shape
carat
color
clarity

cake...taste or decoration?

which cake?

  • super delicious cake that is plainly decorated

    Votes: 40 88.9%
  • traditional sweet white wedding cake that is more ornately decorated

    Votes: 5 11.1%

  • Total voters
    45

slg47

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given the choice...would you prefer a more delicious simpler cake (think plain, maybe fondant band on the sides, decorated with some fresh flowers) or a good but not amazingly delicious more ornately decorated cake?
 

Iowa Lizzy

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I voted for a simple, delicious cake. Sometimes (and not ALL the time), I see a really awesome cake and my first thought is "I bet that tastes like crap." Nothing wrong with a simply decorated cake that tastes great. Perhaps I'm biased because I went that route. ;))
 
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People will comment if the cake tastes dry or crumbly, etc. so I voted for taste.

Can't it be both beautiful and tasty???
 

slg47

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Future Mrs. Sterling|1310523128|2967717 said:
People will comment if the cake tastes dry or crumbly, etc. so I voted for taste.

Can't it be both beautiful and tasty???

it can, but it would be more $$$. I actually /prefer/ a simple cake (in decoration) but was wondering what the majority of people would choose! the second cake is not bad but it is not as good as the 1st more expensive cake.
 

OUpearlgirl

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Taste, taste, taste!!
 

asymons412

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We're going for taste and decoration with fresh flowers, etc, just like you're talking about. :))
 

Gypsy

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TASTE. TASTE. TASTE.

Trust me. Your guests WILL notice. ALL OF THEM. A plain cake can be stunning-- use fresh flowers to dress it up and a nice cake stand. A nasty tasting cake is just nasty starting at you from your plate.


We got our cake from Fat Angel in... somewhere in Marin. Great taste. Simple design, great taste and swiss buttercream and decorated with flowers. And just lovely.
 

mrscushion

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slg47|1310519072|2967664 said:
given the choice...would you prefer a more delicious simpler cake (think plain, maybe fondant band on the sides, decorated with some fresh flowers) or a good but not amazingly delicious more ornately decorated cake?
Well, the simple decoration that you are describing is what I'd go for anyway (and did, actually) so for me it'd be no question. I'd always go for better tasting food.
 

hoofbeats95

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We went for both. We had an amazing cake that was always surrounded by people taking pictures and the taste was to die for! Everyone commented on how good it was. The cake was my favorite part of the whole wedding! So I can't vote on this thread. For me it had to be both options. :)
 

mary poppins

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Nothing wrong with a simple cake, but people will remember one that tastes bad. You don't want the last food of the night to be a bad memory. Plus, if you're paying for it, don't you want people to enjoy eating it?
 

blacksand

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Ok, I'll be a little crazy here. There are going to be A LOT of pictures taken of my wedding cake. It is important to me that my wedding cake look good! Call me superficial. It's not that taste isn't important--I'd like to have both good looks and great taste-- but I haven't really had too many spectacular-tasting wedding cakes in my life. It usually doesn't taste that great. Just a fact of life, most of the time. I never expect the cake to taste that great, so it doesn't bother me when it's not the best. At most weddings I've been to, no one eats much of the cake anyway, because everyone is still stuffed from dinner, and most people want to get back out on the dance floor! I'm not going to be too fussy about it, really. I'll get the best I can afford, and hopefully have a few other dessert options for the guests as well. They'll be having so much fun dancing, they won't care too much.
 

hoofbeats95

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I agree most people expect the cake to taste blah! lol Sad but true. I can't say enough how important the cake was to me. I never got so many compliments on something. The people at the hall wanted me to serve it immediately with dinner when we had our meetings before the wedding. I said NO. I will not serve it that early. I want to see it. I want to look at it. I want all the guests to see it and some may not be there early enough. The night of the wedding they told us over and over "now we understand why you didn't want to cut it". I had to bite my tongue. Now every wedding I go to, I can't wait to taste the cake.
 

Maria D

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I couldn't vote because I think traditional sweet white wedding cake is super delicious! mmmm yummy. The only time I ever had any was at weddings, and now that's no longer guaranteed. boo
 

KittyGolightly

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I'm in the minority. I can get a delicious cake whenever I want. But my wedding was my chance to have a big, gorgeous, tiered cake, so that's the factor that mattered the most to me.

