Visual tools help when sizing up the perfect wedding cake

(Photos courtesy of Haydel’s Bakery)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

Although memories of the savory food served at receptions tend to fade over time, the taste of one wedding edible is likely to linger in guests’ minds long after the “Big Day” has passed: the cake.

“With each bride, it’s different; sometimes they want their wedding cake to be the star of the show, and other times the cake is incidental – they don’t care if they have brownies and petit fours or if they have a wedding cake,” said Dottie Haydel, who helps couples navigate the abundant cake and dessert options at Haydel’s Bakery on Jefferson Highway, the 1959-founded establishment that began as a fruit and donut shop run by her mother- and father-in-law, Mildred and Lloyd Haydel.

Beginning the cake journey

While most bakeries, including Haydel’s, accept orders well in advance of the reception date, the staff there has found that ordering the wedding cake two to three months ahead of the event is sufficient – and even preferable in many cases.

“Some of the girls who come in when they first get that engagement ring will change their mind a half a dozen times before the wedding!” Haydel said, pointing to trends that shift with every monthly bridal magazine.

Upfront details needed by bakeries include the wedding date, reception time and the venue’s address – to ensure it is located within the bakery’s delivery range. The estimated number of guests, of course, is the most basic information to have in hand as a couple designs its wedding cake.

To help couples visualize cake size, Haydel’s has a showcase filled with Styrofoam cakes “ranging from a 60-person cake up to a 300-person cake,” Haydel said.

With three and even four adjoining tiers of triple-layer cakes being the preference of many of today’s brides, Haydel sometimes finds herself explaining basic “cake physics” to her engaged couples. For example, a four-tiered, triple-layered cake is typically the maximum size that can be safely transported to a given reception venue, she said.

TV allows craziness

“Some of the cakes the girls see on the popular TV cake programs are built on site, so they can do the crazy heights and the crazy tilts,” Haydel said. “We build them here (at the bakery) and have to transport them safely. Our goal is to get them there in one piece, and I think we do an excellent job of that!”

To get around these constraints, couples anticipating a guest tally of 300 or more might consider ordering an elegant, multi-tiered wedding cake large enough to feed 175 people, and then order an additional “back-up” cake – a sheet cake decorated in the same manner as the main cake.

Another way to lighten the load without sacrificing the look of a larger, taller wedding cake is to ask the bakery to make a portion of the cake out of Styrofoam and frost it to blend in with the edible 

layers, Haydel said.

Cake, filling options

On the batter front, a white-almond wedding cake is still the fan favorite at local weddings, Haydel said.

“It’s a very dense cake, so it has the ability to support the weight (of the upper tiers),” she said. “For example, we couldn’t make a 175-person cake entirely out of gold cake or devil’s food cake because they’re too soft and porous. Sometimes, we’ll make the very top tier chocolate or we’ll make the very top tier in the gold cake, if that’s what the bride prefers.”

Giving each tier of cake a different filling flavor is another popular choice, Haydel said. At Haydel’s, buttercream filling can be mixed with flavors such as amoretto, Irish cream or praline flavorings to offer variety. A full range of fruit fillings is also available, but cake size comes into play once again.

“We don’t put the fruit filling on the triple-tiered cakes – when you start putting three layers of fruit fillings, there’s a tendency to slide, particularly (in the heat of) summer weddings,” Haydel said.

Simple designs are in style

After many years of decorating cakes in “every color of the rainbow,” the current style of choice is “simple elegance,” Haydel said.

In the past, embellishing and setting up a wedding cake was a much more elaborate and time-consuming affair involving plastic “separator plates” (to create space and support between the tiers), heavy fondant work and intricate gumpaste flowers, she said.

“The girls are choosing simpler decorations. They’ll use fresh flowers,” Haydel said. “Sometimes it’s just a very simple cross on top or ‘Mr. & Mrs.’ on top. They’re not into the bride-and-groom (figurines) that they used to put on top of the cakes.”

Another “less is more” trend among local brides is to incorporate upgrades such as hand-formed and hand-painted buttercream, chocolate or white-chocolate fleurs-de-lis.

“Over this past year or so, it’s been the paler colors – the whites and the off whites, not a whole lot of color,” Haydel said, noting that “texturing” the cake – scoring horizontal, vertical or diagonal designs into the frosting – is another simple way to add visual appeal.

Groom’s cake trends

Haydel said grooms’ cakes are “larger than ever” and sometimes even outshine the wedding cake. Recent requests at Haydel’s have included cakes in the shape of a Yeti cooler, Tiger Stadium and “Sportsman’s Paradise” themes reflecting the groom’s love for the outdoors. Multi-tiered cookie cakes and king cakes are other groom’s cake options, Haydel said.

“We had a groom a few years back who was a staunch Alabama fan, so he wanted nothing to do with LSU,” she recalled. “So we made the ‘Roll Tide’ cake and iced it in red and white. Inside, the bride (secretly) requested that the cake be purple and gold, so when he cut into the cake, imagine his shock!”

Pro tips from a pro baker

Haydel offered some additional tips:

• Leave room in your budget for the rental of a cake stand, or “plateau,” if you cannot supply one of your own. Sometimes the stand is provided by the reception venue, but always check with the bakery to make sure its dimensions can accommodate the cake you have ordered.

• Bakery-inserted “cake pulls” (for unmarried female guests) is still a tradition in southern weddings, Haydel said. These days, many brides make or order their own pulls and even take the tradition to the next level. “Many of the girls will put the sterling silver pull on a pearl bracelet as a gift for their bridesmaids,” she said.

• Haydel advises couples who want a gluten-free option to make the top or second-to-top tier gluten-free and reserve the larger bottom tier for their other guests. “When (gluten intolerance) first came out, most of the products tasted like cardboard,” Haydel said. “We struggled quite a bit to find a product that is tasty, and of course, we’re able to use our buttercream icing with it, so it’s quite good!”

Pretty in pictures

• In lieu of a wedding cake, some couples prefer to offer their guests an assortment of pastries – bite-size items such as tarts, brownies, chocolate turtles, petit fours and cupcakes. Haydel cautioned that some desserts, such as doberge squares and fruit tarts, should not be set out too far in advance due to refrigeration requirements. For customers who go the pastry route, Haydel suggests that they consider ordering a modest-sized wedding cake, even if only for photo purposes. “I always tell them: ‘You won’t be taking pictures with your desserts!’” she said.

• Although an uptick in the number of destination weddings has made the cake-freezing tradition (for thawing on the couple’s first anniversary) less common, those who want this option are advised to deputize a parent to take the cake home from the reception. Because some caterers simply put the cake back into the box, make sure to wrap the cake in plastic and box it prior to freezing.

Five’s a crowd

• Pre-wedding cake-tastings are great opportunities to bring in pictures of your dream cake, silk flowers reflecting your bouquet, swatches of the bridesmaids’ dresses, etc. Haydel said her major piece of advice for these gatherings is to limit the number of people you take to the bakery.

“I’ve seen couples come in here with all their family members, and they’re trying to please Grandma and Mom and Dad and Aunt Sue,” Haydel said. “It’s not  like selecting your dress where you want everyone’s opinion, but sometimes it’s harder when they come (to the bakery) with a half-dozen people and they say, ‘I like the strawberry.’ ‘Well, no, I like the praline,’ or ‘I thought the amaretto was the best.’ And so the girl’s head is spinning because she’s vying with too many opinions!”

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