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Deciding on your wedding cake and the right cake artist should be a piece of cake.

Looks good- CHECK, Tastes good- CHECK!!

But recently Head over Heels heard from Jeanine Lynch who owns and operates It Takes The Cake in Lawrenceville, Georgia in our Perfect Wedding Guide Atlanta market. She says a lot more goes into picking the right cake and ensuring a great experience.

They are a Georgia licensed and insured Cottage Bakery. They take much fewer orders than store-front cakeries so that they can give each bride a hands-on, totally involved, and personal experience.

“I love the process of getting to talk with the bride to seek out her personality. It helps me know how to help her tell me what she wants, and how to give her, her dream cake.” Said, Jeanine.

“After chatting for a bit to get a feel for the bride’s vision for her wedding, the first thing we talk about (besides the date), is the number of servings she will need. Usually, brides want a little guidance in this area. So of course, I always ask how many people they invited.” There are some people who will not attend and a few people that won’t eat cake. “But- NOT TOO MANY!”

“After our initial talk, we always send the bride an email with the pricing break-down, so she can understand how we get to the end-price. I think there is a lot of mystery in wedding cake pricing, and we try really hard to be transparent.”

All cakes are NOT equal.

“If you have fondant covering you will typically pay more, the same is true if you have a lot of details. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive classy cake, buttercream iced with a little movement in the buttercream finish is the way to go!”

Another important thing to know is how big a serving is. It Takes The Cake says: “Our serving size is 1” wide, by 2” long, by about 5” tall.

Also, you want to sure the email or contract contains a detail of all of the flavors, decorations, and details so you are sure that you both understand each other.

One other area that sets her apart is the way they deliver the cake. “When we deliver a cake, we always bring the tiers in separate boxes and put the cake together on its cake table. We feel this gives you the VERY BEST outcome that can happen in the cake-stacking world.”

Thanks, Jeannie for sharing this beautiful cake and some of your wedding cake expertise!

Perfect Wedding Guide | July 5, 2018
Original Post can be found here: https://www.perfectweddingguide.com/wedding-blog/index.php/2018/07/05/it-should-be-a-piece-of-cake/

Over the last few years, couples have moved away from ‘traditional wedding cakes.”

“Traditional” wedding cakes, in modern times, have been white wedding cakes. We’ve seen cupcake wedding cakes, macaron wedding cakes, and even doughnut wedding cakes.

But the biggest step away from the traditional has probably been the infusion of color!

From adding colorful bands, piping and edible details to ombre, to colored buttercream and fondant.

But, in the last few years, we’ve seen a huge influx of black wedding cakes. Yes, black cakes, not chocolate or cakes with black piping or details. Black wedding cakes.

So, would you or wouldn’t you? Tell us your thoughts on black wedding cakes.

Perfect Wedding Guide | May 22, 2019
Original Post Can Be Found Here: https://www.perfectweddingguide.com/wedding-blog/index.php/2019/05/22/let-them-eat-cake/

Choosing wedding cake is a lot of fun, and it’s also an amusing task for a wedding planner. We learn quickly how much — or how little — our brides and grooms actually know about the wedding cake.

The most common covering for cakes is either fondant or buttercream. The type of icing you choose to cover your confectionary masterpiece with is a personal decision but there are pros and cons with either choice. You simply have to consider the style of the finished cake.

For more expert advice, we asked our resident expert, Sharon Haller, owner and operator of Cut the Cake in Central Florida.

Buttercream icing can be applied in rustic swirls or smoothed to a perfect finish depending on the preference of the designer. Fondant is usually elegantly smooth and is also very versatile for textured designs.There are countless tools to roll pretty patterns onto the surface of this sugar dough.

Most cake decorators find it is easier to fix texture and finish errors when working with buttercream because fondant often has to be redone completely depending on the flaw. This can cost considerable money for a beginner because fondant is quite expensive to make from scratch or purchase premade.

5 QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOUR WEDDING CAKE DESIGNER

What is Buttercream?

Buttercream is by far the most common cake covering and it has many variations. Some are teeth-achingly sweet and thick while others are quite complicated with rich flavors and texture like rich whipped cream.

