For the truly offbeat couple who is planning a truly offbeat wedding, we present these truly offbeat alternatives to the traditional wedding cake.

Tiered Puddings and Mousses

Pre-chill wine or champagne glasses, and fill with:

* Chocolate, chocolate orange, lemon mousse
* Rice, coconut rice or wild rice pudding
* Raspberry, hazelnut or regular tiramisu
* White chocolate, key lime, blackberry or biscotti parfaits
* Heavy whipped cream, topped with sweet in-season berries

Tiered Pastries

Most people love cream puffs, and any more, they can come in a variety of shapes (not just round). Once you have enough, stack ‘em up! Other similar pastries to “stack up” include:

* Cinnamon rolls
* Funnel cakes
* Baklava
* Soufflés served in individual custard cups
* Cream horns, clairs, St. Joseph’s pastries, sfogliatelle, cannoli, napoleons, baba rum

If you want to be really odd, try using some of those direct-from-the-supermarket snack cakes. That’s right; a number of brides are stacking up their cake with these:

* Snow Balls, Suzy Qs, HoHos, Ding Dongs, Twinkies
* Krispy Crème donuts, Moon Pies

If none of these suit your fancy, you can try making a tiered pyramid shape out of

* Chocolate-dipped fruit
* Chocolate truffles
* Sugar cookies or brownies with your initials in cellophane wrappers
* Fancy pies: such as key lime, coconut custard, or (my favorite) peanut butter and white chocolate cream.

One caveat: Even if you choose one of these alternatives, try to keep the wedding-cake ceremony, as it’s a tradition that’s expected by everyone.
and ahh as you cut it together and feed each other.

Weddings bring in a wide spectrum of emotions to people, especially to the bride and groom. It is undoubtedly a day to be cherished and remembered. Therefore, it is not unusual for one to expect the best in every aspect of one’s wedding celebration, even the wedding cake. Nowadays, cake decorators and designers have to work closely with the wedding organizer and the bride and groom to discuss on the flavor, color and theme of the cake before proceeding.

It is their responsibility to meet the requirements of his or her clients and create the perfect cake for the event. What starts out as a freshly baked cake from the oven can either turn into a masterpiece or a gaping disaster.

Using the right combination of colors and decorative items on the cake which suits the theme will aid the cake in blending with the general color theme of the wedding.

Although a timely suggestion from a cake designer may help the couple to decide on the perfect wedding cake for their special day, designers do come across situations where even the most strangest and distasteful requests are made. After all, marriages could be made in heaven, but cakes…..na!!

Because your wedding cake will be the center of attention in the reception room, you should exercise great care to prepare a gorgeous looking wedding-cake table–and then protect it and all of its contents. First, decide where to place the table. Consider the walls around the table. It can destroy the visual impact if you have the cake in front of a tackily-decorated wall; even the most beautiful cake won’t stand a chance! If there’s no choice but to put the table in front of an awful wall, try draping the walls to block the tacky elements.

The table should be placed in a well-lit area, and it should be a good distance away from the doors, windows and high-traffic areas. Too much traffic, and you risk having an unforeseen mishap with a person who’s not paying attention. The best spot is against a wall, out of the center of traffic. If your reception hall is too dark, without a well-lit area for the table, consider hanging directional lights pointing the way to the table.

If you’re using a folding table, it’s very important to check the legs before you place the cake on it. Hopefully you’ve seen enough episodes of ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ to know how many cakes are destroyed by collapsing legs.

I offer this merely as information, not as an endorsement. I read the other day about a growing trend of couples renting their wedding cake. That’s right: renting–as in, paying for it, using it, and then returning it.

The reason for this unusual trend is, of course, to save money. With the cost of cakes soaring, this is one way that some families have found of cutting down on their wedding expenses. It seems there are some cake-providers and / or caterers who provide a cake made of foam, covered with real fondant. There’s a space inside the cake that contains a small portion of real cake to be used for the traditional ceremony. Once the couple feeds each other with these real cake slices, the display cake is then taken into the kitchen, while the guests are served regular sheet cake from a local store. The foam cake is then returned, and re-used (presumably with a new fondant covering).

It can see a couple of good points about this practice. There is no more concern about the cake toppling, and you don’t have to worry about cakes sticking their fingers in it. Still, old-fashioned though it may be, I still would want my guests eating from the same cake as the couple themselves. To me it just seems–well, traditional. Nevertheless, if you are less traditional than I, ask your local caterers and cake designers if they offer this service.

In the world , anybody also desire to marry with suitable person . One of the most important events in one’s life undoubtedly is his/her wedding. It, therefore, is only natural that one tries to make the event a truly memorable affair. One of the ways of making the event memorable is by throwing a party which would be remembered for a long time. And one way of doing it is by preparing nice wedding cakes for the occasion which would spice up the event. Cakes are the centre of attraction at any wedding; so it is absolutely mandatory that the cake prepared for it is nothing short of the best. One should not forget that a lousy cake prepared for such a glorious event like a wedding will spoil the entire show. So, it is a must that people give special attention towards the fact that the cake prepared for this occasion is out of ordinary.

The advent of the Internet has provided people with a host of options about how to prepare some really outstanding cakes. No wonder there are various designs of cakes available in the market. Contrary to public opinion, it is not difficult to prepare wedding cakes. All this is required is a bit of innovation and one might end up preparing a wedding cake which would enhance the glitz of occasion manifold.

One common way of preparing nice wedding cakes is by making them in different shapes. For example, it would be a very good idea to prepare heart-shaped cakes for any wedding. This would go down very well with the occasion. Similarly, a cake prepared with miniature bride and groom figures on top is also a very good option.

