Naked wedding cakes: are they right for you?
Choosing your wedding cake is one of the most fun bits of wedding planning: it means you get to try free cake! To add to your cake-related decisions, there’s a growing trend for ‘naked’ wedding cakes – that is, sponge cakes that have little icing on them (or at most a thin spread, so you can still see the cake underneath), with thick buttercream visible between the layers instead. But would this be the right choice for your wedding? To help you decide, here are some reasons why you might want to choose a naked wedding cake, and some things to think about.
You’re going for a rustic theme
A naked wedding cake perfectly suits a rustic, shabby chic theme, as they don’t have the polished look of a traditional iced cake. They can be piled up with fresh berries or flowers to decorate them, giving them old-fashioned country charm.
You’re on a budget
Because they’re so simple to decorate, it’s much easier to make a naked wedding cake yourself. That makes them great if you’re on a budget and want to have a go at baking your own wedding cake (or enlisting a friend to make one for you).
Other things to bear in mind
Because they don’t have icing to protect them, naked wedding cakes can dry out quite quickly. That means they’ll need to be as fresh as possible on your big day, so it’s more of a challenge to display the cake for hours as normally happens during your wedding breakfast. Some couples opt for a semi-naked cake – with a thin scraping of icing or buttercream – to prevent this happening.
If you’re planning to use flowers to decorate your cake, it’s important to make sure you research whether they’re safe and non-toxic. Aim to use edible flowers if you can, just to be on the safe side.
Finally, although a basic sponge is the most popular choice for naked wedding cakes, don’t be afraid to be different and try other flavourings as well. Chocolate cakes work well, for example, while red velvet is a guaranteed showstopper.
