How to Design Your Own Wedding Cake

Design your own custom wedding cake.

Creating a customized cake for your wedding is a great way to make your big day stand apart from the crowd. It's also a way to enjoy your favorite flavor of cake and frosting and share it with your wedding guests for your special occasion. Instead of handing over the entire project to a wedding cake specialist or cake designer, you can take the lead and design your cake exactly the way you want.

Things You'll Need

• Wedding magazines
• Wedding cake catalogs
• Graph paper and pencil
• Clippings and photographs of cakes you've seen

Instructions

1. Start clipping pictures from cake magazines and catalogs to determine the style, color and overall theme you want to create. Plan to spend at least three to four months reviewing dozens of different combinations and keep track of your favorites in a file or folder.

2. Decide on a cake filling. Review your options with the person baking and making your wedding cake and pick out two to three fillings you are most interested in. Most cake specialists will offer a tasting session as part of their service.

3. Choose a cake frosting and color. This is only possible after you've selected your overall look and theme, and you have dozens of options to choose from. Whether you're looking for a classic cake with royal icing or a contemporary cake with chocolate frosting, take the time to pick something that's truly unique.

4. Estimate how many servings you need. This will be based on the size of your wedding party, and you will need to add or remove tiers from the final design accordingly.

5. Sketch your cake. This is the blueprint for your cake designer and needs to include the number of layers, tiers, toppers and any special accessories or accents you would like to include.

6. Use color. Add color to your drawing with colored pencils or markers. The more detailed you can make this, the easier it will be to create it in real life.

7. Make a copy. Keep a copy and take the second to your cake designer or specialist for review. You can make modifications as needed when they've determined which type of cake, frosting and filling will be most appropriate.

8. Submit your order. Place your order with all of the details and confirm the design and accessories.

Tips & Warnings

• Some cake designers are willing to help you design the cake from scratch

• Some cake specialists do not make custom cakes without a considerable amount of advanced notice; find out what the requirements are as soon as you have a wedding date in mind.

References

• Forever Wed: How to Order a Cake, Informative FAQ