1. Hello, color! Baker Mona Valenty of Mona's Cakes created this striking floral design to resemble a European-tied bouquet. Its tier heights are nearly double that of a customary wedding cake, with fresh-cut flowers, silk ribbons and rolled fondant stems in varying shades of green applied to fresh buttercream.
2. Eclectic designs create a personal statement, like this cake from Buttercream’s Grace Vanasse. “I wanted to do something vintage but modern at the same time, so I combined lace, fresh-cut flowers and solid tiers of varying heights,” she explains. She smoothed over the bakery’s signature buttercream frosting with a hot spatula for the look of fondant without the gummy texture.
3. A cake design inspired by a baker’s orange purse might sound odd, but Terri Leckas of Queen of Cakes often borrows from fashion to create her cakes. “Now we’re hearing requests for more color, especially oranges and yellows,” she says. Here, Leckas couples tall and short tiers with stylized flowers and a three-dimensional sugar paste topper to create a contemporary design.
4. “I call this my Marie Antoinette cake,” says Turtle Bread Co.’s cake expert, Mary Jo DuPaul, who recently spent time in Paris. Mixing shapes is a modern technique, but fondant cutouts over buttercream and a vintage brooch made of royal icing and pearls retain some of that traditional look.
5. This cake’s motif was used throughout bride Jessica Friess’ eco-friendly Duluth wedding, reflected in her invitations, programs and stamps. The billboard treatment that splits the pattern across three tiers was the result of several long-distance exchanges between the bride, her wedding planner and baker Robin Martin from Gateaux, Inc. Guests marveled at the design, as well as the chocolate and pistachio mousse inside.
6. Marie Porter of Celebration Generation created a jazzed-up version of a more traditional cake she’s created in the past, with piped meringue leaves and brightly colored flowers. “Most of our cakes are fairly crazy,” says Porter, “but this combination of crazy and meringue we hadn’t done.”