Fruit/Spice Wedding Cake
Many of the cakes at modern weddings still tend to be fruit or spice cake, or at the very least, couples will incorporate a tier of fruit/spice into their overall cake. Fruit/spice cakes typically comprise raisins, sultans, currants, peel and cherries along with an amount of suitable spices (nutmeg/cinnamon etc.).
The cake itself tastes great, but it has to be said that this wedding cake style is not universally popular, particularly with younger guests. That said, it's more durable that virtually every other type of wedding cake around, and you'll be able to generate more slices from this cake than any other of a like for like size, so there are plenty of advantages to buying one for your big day.
For recipes, decoration tips, design ideas and more, our fruit wedding cake article is essential reading if you are considering opting for this, the most traditional wedding cake style of all.
Sponge Wedding Cake
Basically consisting of three ingredients - sugar, eggs and flour - sponge wedding cakes are one of the most popular (if not the most popular) of all the wedding cake style options available here in the UK.
This wonderfully light, moist and airy cake can be flavoured to preference and fruity flavours such as lemon and orange or richer flavours such as coffee and toffee can be added to the mix to add additional taste. Often, the sponge cake will be cut in half and a filling added to enhance the taste although if you prefer it without a filling, then that’s entirely your choice!
Particularly popular amongst younger guests and relatively cheap to make if you are doing so yourselves, sponge wedding cakes provide a tasty modern alternative to traditional spiced or fruit wedding cakes and are sure to prove popular with all of your guests. For more information, be sure to check out our bespoke sponge wedding cake article.
Chocolate Wedding Cake
The ‘rising star’ of the wedding cake world – chocolate wedding cake is essentially a sponge based cake with a chocolate flavouring. Retaining many of the features of a typical sponge based cake, the chocolate cake is universally popular with couples and wedding guests alike.
Newlyweds can opt for a range of decadent fillings and rich coatings to enhance the chocolatey experience. From fudge icing and white chocolate swirls to ganache paste and milk chocolate truffles, this style of wedding cake can be as subtle, or elaborate, as you wish.
As one of the richest of all of the wedding cake style options available (especially when filled, coated and covered in lashings of chocolate!) it could be a little bit heavy to serve straight after the desert course at a wedding breakfast, but but that said, you will find that most of your guests will ‘make room’!
Carrot Wedding Cake
Carrot cake is one of the ‘new kids on the block’ when it comes to Wedding Cake. Listed as one of the top five food fads of the Seventies, there is a theory that its popularity in the UK soared with the arrival of rationing in WWII, despite the fact that it has been around since Medieval Times! Essentially a sweet spice cake with grated carrot in the mixture, the cake has a soft, dense texture and contrary to popular belief does not taste like you are eating a cake that tastes of vegetables! Sometimes eaten plain, although it is commonly topped cream cheese icing with walnuts, although white/coloured icing is a suitable alternative.
Carrot Cake is an acquired taste and not everybody will like it (especially certain children when they hear the word ‘carrot’!), but that should not put you off choosing it if it’s what you’d like. Carrot cake is denser than sponge but not as dense as fruit/spice cake so you should ask your cake maker if you are looking to have it support heavy cakes or objects to see if it is suitable. It is a slightly more expensive cake than sponge to make, although it should provide more slices and be more durable.
Alternative Wedding Cake Styles
Thus far, we have made the assumption that you will opt for a tiered cake, but a popular option these days is to have individual cakes stacked in a conical shape for your guests to each grab one of. It is impossible to talk about all of the options, as you are only limited by your imagination, but many couples may opt to offer individual servings of iced and decorated sponge, fruit, carrot or chocolate cake.
Alternatives include the croquembouche - a French cake that consists individual cream filled choux buns bound together in a brittle caramel sauce – it tastes fantastic, is easy to serve and as with all individual Wedding Cake types, is easy to know how much to get. Meringue based individual cakes (mini pavlovas for example), fudge cakes and profiteroles are examples of other individual cakes you could offer, but as we have said already, you are only limited by your imagination.