• Basic Buttercream:This is the sweet icing that is usually found on kids’ cakes and the easiest to make with very few ingredients. It is simply a blend of butter or shortening, confectioner’s sugar and flavoring. This icing can be tinted any color and piped into nicely defined designs. A cake iced with basic buttercream can be stored either in the fridge or at room temperature for a day with no issues. If the filling is perishable or delicate such as a mousse, then take care not to keep this type of cake unrefrigerated in warm weather.

• Meringue Buttercream:This is a lovely icing which is not too sweet and takes a bit of practice to perfect. It requires beaten egg whites and sugar boiled to a soft ball stage to create the smooth stable texture. Meringue buttercream can be flavored and colored slightly less bright hues than basic buttercream. This icing should be stored in the fridge but care must be taken that there is no unpleasant or strong odors in the fridge. The icing will pick up that flavor and taste less delicious as a result. The cake should be brought back to room temperature when serving because the icing can be very hard when cold. The icing and decorations made from meringue buttercream will melt or slip if left out during a hot humid day so choose a different option for those pretty summer weddings outdoors!

What is Fondant?

Fondant is a play dough like sugar paste that can be rolled out and draped over a simple or sculpted cake. It is usually kneaded until very silky and pliable and can be used to create a smooth seamless finish on cakes in any color. This cake covering is very popular with some decorators because it can be colored any hue, favored and shaped into a dizzying assortment of decorations, figures, flowers, ruffles and other design elements.

Fondant cakes can be put in the fridge and will remain fresh for days which is a positive characteristic especially if the event is during the summer. A cake can be covered, finished with simple borders, set aside until the big day of the event and then decorated on site. Fondant cakes need to be brought to room temperature before serving and care needs to be taken not to touch the cake while it warms. It can become sticky and fingerprint prone! One of the reasons fondant is avoided by decorators is that it has a very sweet taste and funny gummy texture that some people find very unpleasant.

Best of Both Coverings

If you truly love the pristine surface of a fondant covered cake then do not worry about guests who hate the taste or texture. Buttercream needs to be applied under the fondant layer or the draped covering will not stick to the cake.

The buttercream is also iced on thickly to cover bumpy layers and flaws in the surface of the cake so the fondant lays flat and smooth. Anyone who likes fondant can eat it along with the rest of the layers and those who dislike fondant can simply peel it off. So, the cake covering is a personal choice of the decorator who knows what will enhance the design and occasion.

What kind of cake did you choose for your perfect wedding day?

Perfect Wedding Guide | APRIL 11, 2018
Original Post Can Be Found Here: https://www.perfectweddingguide.com/wedding-blog/index.php/2018/04/11/the-great-wedding-cake-debate-buttercream-vs-fondant/

For years and years, newly married couples froze the top tier of their wedding cake.

The history behind this has two stories.

The first was that couples would eat the cake on their first-anniversary to bring back the joyful moments of their wedding day.

The second was that couples ate the top of their wedding cake at their first born child’s christening party. Back when this originated most couples were having their first baby within the first year of marriage.

Regardless of which you chose, chances were that you might be eating a dry, hard wedding cake. So many people dreaded this and just opted to cut and serve the top tier at their wedding.

We also started seeing bakers who provided a complimentary top tier to couples on their first anniversary.

Here is a great tip for how to wrap and freeze your wedding cake from a Head Over Heels blog post from a few years back.

Even better still, cut your wedding cake into 12 pieces, lay them on a sheet tray and quick freeze them, wrap them individually in plastic film and then into a zip top bag.

This keeps the slices much fresher than if you froze the cake whole and you can enjoy one slice each month during your first year of marriage.

Will you be freezing your cake or eating it?

Why on earth are wedding cakes so expensive?  Well, they don’t have to be.

You can get an inexpensive wedding cake, but you’re probably getting one made with different ingredients than a custom wedding cake.  The cost basis for commercial production-line pre-frozen cakes and custom cakes, the latter of which is made fresh from scratch and with high-quality ingredients, is completely different.

To have a custom-crafted wedding cake that’s a work of art, couples in the New York metro area pay from around $7 a slice to, well, the sky’s the limit, depending on the degree of the custom work desired, and any specialty ingredients.