Fortunately, my cake tasted fantastic too! I think it's so much easier to get a great tasting wedding cake now than it used to be - brides shop around and read reviews now. I haven't had a bad slice of wedding cake in years.
 

purselover

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Definitely without hesitation taste! My friends and I were at a wedding almost 2 years ago now that had bad cake and we STILL talk about it! On the flip side we had an amazing red velvet that still gets talked about. Just because a lot of people have bad cake that doesn't make it okay, I believe the bride and groom should think about their guests and they won't care how the cake looks but will notice how it tastes.
 

purselover

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blacksand|1310584620|2968235 said:
Ok, I'll be a little crazy here. There are going to be A LOT of pictures taken of my wedding cake. It is important to me that my wedding cake look good! Call me superficial. It's not that taste isn't important--I'd like to have both good looks and great taste-- but I haven't really had too many spectacular-tasting wedding cakes in my life. It usually doesn't taste that great. Just a fact of life, most of the time. I never expect the cake to taste that great, so it doesn't bother me when it's not the best. At most weddings I've been to, no one eats much of the cake anyway, because everyone is still stuffed from dinner, and most people want to get back out on the dance floor! I'm not going to be too fussy about it, really. I'll get the best I can afford, and hopefully have a few other dessert options for the guests as well. They'll be having so much fun dancing, they won't care too much.

But a simple cake can still be gorgeous and look great in pictures! IMO just because a lot of people have bad cake that doesn't make it okay, we managed to find a super tastey cake and I'm so glad we did. In fact for our anniversary we have our venue make us a new red velvet cake every year because we loved it so much! Those memories are much more important than a couple pics in an album we look at once a year.
 

slg47

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I'd just like to stress that the 2nd cake didn't taste /bad/ at all! (and it is less expensive)

keep the responses coming :)

speaking of expense...how expensive is your cake (per slice) if you don't mind sharing?
 

KittyGolightly

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Mine was $7/slice (bakery was in NYC).
 

mrscushion

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I had a destination wedding in Italy, the cake was incredibly delicious and it was 400 or 500 € for probably around 120 slices. There was definitely a "wedding" margin added in of at least 30%, I would say.
 

confusedaisy

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I guess I'm in the minority- I'd rather have a stunning cake than have it be the most amazing/moist/super delicious thing. But- to be fair- I'm not a cake person. FH would probably have a heart attack if he saw this post :lol:
 

manderz

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Honestly, there's no reason you can't have both taste and the decorations you like. Personally, I'm not a fan of fondant; I think tastes like rubber, and I prefer a butter cream frosting.

I guess I'm a little spoiled, my mom used to make wedding cakes for a living, so I have REALLY high standards when it comes to cake.
 

melave

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Taste all the way!!!! but then i have a huge sweet tooth :)

I think you can get some seriously beautiful but simple looking cakes.

I was doing cake decorating for a while as a hobby and let me tell you, the simple cakes are harder as you can't hide the mistakes with decorations :)
 

LAJennifer

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Maria D|1310589077|2968288 said:
I couldn't vote because I think traditional sweet white wedding cake is super delicious! mmmm yummy. The only time I ever had any was at weddings, and now that's no longer guaranteed. boo

Yes, this.
 

jstarfireb

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TASTE! Cake is for eating! Om nom nom.

Anyway, I had a small wedding cake that we cut (round, simple, fondant-free), but most of what we served came from sheet cakes they kept in the kitchen (same baker, same stuff, just not in a big fancy wedding cake so we could save money). People remarked on how our cake was so moist and more delicious than most wedding cakes.

ETA: And I think it was around $1.50/person in Central PA. The baker was affiliated with a local grocery store.
 

slg47

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manderz|1310707836|2969444 said:
Honestly, there's no reason you can't have both taste and the decorations you like. Personally, I'm not a fan of fondant; I think tastes like rubber, and I prefer a butter cream frosting.

