert. Some people are on the happy juice and they don’t know what is going on. So… desert buffet…

Doing a desert buffet gives people the option to opt out or go all in. Outside of that, laid out the desert buffets can be some of the greatest sights you will ever see. There is a reason why the magic of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory is so endearing to us all. The wonderment that fills our beady eyes. This wedding … give a little wonderment to a slightly overweight desert lover … give them … the hope of … a desert buffet.

Enough with the sweets already

Cheese please?

Cheese buffets, think the beauty of a cheese board

but bigger!

Sweet Cheesus! Through a bit of fruit in there too. This might sit well with the wine!