Back to Wedding Basics Blog #15: Cake Prices

Aside from the decor and the lovely newlyweds, the wedding cake is the most looked-at element at a wedding.  Guests wonder about its style and taste, but only the couple has to wonder about its price and if it will be enough to feed their guests.  When it comes to the overall pricing of a wedding cake, an array of factors can come into play.

1. Icing

Buttercream icing is the least expensive icing and is still popular among many couples.  Fondant, an icing noted for its smoothness, is also a very popular choice because of the sleek effect it gives but it is more pricey because of the amount of time and effort that goes into creating its polished look.  Fortunately, with many skilled and talented bakers and decorators out there, it is possible to form and mold buttercream to give it that same smooth effect that fondant evokes.  Other popular icing choices include: royal icing, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, and marzipan.

2. Decorations

Fondant flowers or buttercream flowers?  Birds shaped out of marzipan?  Your decorations will certainly influence the price of your wedding cake.  As opposed to simply icing the cake, creating a specific detail out of icing takes more work and skill, along with icing.  A cheaper alternative?  Purchase a simple, white (or any color of your choice) wedding cake with the necessary amount of tiers.  From there, purchase your own decorations (a craft store will have plenty of embellishments such as ribbon or fake flowers) and have someone decorate the cake to your liking.

3. Tiers

Speaking of tiers, this can also impact the price of the wedding cake.  The basic premise is, the more cake that is being made, the more money being spent.  If you can’t sacrifice your desire for a four or five tier cake but you can sufficiently feed people with three tiers, ask your baker about “false tiers“.  This saves money because these false tiers are actually styrofoam that are iced and decorated in the same fashion as your wedding cake.

4. Size and Servings

The size and servings of your wedding cake are solely connected to the amount of guests attending.  Clearly, if you are having 200 guests at your wedding, the cake will have to be fairly large to accommodate them.  On the other hand, if you are having 75 guests, the cake size can be significantly reduced along with pricing.  Larger cakes will have to be transported more carefully and may need extra accessories to support their weight (dowels, rods).  On-site assembly may be a possibility for bulky cakes, thus resulting in extra costs.

Cake servings are based on how many slices you can get from a single tier.  Again, the servings are based on the total number of guests.  Whatever the guest number of your wedding is, you can sit with your baker and figure out what size cake would best suit your wedding.

5. Shape

In the current trends for wedding cakes, sleek and chic shapes are in.  This means round and square cakes.  Round cakes are the most affordable shape and square cakes are at a close second.  If you are looking for less-common shapes such as a heart-shaped cake, this could cost more.