I guess I'm a little spoiled, my mom used to make wedding cakes for a living, so I have REALLY high standards when it comes to cake.

yes but I don't want to spend $9.50 a slice on cake.

all of the options are buttercream...no fondant here :)
 

Autumnovember

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I could honestly care less how the cake looks. I would take a simply decorated cake that tastes fantastic over a pretty cake that takes like crap. I hate hate hate fondant...yes, it makes cakes look nice but gosh it tastes awful.


I have to diagree with a previous poster, I don't think its easier to get good tasting cakes nowadays. I think its the exact opposite, most cakes I taste at weddings really do taste bad and I end up taking 1 bite and not eating the rest, what a waste of money =/
 

sonnyjane

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Autumnovember|1310851548|2970518 said:
I could honestly care less how the cake looks. I would take a simply decorated cake that tastes fantastic over a pretty cake that takes like crap. I hate hate hate fondant...yes, it makes cakes look nice but gosh it tastes awful.


I have to diagree with a previous poster, I don't think its easier to get good tasting cakes nowadays. I think its the exact opposite, most cakes I taste at weddings really do taste bad and I end up taking 1 bite and not eating the rest, what a waste of money =/

Exactly! Go for taste. By the time I'm eating the cake, it's already sliced anyway, so as a guest, I could care less, but I DEFINITELY notice what it tastes like. Two of the weddings I've attended in the last year had HORRIBLE cakes. They looked okay, but they were dry and terrible. And (sorry brides), I went around telling all my friends how crappy the cake was. Do your guests a favor and actually give them something they'll enjoy! If you're paying a ton for it, it should at least taste good.
 

AmeliaG

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LAJennifer|1310787547|2970197 said:
Maria D|1310589077|2968288 said:
I couldn't vote because I think traditional sweet white wedding cake is super delicious! mmmm yummy. The only time I ever had any was at weddings, and now that's no longer guaranteed. boo

Yes, this.

Me three! I love a good white cake but they're not that common - even at weddings any more.

Guests DO bitch about a dry cake. Its probably uncharitable after all the money the couple spent on the wedding but the wedding cake is usually the last thing people eat. If its bad, it leaves a lasting impression.
 

FrekeChild

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We didn't really care about the cake thing. I've made plenty of wedding cakes in my time and if I'm not making it myself, I'm not interested in eating it. Well, I might eat it if it's made by someone I trust...

We had cheesecake lollipops which were amazing, AND a cake. The cake was ok, but hardly anyone ate it. Can't blame them after a meal of filet, chicken or red snapper plus asparagus, spinach and bacon fries, plus salads, bread. It was pretty--2 layers (22 people) simple white chocolate Italian buttercream, chocolate buttercream inside, white cake and piled with fresh fruit and chocolate covered strawberries. Can't blame people for going for the cheesecake lollipops instead though!


Guess what though, there is a REASON ornate cakes are usually the dry gross ones. Here are two hypothetical wedding cake schedules, weddings on Saturday:

Elaborate cake, buttercream, cake, fondant, elaborate decor:
Monday: Make decorations (depending on how elaborate this is, this could start out weeks or months ahead of time, yes, months)
Tuesday: bake cake, make icing
Wednesday: Assemble each layer, put icing on, refrigerate
Thursday: Roll fondant, put on cake (Sure, it looks simple when it's all together, but in reality, it's fairly difficult to work with) Fondant cannot be refrigerated, after this point, the cake is at room temp until eaten
Friday: Add each layer's decorations, likely royal icing, fondant/gum paste decorations, whatever. If it goes on only one layer, this is the day it happens. If it overlaps more than one layer, it can't be done until the cake as a whole is assembled, which doesn't happen until the day of.
Wedding day: Delivery, put it on the table, assemble the layers, make sure decorations are secured properly and everything looks ok

Total: 6 day process


Simple cake, Italian buttercream, cake, easy decoration (ex: fresh flowers, fresh fruit):
Thursday: bake cake, make frosting
Friday: Assemble each layer, put icing on
Wedding day: Delivery, put it on the table, assemble the layers, make sure decorations are secured properly and everything looks ok

Total: 3 day process

In a larger bakery, these processes can be shortened, but for a small bakery with only a couple bakers/decorators it's going to take longer.

4 cake.jpg

fave cake photo freke week 6.jpg
 

Autumnovember

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Freke, your cake and the lollipops look absolutely fantastic, what a great idea!!!!
 
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