Happily Yours, Wedding Cakes

What's the fuss with wedding cakes? Why do brides-to-be make such a fuss over the cake they choose? Cake is just cake, right? Wrong.

Any bride who has ever had her cake (and eaten it too) knows that in this day and age of elaborately planned weddings, cake isn't just cake anymore. It's more than a sugary confection, more than a sweet treat to serve to guests. Today, wedding cakes have morphed into something akin to a religious experience.

The Secret of the Ultimate Wedding Cake
Brides will tell you choosing the ultimate wedding cake is a nerve-wracking experience. It's as hard as choosing evening gowns or bridesmaid dresses in Toronto (or anywhere else for that matter). And, the more you have to choose from, the more difficult it becomes to make your pick.

What brides don't know is that choosing wedding cakes really is a simple process. In fact, ask wedding experts and they will tell you there are no elaborate rules to go by, no guidelines to think about while you cruise past counters of sweets. Fact of the matter is, where your cake is concerned, you have only two things to think of - presentation and taste. Everything else is secondary; and everything else is unimportant.

I Like, I Taste
Whether your cake has three tiers or five, it should look breathtaking --- perhaps even more breathtaking than the bridge. Forget pillars, fountains, and wishy-washy cake toppers. Today's cakes are tall, sleek, and beautiful. You don't have to taste them or smell them to think they are tasty; all you have to do is look at them.

This brings us to the second consideration - taste. Today's cake is light years ahead of the "packing material" cakes of yore. Today, wedding cakes ooze with creamy, delicious fat. They're loaded with very creamy butter, a moist base material (think red velvet, banana cake, carrot cake, poppy seed cake, pound cake, and more), and mouth-watering fillings (think white chocolate, amaretto, raspberry, tiramisu, and chocolate mousse). In other woods, these gastronomic delights are as much a feast for the mouth as they are for the eyes.

Cake Alternatives
But what if you want your tier to be different? What if you want to go down the pastry path no one has ever gone before? Fear not. There are many alternatives to traditional wedding cakes. You can take the pudding and mousse route by pre-chilling champagne or wine glasses and then filling them with

- anything chocolate (chocolate mousse or chocolate orange)
- rice (wild rice pudding or coconut rice)
- regular tiramisu, hazelnut, or raspberry
- white chocolate, biscotti or blackberry parfaits, key lime
- in-season berries mixed in heavy whipped cream.

If these options do not appeal to you, try pumpkin flan or crème brulee.

Where wedding cakes are concerned, you're free to do with yours as you wish provided you conform to the twin requirements of taste and presentation. You may even stack up on a tier of Twinkies, Krispy Kremes, and Sno Balls and your guests will still ooh and ahh as you and your groom cut through it and feed each other cake!

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