I’ve known for a while that my wedding cakes section of the site needed a bit of TLC so I was over the moon when Janet contacted me and said that she would guest blog for LMW (Janet being a well reknowned cake designer as you will see from the beautiful cakes below). Thanks Janet for your top tips and for helping me spruce up this section of my site – I especially like the look of the marshmallow one

1. GET A WEDDING CAKE WITH FLAVOUR
There is no point having an amazing looking wedding cake that tastes like cardboard. Your cake designer should be able to provide you with freshly made samples so be sure to taste the wedding cakes available and if you have a specific cake centre in mind, don’t be afraid to ask your cake designer if they are able to make it.  These days you can have practically any flavour you like for your wedding cake, from chocolate to carrot, however I believe that it is a good idea to have at least one tier oftraditional fruit cake to offer your more traditional guests.

2. WORK OUT YOUR BUDGET
From a good designer, a 3 tiered wedding cake can cost anything upwards of £500. The more sugar modeling that is required and the more intricate the design the higher the cost will be; so set a realistic budget for the wedding cake design you would like and choose a designer that will be able to realise your dreams within it.

3. CHOOSE THE RIGHT DESIGNER
Look around for a designer who meets your needs. Different designers specialise in different types of cake. If you want a very ornate wedding cake covered with royal icing and intricate piping, don’t choose a designer who specialises in sugarpaste novelty cakes and vice versa.  You should also choose a designer who listens to what you want rather than pushing their ideas on to you. It’s obviously a cake designers job to offer suggestions but the final decision should be yours and if after a few design tweaks the wedding cake still doesn’t match your dream it might be worth looking for a new designer.

4. TIME IS A CAKE DESIGNERS FRIEND
Give the designer as much notice as possible. Most cake designers need a minimum of 3 months notice to make a wedding cake but remember that this is a minimum! If you require a rich fruit cake or large amounts of sugar modeling, whether it be flowers or people, the more notice you can give the designer the better. This allows for fruit to be soaked, the design to be tweaked and models to be exquisitely made and not rushed.

5. REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO A TRADITIONAL WEDDING CAKE
If you are not keen on having a traditional wedding cake there are plenty of other alternatives.
• Individual miniature cakes -these are covered in marzipan and icing and decorated as though it were a big cake.
• Cupcakes -these are very popular at the moment and can be topped with either sugarpaste or buttercream and decorated to match your theme. If you choose to have cupcakes, I recommend also having a small top tier cake for the traditional cutting of the cake photographs. Boxed cupcakes and cookies also make very good favours.
• Cheese. For those who are not very keen on sweet cakes, Cheese Celebration Cakes are the perfect alternative. Stacked rounds of cheddar, stilton and a host of other cheese varieties can be decorated with fruit and/or flowers to match your wedding theme. Cheese Celebration Cakes are also a fabulous idea as a centre-piece for your evening buffet. This way you could have the traditional sweet wedding cake during your daytime reception and a savoury cheese cake in the evening keeping everyone happy!

Make sure that you check out Janet Mohapi-Banks site for more information on her and her wedding cake designs. Its great to have someone as talented as Janet guest blogging on here because I like to showcase the best wedding suppliers and unique wedding ideas on LMW. Thanks so much for those delicious looking cakes.