Whatever for?   Well, a lot goes into a custom wedding cake that doesn’t go into the usual cake.

For starters, there’s artistry and experience. For me, there’s my specialization in gum paste flower art, learned from the master in the industry who has taught every high-profile cake artist in business today. There’s elegant craftsmanship.  Then, there should also be a very personal level of service.

With a custom cake designer, you should be getting the best ingredients from around the world. If they limit the number of bookings they accept in order to bake everything fresh, their cake will never, ever be baked ahead and frozen. The disadvantage of baking ahead and freezing is that a cake can arrive dried out and frozen to an event, basically inedible.

Your custom designer should be using genuine buttercream as well – which, by the way, is never snow-white.  (Crisco is snow white.  Butter is pale yellow, and genuine buttercream is ivory, after all the sugar is added to the butter.)  Even if you choose a fondant cake (its taste pales in comparison to genuine buttercream, but it does photograph nicely and is a food safely necessity outdoors in high heat and humidity), there should be genuine buttercream or marzipan and jam beneath it, adhering it to your wedding cake.

Because of the seemingly endless hours of work that go into it, a custom cake designer can’t really be adequately compensated for exceptionally abundant gum paste work on a wedding cake. For example, sculpting and hand-coloring a single peony takes me four hours of labor from start to finish, and three to four days of drying time (depending on the humidity level); a rose (another popular choice for wedding cake gum paste flowers) requires three hours of labor from the time the first petal is sculpted to the time your brush leaves the last rose leaf and all of the petal dust and luster dust colors are applied.   Multiply that quantity, and expect to hear a high price per slice quoted, as it’s impossible to charge the complete hourly rate for what will go into that cake.  These prices can go as high as $20 (and far more) per slice for lush gum paste arrangements, as well as for specialty items such as edible pure gold leaf, or a wedding cake covered in fresh hand-rolled chocolate truffles.

Another substantial factor in cake design pricing that clients often don’t have any reason to have advance knowledge of is the labor involved in any given cake project.  For example, if you have your heart set on a football stadium groom’s cake with bleachers, artwork in the end zones, full detail on the field, and custom chocolate goal posts,  that’s something that entails several days of work.  Your expert designer is happy to create involved cakes for you, but expect to compensate them for their time, and that expertise you were looking for.  (This, by the way, may include compensating them for the other business they must turn away if they do everything fresh, and therefore must work on a fairly exclusive booking basis.  For instance, we accept only two major bookings per day, which means we have to carefully consider what jobs we accept in relation to what’s already booked.)

If you come in with a concept and find that it is far more labor-intensive (and therefore costly) than you ever dreamed, don’t be afraid to ask if there are ways that the design can be simplified to bring the cost down.  There’s usually something that can be done toward that end to try and accommodate you.  Part of your designer’s expertise also lies in being able to explain whether a concept that a client comes in with is realistic.  So, don’t get too attached to an involved concept until you hear whether it’s physically do-able, and whether it fits within your budget as well.

The cake designer you choose should treat you with the utmost professionalism and respect, and that should be a two-way street.  If you’ve purposely sought out a custom cake artist, asking them “if there’s any wiggle room in the price” is not suggested, when they’ve just explained that you’ve asked for a cake that will take several days of their time to craft.  Again, most of us delight in taking on involved projects that people with less training and experience can’t properly execute.  But if you’ve gone to an expert for a reason, you should expect to compensate them properly, or have them simplify the design to make the cost more manageable if you find yourself reeling from sticker shock.  (After all, budget is reality.  We understand that.)  To make sure that working with a particular expert is within your budget, you can always inquire as to their base level pricing before you schedule a consultation and tasting.

Working with a custom cake designer is for those who are seeking the experience of dealing with a true professional, and a trained artist – someone who wants a wedding cake that’s out of the ordinary, and who wants to feel fantastic about the process from forming the design concept, to feeding each other that first bite of cake in your first act as a married couple.   Likewise, professional cake designer delights in choosing clients who are a pleasure to work with, and who energize them in the collaborative creative process.  Their aim is to make your experience something so amazing that you want nothing more than to share it with everyone you know!

Couples definitely get a great deal of value for the price when they work with an expert cake designer.