Choosing your Cake Design

1. Begin Designing Your Cake!

Every cake starts out as an idea. Without the idea, the cake would be ordinary. At Edible Incredible, I pride myself on taking even the most simple detail and incorporating it into the final design. This page was created to help prepare you for your event consultation and build ideas for what is important to you in your cake and its design.

1) Buttercream vs. Fondant?

Buttercream is a soft, smooth and creamy icing, and the one you probably know best. Almost everyone likes buttercream and it can be piped into almost endless designs and flowers. It can be tinted to almost any color to match your color scheme. My buttercream is homemade, in two styles - Decorator's Buttercream (light and fluffy, on the sweeter side), or Swiss Meringue Buttercream (creamy and smooth, not as sweet). Decorator's Buttercream will hold up better in high temperatures and high humidity, so it is perfect for garden (outside) weddings, whereas Swiss Meringue Buttercream lends a silkier finish.

Fondant gives the cake a porcelain-like finish and holds up better in summer heat. Fondant is very popular in Europe due to the artistry you are able to achieve, and is quickly gaining popularity here in the USA. The taste of fondant has gotten a bad rap in the past; many commercially-made fondants taste, well, bad. I hand-make your fondant the day I decorate your cake, from a marshmallow base - no chemical taste. I can flavor it to match or compliment your cake, should you so desire. I have converted many self-proclaimed fondant-haters!

Some designs can be achieved best in buttercream. Other designs can be achieved best in fondant. A nice look for wedding cakes is to start with a buttercream covered cake and add fondant embellishments. This way you can get the soft creamy taste of buttercream, but achieve design details that can only be crafted in fondant. The best of both worlds!

2) Cake Style
Though the "eye popping" designs are what get me noticed, it's what's on the inside of your cake that counts the most. The cake can look like a million bucks, but if the taste doesn't match, a business won't survive. This is why I offer so many different options, as each person has their own idea of the "ideal" cake or dessert.
Are you a white on white cake person?
Are you a chocoholic?
What season is your event taking place?
What was the flavor of the best cake you've ever had?
What is your favorite type of frosting?

Available Flavors

3) The Look
Just because your event is taking place in a park or back yard BBQ doesn't mean that you can't have a gorgeous, elegant cake. Or, if your event is in a well known, posh location that you can't have a light-hearted design. I highly suggest going to several websites and looking at cake pictures for inspiration. Bring print-outs of 4-6 of your favorite cakes, otherwise we can completely design your cake from scratch without the aid of pictures.
Do you have a look that you're going for?
Is there a theme the event is centering around?
Do you want to incorporate color into your cake?
Do you want it sleek, stacked, pillared, off-set, ???
Round, square, hexagon, octagon, rectangle, combination?
Kitchen Cake, Simple Cake, Elaborate Cake, Combination?

More about the Look

4) The Details!
The single most important detail of designing a cake is how many it needs to serve followed closely by the budget.
How many guests are you anticipating to attend your event?
Are you also going to need food favors for your guests?
What is your guesstimated budget?
Do you want a more elaborate "picture cake" or a cake that serves everyone in view?
What are your colors?
What is your formality level?
Is the cake to be served in an Air Conditioned Building or near direct sunlight?