Wedding Cake Decorating Tips

Creating a wedding cake or anniversary cake for a large party requires careful planning due to the size of the task.  The first step is to formulate an image of what the cake will look like.  Before you launch into your own dreaming, consult with the wedding or anniversary couple, first to find out if they have any specific expectations or preferences.  They may give you full discretion or may want to be closely involved in the designing.  Once you have done this, you can create your design, perhaps referring to recent magazines and books for current cake decorating tips.

Once you have chosen recipes, flavors, colors and decorations, plan for the following steps.  Usually each step can be carried out on one or more different days:

Prepare a trial cake to test your concept and practice techniques.
Plan how the cake will be displayed.
Do the big shopping trip for the project, purchasing ingredients, display accessories etc.
Bake and store the cakes.
Prepare and apply icing and decorations.
Drive the cake to the party location and prepare the display.

How Cakes are Tiered or Stacked


A tiered cake appears to be a single tower, but in fact consists of several cakes joined together.  Cakes can be stacked directly on top of each other or separated by pillars or columns.  When cakes are resting on top of each other, you need to insert dowels through the center of the cakes to provide structural support.  Doweling can be purchased at your local hardware store or at a cake supply shop. You can learn how to work with doweling from cake decorating tips online or in books; but unless you are a very "handy" person, it would be wise to try it for the first time with an experienced baker or in a cake decorating class.

When you tier with columns or pillars, you can use a cake separator set.  When you look around at your local cake decorating supply center, you will see there are many options and accessories for creating a tiered cake.

Ideas for Choosing Decorations

The most important cake decorating tip for weddings and anniversaries has already been mentioned:  consult with the celebrated couple! Given that you know their likes and dislikes, here are some ideas for decorating a wedding cake:

Consider using fondant if there will be an outdoor wedding - fondant is more durable than buttercream and can withstand higher temperatures.
Use colors, flowers, embroidery, and ribbons etc. inspired by the bridal flowers and dresses.
Borrow themes from the couple's lives and families.
Flavors, colors, and symbols can originate from the place of marriage or honeymoon.


For an anniversary cake, consider some of the above ideas - and the ones below:

Writing is appropriate on anniversary cakes.  You can record the year of the anniversary and/or write "Happy Anniversary!"
Find out and use the symbol connected to the anniversary, for example, silver for the 25th.