June Bride
Designing the perfect
wedding cake

by Kelleen Lum

Brides in ancient Persia had cones of crystallized sugar crumbled above their veils. These days, we have cakes executed by pastry artists; almost anything is possible, with cost, and creativity, escalating. But the heart of the tradition is still a symbolic sweetness.
"The growth of the Wedding Industry has brought more stress, but also more creativity," notes Pastry Chef Maria Short, "We are seeing ideas and designs now that we never saw in the past."
These amazing edible sculptures often start with small scraps and clues: A wedding invitation on delicate printed cardstock, a photo of cherry blossoms, a swatch of lace, or a few pages ripped from a magazine, circled and adorned with notes. From these clues an idea forms. A quick pencil sketch is drawn: geometric layers, a cascade of cherry blossoms on a springtime branch. Flavors are noted in the margins; swatches are attached; the delicate pink blush of cherry is duplicated. Sugar flowers take a whole week to create. Stamens coated in Royal icing are wrapped together to form the center of each hand-formed sugar gum paste flower. A dusting of sugar and a light steam create a realistic sheen before attachment to the branch, where the flowers are left to dry while the rest of the cake is made.
Making a huge, structured wedding cake takes another week, and begins with a most unromantic ingredient: Masonite! The entire cake rests on a strong, thick baseboard of plywood or Masonite, making the heavy cake more stable for transport. Each layer rests on its own cake board of decorative foil or paper-covered cardboard, with plastic pegs, wooden dowels or soda straws inserted into the layers to bear the weight between boards. Cake layers are mixed, baked, cooled, trimmed to proper size, filled with decadent creams or mousses, and frosted in the traditional buttercream, or wrapped in chocolate or fondant.
"We live in Hawai'i. It is hot all the time," notes Pastry Chef Claire Gehweiler at O'Keefe & Sons Bakery. "If the cake is outside or non-air conditioned there are options they just can't choose."
Fondant or buttercream have enough structure to last all day in the heat, butcream cheese frostings and whipped cream can melt off the cake. Gehweiler uses a buttercream icing of half butter (for flavor) and half shortening (for structure). Maria Short's buttercream icings are all butter; she keeps the cake refrigerated as long as possible, allowing it to reach a creamy room temperature right before serving.
Cake flavors have veered from white cake and vanilla icing into more adventurous flavors incorporating dense chocolate, heady liqueurs, exotic spices, intense fruit fillings, or combinations thereof. However, caveats still apply: Many people are allergic to nuts, for instance. If a cake contains them, "Make sure the staff knows, and make sure the guests know," cautions Short. Fresh fruit slices may wilt in the heat and leak moisture. Fruit flavors are better accomplished with cake and fillings, while the look of fresh fruit can be replicated in sugar.
Many florists include cake flowers in the wedding flower package, but certain flowers shouldn't be used. Gehweiler notes that plumerias, for instance, leak a milky poisonous sap. She suggests replacing fresh flowers with sugar, buttercream, or chocolate counterparts.
The most stressful time for every baker is the transport of the cake: Slippery steps, clumsy moments, or a bumpy road can ruin hours of labor. Often a baker has an emergency kit: A bag of icing, a small spatula, and a few extra sugar flowers.
Wedding cakes are usually priced per slice, with additional fees for delivery, expensive design elements or specialty flavors and fillings. Resort wedding packages usually include a cake made by their pastry chef. Our local resorts generally allow a bride to bring her own cake with an added "Cake Cutting Fee" that can rival the cake in cost.
"I always keep in mind that they are spending a lot of money on a cake-which you eat and it's gone" says Short. "For me, they need to taste good. Years later people can't remember what a cake looked like, but they can remember if it tasted great-or horrible!" She encourages brides to relax during their weddings and focus on what is most important to them. Under all the boards, dowels, layers, and realistic sugar flowers, the wedding cake should still be that simple symbol of shared sweetness in the marriage to come.
Cake Connections
Short N Sweet Bakery
Hawi
Maria Short
889-1444
Mauna Kea Resort /
Hapuna Prince Resort
Kohala Coast
Darnelle Caravalho 882-5466
O'Keefe & Sons Bakery
Hilo
Claire Gehweiler
934-9334, x24

Top of Page