No wedding can be without the wedding cake - it is essential!!!
Traditional Cakes
As I am sure you are aware, traditionally, the wedding cake is usually a white round or square tiered or stacked cake with very elaborate white icing. Many wedding cakes are decorated with pastel iced flowers, real flowers, and/or plastic dolls. (I suggest topping the cake with flowers instead of plastic bride and groom dolls - hopefully this trend is out of style for good!!)
Modern Cake Designs
Visit a few bakers in town and you will find that wedding cakes these days are actually designed by highly trained "cake designers". The cakes are very elaborate and most cakes are something other than vanilla flavored. Buttercream and cheesecake are very popular - and so are the many variations of chocolate out there. In addition, many cakes are filled with fruits, custards and mousses. Yummy!
The icing on wedding cakes can also be very different and creative. Plain white and pastel icing doesn't satisfy most brides. Many choose to have the icing coordinate with their wedding colors.
As for today's cake designs - it seems that anything goes. Stacked cakes still seem to be the way to go but the designs are quite creative. I've seen cakes that were shaped like stacked gifts, stacked hat boxes, stacked cupcakes - you name it! Basketweave cakes come in and out of style but it seems to be a wedding cake design staple.
Cake Display
The wedding cake should be displayed on its own table where it can be admired by all of the guests. (Make sure that it is displayed in a pretty area of the reception hall because you will have several pictures made near it.) Some brides choose to have the cake as the centerpiece for the buffet table, but I think that the cake should have its own table.
Anyway, don't let the decor of the cake table slip. Make sure that the cake table has a tablecloth that matches the other tablecloths and that the cake is properly displayed on a silver cake base.
