For some brides-to-be, the wedding cake is treated like the table centerpieces: Expected, but inconsequential. For me, the cake was one of the greatest matters of consequence. It's not just because I have a sweet tooth (though I absolutely do). It's because the cake can act as a gorgeous focal point at the reception and — unlike your centerpieces — it serves a purpose, because you can, you know, eat it. Yes, spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on dessert may seem silly, but if you spend as much time looking at photos of wedding cake ideas as I do, then you know that a beautiful dessert can also be a work of art.
I had the good fortune to attend prom with the guy who would later design my wedding cake. After high school, he competed on TLC's Next Great Baker and opened his own bakery in our hometown. For my wedding, he made a chocolate fleck cake with Oreo buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream icing, and I loved it just as much (if not more) than my wedding dress (and no, I'm not kidding). If you haven't found your dream cake yet, perhaps these pics will give you some inspo.
Self-taught baker Amy Berger of Luckybird Bakery in Brooklyn, New York, specializes in not-quite-naked, not-quite-frosted, vintage-inspired cakes. If you don't want to sink your teeth into this cake, then you're lying to yourself.
Sammi-Jo Gascoyne of Blushing Cook is a firm believer that the taste is just as important as the look of the cake, which is why the hand-painted creations she makes for weddings all over the United Kingdom are just as delicious as they appear.
For Salt Lake City-based Ballerina Baker owner Jordan Fry, creating edible works of art is her mission, which means that every petal and leaf is sculpted and crafted from sugar by hand.
Peter Gray of Pete's Sweets in western Massachusetts loves to include both sugar flowers and fresh flowers with his gorgeous (and delicious) cake masterpieces (and no, I'm definitely not biased just because he make my wedding cake).
As well as subbing rolled fondant for gumpaste, Winifred Kristé Cake in Singapore specializes in hand-painted cakes and handmade sugar flowers petals, which results in creations that are almost too gorgeous to eat.
Hundreds of delicate wafer paper butterflies were required for London-based baker Chris Murphy of Tuck Box Cakes to create this fluttering masterpiece (which he also somehow managed to ship to France in one piece).
You may have thought highlighter was just for your face, but to make this lightly-iced cake shimmer, western North Carolina-based shop Sugar Cloud Baking Company airbrushed it with just a touch of silver highlighter.
Crafted with a mix of buttercream kisses, hand-painted details, fresh flowers, and macaroons, this creation from Kat Logan (who owns The Buttercream Bakery in Sydney, Australia) deserves to be the center of attention.
Sugar artist Ana Parzych of Ana Parzych Cakes in Cheshire, Connecticut designed this cake with iridescent fondant tiers adorned with pale blue lace borders, brushed embroidery, and sugar flowers, and wow, my mouth is watering.
This naked drip cake is the work of Cupcakes! by Julie owner Julie McRae, who's based in southern Utah (and whose gorgeous cake was captured with the help of Renee Shifflet Photography).
Leanne Kelly of The Whimsical Cakery in Northamptonshire, England topped this stunning metallic-tiered cake with pretty gumpaste flowers for a dessert that's simply elegant.
Cake artist Jaime Melfi of Autumn Nomad in Jackson, New Hampshire specializes in creating fondant cakes that are artistic, sculptural, and simply one-of-a-kind, like this actual work of art photographed by Kate Preftakes Photography.
Cynthia Irani of Cynzcakes in Montreal, Quebec loves seeing nature as her as her recipe, which is why each one of her cakes is designed to look like a blossoming buttercream beauty.
There are dozens of ways to make your wedding your own. While there's nothing wrong with a basic buttercream, why not provide a cake that demands to be photographed? It probably won't last much longer than your flowers, but I can can guarantee that your guests will appreciate a fabulous cake much more than your other décor.
