Wedding Cake Tips

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Wedding Cake Tips (cont.)

• GIFTS
• The Strategic Wedding Registry
• Registry Tips
• Alternative Registries
• FOOD
• I Do (Eat)
• Alternative Wedding Catering
• 10 Strip Club Eats
• DRINKS
• Building a Killer Wedding Bar
• Toasts, Not Roasts
• CAKE
• Wedding Cake Tips
• DIY Wedding Cake Alternatives
• Wedding Cake Glossary

By Roxanne Webber

For some reason, cupcakes are considered a wedding cake alternative, but since they’re made of cake we don’t think they really count. Here are some ideas for “not-cakes” that you or a crafty friend could put together. But first, make sure your site or caterer allows homemade cakes.

Cheese Wheel Cake

Arrange wheels of cheese in graduated sizes to mimic a stacked wedding cake and decorate them with flowers, grapes, and nuts. Sarah Penney-Flynn posted about her “cheese cake” on the forums of the website Offbeat Bride Tribe (you’ll have to join to view the forums, but they are a great resource for creative wedding ideas).

Doughnut Tower

Stack doughnuts on a tiered stand and decorate with things like ribbons, flowers, action figures—whatever fits your wedding. Alison Winston of Frittelli’s Doughnuts & Coffee in Beverly Hills says, “People are tired of the cupcake towers.” At Frittelli’s, they have also created a croquembouche out of doughnut holes, which you can find a nice recipe for on Epicurious. To create a tiered wedding tower like this one by Judy Uson, order doughnuts from your favorite shop (they may be able to frost them in your wedding colors) and arrange them on a stand like this inexpensive one from Wilton.

Tiered Truffles

Set up a tiered pastry stand and load it with truffles or other chocolates. Some chocolatiers may give you a bulk discount. Even without it, high-end truffles like these from Recchiuti run under $1 per piece compared to $3 to $5 per slice for a midrange cake.

Candy Buffet

Some people offer a candy bar in lieu of wedding favors, but you can also do it in place of a cake. Pick up apothecary jars like these fancy ones from English Creek Gardens, or a more basic style like these discount jars. Fill them with bulk or cool old-fashioned candies, and arrange the jars on a long table with some candy scoops and bags or colorful Chinese takeout boxes. If you’re going to have children at the wedding, you might want to put the candy bar on a tall table so the kids can’t reach it without help from a parent. For tips, check out Dream Weddings on a Budget or this painfully pink (but informative) blog post about building a candy buffet.

Other Ideas

A chef-instructor from the Culinary Institute of America created his wedding cake out of Hostess products. Beautiful Italian-cookie cakes are a wedding tradition that can be DIY’d by ordering cookies from an Italian bakery and arranging them on a pretty tray (pile them from the sturdiest to the most delicate). And there’s always a wedding pie buffet or a custom piñata like this one on Etsy, shaped like a four-tiered wedding cake. Other available piñatas include Yoda, a skull and crossbones, or a service at Pinata Zone where you can submit your own art and they’ll quote you a price to create a piñata in that image.

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