We are always in awe of the elaborate and unique details of wedding cakes. Today we would like to highlight some great cakes and the creative folks behind these edible works of art. These selections also show some general trends we've noticed in wedding cakes, other sweets, and cake toppers (or lack thereof) in the last year.
By far, the biggest trend we've seen with wedding cakes in the past year has been elegant "clean" designs, usually with fresh cut floral embellishments, such as this cake above by Oak Mill Bakery. The Polish are internationally known for their amazing sweet treats, and owner Bogna Iwanowska-Solak definitely brought that wonderful baking heritage with her to Chicago when she opened her family's first bakery here in 1986. Today they operate six stores in Chicago, Niles, Harwood Heights and Arlington Heights.
Amy Beck is known for her elegant custom cake designs, often using floral elements, whether they are created with sugar or real flowers. She used cascading violet and yellow orchids for this fantastic wedding cake. Earlier this year we were excited to see that Amy opened up a new store on Racine street, just a few blocks from our studio. Welcome to the neighborhood Amy!
Bride Krys added a single pink peony to top her wedding cake to go along with her peony-theme wedding. Central Continental Bakery, a north-west suburban bakery that has been making wonderful wedding cakes since 1922, detailed the design with words such as "family," "friendship," and "love" to express the things in life that the bride and groom most cherish.
Mary Winslow's small bakeshop, Take the Cake, specializes in intricately detailed custom designs and cake flavors, always with a look of timeless elegance. This white petal wedding cake perfectly complimented the petal details on the bride's wedding dress, as well as her all-white reception decor. We can only imagine the patience and focus it took to make those delicate frosting rose petals.
Couples that hold their weddings at venues renowned for their cuisine may also find the cake included in their package. As part of Chicago's fantastic foodie group of Levy Restaurants, Fulton's on the River offers their compelling Reid Murdoch Wedding Package, which includes a custom designed wedding cake. This one above incorporated the couple's pink and green wedding colors and their last name inital for the silver and diamond cake topper.
Maggie Roeder Cakes is a boutique that places equal importance on the taste of the cake as the design. For this reception, the bride and groom built an experience for their guests around gourmet cuisine and a cake made with top quality ingredients. Overall, their reception decor was minimalist, which was well complimented with the clean monogram design topping this cake.
For their vintage-style barn wedding, this bride and groom went with several small "old-fashioned" cakes. This was for a destination wedding in northern Michigan, with cakes made by Robin Smith from that area.
Wedding cupcakes have become very popular in recent years, but for this "ice-cream" theme reception the couple added a unique twist. Along with their ice-cream sundae bar, they also had cupcakes made by Luscious Layers Bakery, which were designed with typical sundae toppings, such as sprinkles and cherries.
Cake wasn't going to satisfy the sweet tooth for this bride and groom, so instead they got a double-decker banana cream pie, as well as several assorted "home-style pies" from Hoosier Mama Pie Company. The bride Elaine (who earned her Master of Fine Arts degree while planning her wedding!!!) made the bride and groom toppers using clothes-pins and her awesome crafting talents.
We haven't been seeing as many traditional cake toppers lately. While we totally appreciate couples wanting to do something different, we're kind of starting to miss seeing cake toppers. Perhaps folks could consider bringing them back, but in new and unique ways. We went on Etsy.com to create this collection of various items, with most of them not intended for use on cakes, but perhaps they will inspire couples to think outside of the box for little works of art or personality pieces to top their cakes and sweets.