However, one should not forget that merely preparing wedding cakes will not suffice, and that one has to properly decorate it to suit the occasion. One way of doing this is by making them in different colours, as well as a adding a fair sprinkling of cherries in different shapes and colours. Adding sweetener and fragrance is another way of adding sheen to the cake. These steps would ensure that the cake prepared would be the best of its kind and breathe life into an occasion as glorious as a wedding.

When was the last time you attended a wedding and gazed lovingly and longingly at the wedding cake, only to stare shockingly at it later when you end up pulling a satin ribbon out of your mouth while relishing the cake? Well, hopefully that hasn’t actually happened to you–but it seems plausible, given the trend toward cakes meant to look at, and not to eat.

Even though the gorgeous decorations may look appealing to the guests, not everything on the cake may be edible.

In elaborately decorated cakes, some decorators may have had to affix certain decorations in place with some inedible objects such as ribbons and tiny hooks. Although most decorators do warn about the existence of inedible decorations when delivering the cake, it is not uncommon to come across incidents such as the one mentioned earlier. With the expanding confectioner’s industry churning out various edible alternatives for cake decorating purposes, such incidents will hopefully reduce in future.

Sugar paste flowers and sprays which look stunning are delightfully edible. Similarly, edible ribbons and sugar sprayed flowers are also available in the markets.

So, the next time you take a generous serving of a wedding cake, be sure to look out for any unpleasant surprises which can be avoided!

Tradition be damned! Let’s have a chocolate wedding cake!

And truth be told, in the 21st century, chocolate is becoming more and more accepted at the reception. Some people just aren’t crazy about white cake. For all the cocoa lovers out there, the obvious option for you is nothing but wedding chocolate cakes. Though chocolate cakes are now widely accepted irrespective of how they look, it will not be a very bad idea to break away with the tradition and get yourself the most unique chocolate cakes for your wedding. These wedding chocolate cakes come in all sizes and shapes, and these days you can also have variations in chocolate flavor. You might prefer milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and so on.

The classic wedding chocolate cakes, made of superimposed tiers of chocolate cake, are still very popular; they certainly demand some attention. However, you feel free to be adventurous and mix up more than one flavor for your special day, treating your guests with the best among all tasty combinations. You can also couple your chocolate cakes with some other fruit or floral flavor. Trust me, you will not be disappointed with the taste. You can also ask your cake designer to deck them up accordingly, with flowers, fruits or ribbons.

If you want your wedding to have a cultural / international theme, or if you’re just interested in wedding trivia, you might find the following interesting. These are some “wedding cake options” offered in different places around the world.

1) DUMMY CAKES. These are used frequently in both India and Japan. Sometimes the whole thing is fake, other times the top tier is actually edible. These cakes look genuine, but because most of the cake is not real, it cuts down substantially on the cost.

2) France originated the FRENCH CROQUEMBOUCHE, which has since become popular worldwide. This treat has little choux balls filed with crème or crème patisserie stacked in pyramid form, with caramel and topped with spun sugar. This thing is so hard you have to smash it rather than cut it, so a hammer is usually available for that purpose.

3) The BEM CASADO is Brazil’s choice for a wedding-cake replacement. The popular wedding dessert is made of two pieces of pastry held together by a sweet, sticky cream (looks and tastes kind of like caramel). There are a variety of shapes available, such as doves, rings and hearts.

4) And from Italy, come the WANDA, a kind of cookie. These are arranged on a separate table to present the appearance of a cake.

Here are a couple of ideas to save yourself a couple of common headaches that many experience with their wedding cake.

1) The headache of the melted cake. Remember that if you’re getting married in a warm month, it’s a good idea to turn on the air conditioning in the reception area well before the cake is delivered. Unfortunately, many times it will not be on in the reception hall due to high energy costs. It’s important that you ask about this prior to booking the hall so you know whether or not you need to turn it on. Usually, having it on about two hours before the delivery of the cake should do, unless it’s extremely hot, in which case you might want to allow three or four hours. Failure to do this might result in the dreaded melted cake syndrome.

2) Another all-too-common headache: finding out too late that something is not right with the cake delivery. Maybe they didn’t bring the right accessories or equipment. The best way to avoid this is to take names! Make sure you get the name of who to contact in case of emergency on the day of the ceremony. Usually, just the fact that you asked for this name will put them on notice to get everything right. But if something does go wrong, you can get in touch with that person fast, and hopefully save the day.

How do you pick the best cake decorator or designer for your wedding? For all of the advertising options in the 21st century, truthfully, word of mouth is still the best way to go. You should be able to get good advice from your married friends, relatives or co-workers. If you simply cannot get good advice from your acquaintances–or you just don’t trust their advice–you’ll have to shop by yourself, comparing both price and quality.

If you’re having your wedding catered, your caterer will probably offer to provide the cake. Resist the temptation to accept this offer without first checking other options. Often, you can save a lot of money by getting the cake from someone else, preferably somebody who specializes in wedding cakes. Not only that, but often, the cake will look nicer when coming from a professional designer rather than a caterer, who caters all manner of events, not just weddings.

Don’t start shopping around until you’ve decided what you want your cake to look like, as well as what your wedding colors will be and what the facility colors are. You should also have an idea of what the temperature will be at your reception hall. And don’t forget to have a good idea of how many guests you expect, as this will dictate how many slices you need from your cake.

Finally, make sure to view samples of cakes your decorator has done in the past. Ask for samples that approximate what you’re looking for. Using a well-thought-out plan such as this will make sure you find the decorator who is best for your wedding.