In our ongoing (though often neglected) "The Case For" series, we examine some unconventional baking ideas, habits, or recipes that might not be what you'd see in your typical bakery. Click here for The Case For Gluten Free and here for The Case for Buttermilk.
Wedding cakes! We'll admit, we have them on the brain recently! We have a wedding coming up in less than a month's time, so we've been slowly prepping everything for the big day. (also, the wedding happens to be the day before PSR shuts down for a well-deserved week of sun and sand and vacation, so getting to that wedding is our only goal right now).
There are so many people who will tell you so many things about choosing the right wedding cake. You've probably heard all of these and more before:
"Choose a baker who will offer you a discount."
"Avoid fondant at all costs."
"Skip the big cake, go with a small one to cut and sheet cake for the masses."
"Skip the cake all together, go with cupcakes or pies or something memorable."
"Never over-order cake, not everyone eats it."
"Go with classic flavors."
"Go with crazy flavors."
"Save money by requesting fake cake tiers."
Some of these we agree with...some of these make us cringe. Eventually, if we ever have the time, maybe we'll debunk the pros and cons of each of these. For now, though, we'd like to take a look at the last one: Saving money by requesting fake cake tiers.
It seems like a novel idea: if you want to save money but still have an amazing cake for all to admire, the cheap solution (and the one that doesn't leave you with mountains of uneaten cake), is to go with a fake cake. Simple, right??
Well, it depends on who bakes your wedding cake. Bakers greatly differ in opinions on whether they will offer a discount at all. A very common theme for many bakers reads something like this: We still have to decorate the cake, whether it's real or imaginary, so it's the same price!"
To the baker's credit who make these arguments, fake tiers are not easy to decorate. They are usually made of Styrofoam, which is not easy to cut or carve. It is also extremely light-weight, which makes it hard to decorate it as you would a nice, thick, dense cake. Often times it can slide right off the tray when you go to press icing to it.
Bakers too, have to purchase the fake tiers, which usually doesn't run super cheap, and keep them well preserved until the big day. That sentence might make you laugh until you accidently drop a 20lb bag of flour on the tier and the Styrofoam warps, leading you to spend more money to replace it. Trust me, it's happened to me.
Our argument for a reduced price, though, is very simple: we're willing to discount the cost of fake tiers for the flexibility it provides to our bakery. In the baking world, that cannot be understated. Because cake is fresh, and must be served fresh, there is only so little "prep work" a bakery can do to get ready for a wedding. Yes, we can buy all the supplies early, make sure everything's cleaned and ready to go, sometimes if we have to carve a cake we might even bake and freeze it ahead of time so that we can manipulate it as needed, but when it comes down to it there's very little we can do prior to the 48 hours before an event when it involves real cake. God forbid an actual emergency pops up in our real lives or something.
Fake tiers give us the flexibility of time, though, which is so cherished. If we want to start decorating the tiers a few days earlier than usual, it doesn't matter. No one's going to eat it, so as long as it still looks good, we can afford to start the decorating a little earlier than usual. This allows us time to make sure every last detail is correct and perfect, and gives us enough time to shower before we actually deliver our cake.
Laugh all you want, but showing up for a delivery with powdered sugar in your hair is not all the rage we thought it was going to be.
The bottom line, if fake tiers are what you're looking for, you need to shop around for a baker who will discount it for you. Some will and some won't. We discount fake tiers anywhere from 25-40%, depending on what you order with us. That discount is for the flexibility we have as bakers when we're tasked with decorating a fake tier.
No matter what, your wedding day is about you. So make sure you choose a cake that fits your needs. If you want to save money and still have a beautiful cake, do your homework and find a baker/bakery who can help you with your vision.
And if you want to discuss fake tier pricing with us ever, we'd be glad to sit down with you and go over it all. It's definitely worth the meeting with us!
