The Wedding Cake - my opinion

Well, I think I quite like it!  And well done to the team at Fiona Cairns for pulling it off.

For a start, it’s 5 stacked cakes in one – quite a feat as each one will be as much as (if not more than) one person can carry.  I’ve just weighed out the fruit for the 12” base tier of a wedding cake and the fruit alone is around 4 kilos (9lbs).  Add on 3kg of marzipan and 3kg of fondant and that’s only the base tier!

There is a huge amount and variety of flower work.  Maybe some of it’s not up to the standard of the best in the business, but it gives a good overall impression and I think it’ll start a trend for one colour, blocked flower work. 

I’m not a Royal Icing expert and apparently it’s not ‘true’ Lambeth, but it fits well with the Palace setting and I think it will give Royal Icing in all shapes and forms a boost next year.

How will it translate to a smaller cake?  You could take the top section, perhaps scale it down to 4, or even 3, tiers.  I would opt to keep the base, probably as a single tier of 4 cakes, and add a three or four tier on top.  I thought the cake looked a bit dumpy – I’d have preferred a bit more height – so maybe add separators between the tiers.  This will keep the overall shape and style of the cake but make it a more manageable size for most brides.

And the cost?  Realistically, I can’t see any change from £1000 for the smallest, simplest version.  There’s still going to be a large amount of flower work and piped decoration.  If you opt for the seven-cake version, I’d quote in excess of £2000, maybe not what most brides are expecting (or willing) to pay - we'll have to see!