Wedding Cake Frostings Revealed

Picking out the icing on the cake can be one of the more difficult aspects of the cake, once you decide what you want it to look like. There are certain frostings that can perform in certain ways, and picking the perfect frosting can make the cake.

Buttercream
The most traditional, creamy icing for your wedding cake. This frosting is very workable and can be easily colored and molded. Buttercream is used for things like: flowers, basketweaves, swags, etc. This frosting's primary ingredient is butter, so it melts easily and isn't recommended for outdoor weddings, unless they are in the cooler months of late September or October.

Fondant
Fondant is the frosting to use if you want an ultra-smooth look to your cake. This frosting is made with corn syrup and gelatin so it won't melt if left at room temperature or warmer. Cakes made with this frosting look best with marzipan decorations. However, before you agree to this type of frosting, be sure you know what you are getting. This frosting looks beautiful, but it doesn't taste as good as it looks. If you are more interested in the smooth and sleek look of your cake and not the taste, this is your frosting. Be sure to ask your baker if you can try a small piece of the fondant before you agree to anything.

Royal Icing
This is the type of icing used for special detail like dots on your cake. Its very shiny, and hard. Its made with confectioner's sugar and a liquid, either milk or egg whites. This is another frosting that doesn't need to be refrigerated so there are no constraints on weather and storage.

Ganache
This is a chocolate and heavy cream frosting and can be poured over your cake. When it dries, it looks like a glass finish. It can also be whipped up and put between cake layers. The ingredients in this frosting are weather-dependent, so no warm weather for this cake.

A bit about the cake:
These days, anything goes. If you want an octagonal cake, go for it. If you want to make a cupcake for each of your guests, and display them on a nice stand to make it look like a cake, you can.

When you are shopping around for your cake, you don't NEED to go with the absolute best as they are generally the most expensive. Settle for a baker that has work to show you and who's cakes are moist and tasty. Most people only nibble on the cake once they eat all the other food, so getting the absolute best would be a waste.

Before you start looking at bakers, start looking at some cakes. You will need an idea of about how many people and whether or not you want to save the top cake or not.

Finally, having a filling in the cake is no longer the norm. You can have a solid cake with no fillings if that is what you would prefer. You can try some special flavored cakes, like: White Almond, Strawberry, Marble, etc.

Be sure to get samples and have other people taste them to give input. ENJOY!