Ordering a wedding cake is something
that requires a good deal of thought about specific areas
of the wedding. You need to know the following things about your wedding
when planning how big a cake you need to order.
- Approximate number of invited guest. (not the number of invitations)
- How much food you plan to serve? (big meal or light snack)
- Time of day wedding reception will take place.
- Will alcohol be served?
- Are you planning a Groom's cake and how big will it be?
- The type of "look" you want.
- How long into the reception the cake will be cut.
All of the above things play into how big your wedding cake should be. One area where a lot of confusion comes into play is "invitations". I have often had brides tell me they are sending out, for instance, "200 invitations". Then when I ask them if that is "200 invited guests" or "200 invitations" they realize that 200 invitations could be as many as 400 guests if everyone brings a companion with them. So be sure you think about that question carefully when deciding how many people you are planning for. Since you should actually order your cake at least 3-6 months in advance at most bakeries, you usually have to play a guessing game by going down you list of guests and guessing at whether they may or may not come to get an approximate count of how many people to plan for. You will really need this count for your whole wedding planning and it will NEVER be accurate but it is helpful in planning. Overall you should usually plan about 1/2-2/3 of your guest list will probably come, sometimes as much as 3/4 if a lot of them are local people.
If you are planning a big, full meal you shouldn't need quite as big a cake, unless they will actually be slicing the cake and serving it directly to the guests as dessert, in that case you should plan enough cake for each guest you expect to attend. At our bakery we let you make a guess of size when ordering but once you get your response cards back (usually 2-3 weeks before the wedding) we ask you to let us know if you need to change the size bigger or smaller by 2 weeks before the wedding. If you are planning only to serve cake and punch at your reception, this is another time when you will want to be sure you have enough cake for all you expect to attend. If you are serving a large buffet, sit down dinner or serving alcohol this is when you could possibly get by with a smaller wedding cake.
Time of day is another factor that enters into your equation. Afternoon weddings may not need as much cake as evening ones but the food and alcohol are bigger factors.
f you are having a groom's cake and it is of a larger size you also may be able to get by with a smaller wedding cake, also if you are serving a number of other sweets. Some people will have a piece of each but some people may not have any cake, especially if they are diabetic or drinking alcohol. Groom's cakes vary a lot in our area in what they are and how big they are. Usually I will add the two together and see how many they will serve in total. You can subtract some from this amount, especially if you are also serving a big meal as well as alcohol.
A lot depends on the "look" you want for your wedding cake. Very
often we have brides come in with a pre-set idea of the cake they want.
Sometimes they come in with a picture in hand that they found in a bridal
magazine or elsewhere on the internet. If this picture has a particular
look but the couples wedding is considerably smaller than the wedding cake in the
picture would serve we may have to make adjustments. We can handle this in
two ways. Depending on the the brides budget, we can either make the cake
to the size it needs to be to achieve the desired look, in which case there may
be a lot of cake left over to be parceled out to departing guests or a lot
leftover in the freezer. OR we can make a part of the cake
in "dummy" cakes so that you don't end up with more left over cake
than you can deal with. We have done this on a number of occasions when
the bride wanted a HUGE cake for a modest sized wedding. On several
occasions the place where the wedding was being held was such a large imposing
structure that an average sized wedding cake would have looked diminutive.
We have made the entire bottom part of the cake out of large dummies and only the
upper tiers were real cake. When we do this the icing on the entire cake,
including the dummies was the same so guests had no idea there were even dummies
involved. The bride was happy and they had the right amount of cake.
There is a charge for doing this but it is considerably less than having all
real cake. The cake shown at the top of this paragraph was one such
cake. It was actually copied to some degree from the Donald Trump-Marla
Maples wedding cake. Much of the very bottom tiers and satellites were
dummies. It was also covered with hand-made gumpaste flowers and edible
glitter.
Putting
the cakes on Fountains or other stands also achieves the affect of making a
small wedding cake look bigger. The cake in this paragraph is a very good
example of that. It actually has both a fountain and an unusual cake stand
as well as sitting within an arch. It was actually only a cake for about
100 people but because of the setting used as well as having a fountain as part
of the set-up it ended up looking much more impressive.
Serving the cake early enough in the reception so that it is there for guests who might leave a bit early is more likely to insure all of it is eaten. We once did a wedding cake for a wedding where 400 guests showed up at the church. The wedding cake was big enough for 300 people but the couple took so long getting pictures done and in their receiving line before cutting the cake that a lot of the guests left before the cake was served and they ended up with a LOT of cake leftover. We suggest cutting the cake as soon as the main meal has been served. Be sure there are always cut slices available to the guests before they start to leave and you are less likely to end up with a lot of extra cake.
The taste of the cake is just as important as the look of the cake. At our bakery our motto is "You really can have your beautiful cake and EAT it too!"! We make our cakes from scratch from the best ingredients we can find. We offer several kinds of cake. You can even have different parts of the cake be different KINDS of cake. Most often the brides who come in to sample our cake find that our yellow or almond flavored cakes are the most tasty. Sometimes they'll choose carrot or hummingbird, sometimes they'll choose a filling. Below I have listed the cake flavors available and the fillings. Prices on these vary according to which you choose and what tier it is in. Flavors that cost more have * beside them.
- Yellow * Carrot
- Chocolate * Hummingbird
- Marble * Red Velvet
- Almond * Pound cake
- Lemon * Italian Cream
- Strawberry
Fillings are also available for an extra charge. Fillings available are......
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
- Lemon
- Bavarian Cream
- Pineapple (upon request)
At our bakery we Do SUGGEST APPOINTMENTS for ordering wedding cakes. Sometimes when people drop in to order without calling it is a at a time when we are very busy doing someone else's wedding cake or involved in an appointment with another couple. To avoid this we suggest you call ahead and schedule a time that is convenient for both the couple and Myra Jean. When we know you are coming we can have samples available for you to taste and will take time to sit with you and answer all of your questions and discuss possibilities to make your wedding cake all that you want it to be. We have several books available for you to look through with a LOT of pictures and also have a number of display cakes for you to look at to get an idea of size. We do recommend ordering your wedding cake at least 3-6 months in advance and we have even taken orders a year and sometimes more in advance. Once you have an idea of the number of servings you need and a firm date, the wedding cake is one thing you can plan and have taken care of early. Some dates do book up quickly, especially in the spring. We only take on as many orders as we feel we can do a good job at. Don't let your wedding be the one we have to turn down.................plan ahead!
If you wish to make an appointment please call (850)926-7079 or e-mail Myra Jean at myrajean@velocityonline.net please allow a minimum of 24 hours response time. If you do not hear back within 2 days please call the above number.
We are located just south of Tallahassee in Florida's big bend. For maps showing our exact location visit our homepage or "Delivery of Wedding Cakes" page.
We accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover Cards
