Ordering a bespoke cake for your wedding is a very exciting (and delicious) process. Your wedding cake is one more opportunity for you to showcase your personality and style, as well as being an important part of your wedding decor. After all, if your cake is going to be set up for most of the day for your guests to admire, you want it to complement the other aspects of your day.
But before your cake maker can start on that perfect cake, there are things we need. This varies depending on how close your wedding date is, but generally the more information you can give us right from the start the easier the ordering process will be.
1) When do you need the cake for?
This may sound obvious but one of the first pieces of information we really need is the exact date you need the cake to be delivered. Even if you think you're ordering months in advance the chances are that a lot of other people have too and dates book up very quickly, specially over the summer months.
We advise a minimum of 6-8 months, but really, the sooner the better.
Giving us a specific date to work with means that we can block it out in the diary, but often a deposit will be requires to secure your date. At Cakes in Bloom we only take on 1 cake per date, to give everyone the attention they deserve, and a £100 booking fee is taken right at the start of the booking process so that we don't accidentally book in another cake for your big day.
You can find you more about our booking process here.
2) How many portions do you need to get out of the cake? The size of cake you need will depend almost entirely on how many portions you want to be able to cut out of it. Letting us know how many people are expected at the event will allow us to recommend the right size cake for you.
However, 100 guests doesn't mean you'll need 100 portions of cake! Bear in mind that if you're having a sit down, 3-course meal not everyone will want cake. But it's also nice to have left-over cake to take home with you.
We had our whole top tier the next morning for breakfast and I can recommend that experience!
3) Does your event have a specific theme or colour scheme? Letting us know if you have a particular theme or colour scheme will allow us to come up with a design that complements the rest of your day. I like to think of cake as an accessory to your decor, and it's important that it reflects the other aspects you've so carefully chosen.
Often we will try to coordinate with your florist or venue decorator directly, so we don't have to bother you with tiny details in the lead up to your big day. Swatches of fabrics or copies of your invitations can be a really good way of incorporating your theme into your cake, and really let us maximise what we can offer you.
Feel free to send over any inspiration you've used when planning: mood boards, colour swatches, even links to Pinterest boards if you have them. As part of your wedding process with Cakes in Bloom you also receive a curated Pinterest board of ideas we think you'll love, to use as a springboard to find your perfect cake.
4) Do you have a budget you need to stick to? I know money can be an awkward thing to talk about but it really does make things easier if we talk about it up front. This really helps us create something tailored to you and means that we’re all on the same page when we speak about your design.
Our 3 tier cakes start at £500, to feed 100 people, but most bespoke designs end up around the £650-700 mark. This allows for sugar flowers, gold leaf, and most personalisations like painting or stencilling.
5) Are there any allergies? This is almost certainly the most important thing we need to know. For serious allergies such as peanuts you should look for someone who can guarantee that their kitchen is entirely nut free. For things like gluten and dairy allergies there is a little more leeway but it depends on the severity of the allergy and is something you should always discuss in depth with us before you go ahead with any booking.
Whether you have allergies to consider or not, Cakes in Bloom will provide your venue with an information sheet with all the allergy information necessary as legally necessary under Natasha's Law, and we can also provide menus for the cake table so your guests know what flavour they're choosing.
We try to make the whole process as easy as possible, and I hope this blog post has helped answer some of your questions when starting on your wedding planning journey.
Have questions for us? Get in touch here to get the ball rolling on your unique wedding cake design.