How to Choose Your Wedding Cake

The cake is one of the few things at a wedding that gets a round of applause and then gets eaten. It carries a surprising amount of weight: it's the centrepiece of the room for hours, the photo everyone takes, and the bit your nan judges most harshly. The good news is that choosing one is more enjoyable than stressful, as long as you go in with a few decisions half-made.

Start with flavour, not Pinterest

It's tempting to scroll endless photos of towering buttercream and decide on looks alone. Resist for a moment. Flavour is the thing your guests actually experience, so pin that down first.

Classic combinations earn their place: Victoria sponge with jam and vanilla buttercream, lemon and elderflower, salted caramel, or a proper rich fruit cake for the traditionalists. If you want variety, a tiered cake can have a different flavour per tier, which keeps everyone happy without a fuss. A common split is one sponge tier, one chocolate, one fruit.

Go to a tasting if your baker offers one. Most do, and it's the single best way to choose. What looks lovely as a description can be cloyingly sweet in the mouth, and you'll only know by trying it.

Work out the size you genuinely need

Cake size is measured in servings, and people consistently over-order. A three-tier cake comfortably serves around 80 to 100 guests as a dessert portion, and far more if it's cut into smaller "coffee" slices for the evening.

Two questions decide your size:

• Is the cake your pudding, or an extra alongside a dessert? If it's pudding, you need generous slices. If it's an evening nibble, small ones are fine.
• How many guests are staying into the evening? Plenty of cake gets cut after the day guests have gone home.

If you love the look of a tall cake but don't need the servings, ask about dummy tiers. These are polystyrene rounds iced to match the real thing. You get the height in photos and pay for the cake you'll eat.

Match the style to your day

A cake should sit comfortably in its setting. A sharp, modern fondant cake can look out of place in a rustic barn, just as a naked sponge with foraged greenery might feel underdressed in a grand ballroom. Think about the room first, then the cake.

A few styles and what they suit:

Fresh flowers are a cheap way to lift a simple cake, but make sure the florist and baker coordinate. Some flowers aren't food-safe and need to be wrapped or kept away from the icing, which your baker will know about.

Budget honestly

Cake prices vary more than people expect. According to Bridebook, the average UK wedding cake costs in the region of £350 to £400, with London at the higher end and regions like Yorkshire noticeably cheaper. Most couples land somewhere between £250 and £1,000 depending on tiers, design and how fiddly the decoration is.

The things that push the price up are sugar flowers, hand-painting, intricate piping and very tall tiers. The things that bring it down are buttercream over fondant, fresh flowers instead of sugar ones, and fewer tiers bulked out with a hidden "cutting cake" in the kitchen. A cutting cake is a plain slab the venue slices behind the scenes once your display cake is done. It's a genuinely smart saving.

Questions to ask before you book

A short list will save you grief later. Ask your baker:

• What's included in the price, and what costs extra (delivery, setup, a stand, a cutting cake)?
• Do they deliver and assemble at the venue, or do you collect? Stacked cakes really want professional delivery.
• Can they handle allergies and dietary needs? Gluten-free and vegan tiers are common now, but flag it early.
• When do they need final numbers and the deposit?

On the day, someone needs to know who's cutting the cake and when, and who keeps the leftovers (boxes, not bin bags). It's the sort of detail that vanishes from your head by the reception, so write it down. If you're using Build The Day to organise your day, the cake's flavour, dietary notes and the baker's delivery time can all sit alongside your other supplier details so nothing gets lost.

A note on timing

Order your cake roughly six to nine months out, sooner if your date is a popular summer Saturday and your baker is in demand. Good independent cake makers book up fast. Tastings tend to happen a few months before, once you've a feel for the style, and final design tweaks can usually wait until then.

One last thing: keep the top tier if it's fruit cake and you fancy the old tradition of eating it on your first anniversary. Wrap it properly and it keeps. Sponge, sadly, does not.