We have all been hit hard with the cost of living crises, but this doesn't have to mean you have to drop the wedding cake from your dream wedding. In fact, having a wedding cake can actually reduce your overall bill! See my top tips below:
Cake for Pudding- why not have your wedding cake sliced up and served for pudding instead of a late night snack. Serve a neat slice of cake with seasonal berries and clotted cream, or a berry coulis with cream for a winter wedding. I would recommend chosing 1 flavour (or maximum 2) for the whole wedding cake to keep pudding consistent for all of the guests. I have had lots of weddings this season where the couple have opted for this and it has meant the whole cake gets eaten and enjoyed and they haven’t had to pay for an extra pudding either!
Cut the Cake earlier in the day on your wedding day- Cakes are always much easier to slice up when they are cold and you can get lovely neat slices out of each tier so less wastage! It also means caterers have more time to cut up the cake in time for pudding!
Smaller Display Cake- Rather than having a total showstopper giant tower of a wedding cake on display, why not opt for a smaller but very elegant and discerning 2 tier wedding cake, and top up with having an extra cutting cake or two. This is often a more economical way of making up the required cake servings without using up precious wedding budget on a giant cake.
See the cake! If the cake is being served as a late night snack or during the reception make sure the cake is really obvious for the guests to see and eat, too often I see the cake being served in a tucked away corner of the venue that is not obvious and the cake gets missed by lots of the guests. Top tip is to have waitresses or family member walking around serving the cake to guests to ensure no wasted cake and no wasted money!
Communicate your plan- make sure you have spoken to the caterers about the Plan of action with the wedding cake. Tell them specifically how many slices you want to get out of each tier so that they don’t end up leaving half the cake in the kitchen, or it is all served on the day when tou actually planning on saving half for pudding the following day!
Use your leftovers- if you do end up with leftover cake, here are some tips to ensure it doesn’t go to waste:
Bring your leftover wedding cake on your honeymoon- I did this and was so pleased as it felt like I brought a piece of my magical wedding day with me, plus it was totally scrumptious!
Freeze leftover wedding cake in pre cut slices rather than whole chunks of cake, that way you can defrost a slice of cake whenever you want reminding of your magical day. Defrosting and eating half a 10 inch cake feels like it deserves a special occasion and before you know it 3 years will have passed and the cake will still be taking up half your freezer!
Blitz up leftover cake slices (if you haven’t gobbled them up already!) in a Magimix and roll into balls, refrigerate for a couple of hours and then dip into melted chocolate- hey presto you have wedding cake truffles !