Welcome to my miniseries on the types of wedding cakes that A Cake Story offers.

I will be delving into the pros and cons surrounding each type of cake so that you can make an informed decision when it comes to choosing the right cake for your Special Day.

Celebrating the positives.

Buttercream cakes are a firm favourite with guests the world over and are so delicious and more-ish.

The buttercream frosting that I use is made in a manner that the icing sugar particles dissolve during beating so you do not get that gritty feeling against your teeth when you bite into it. It is made using real butter, not margarine or Holsum. It is exceptionally smooth, rich and utterly delicious.

It can be flavoured very easily and lends itself to a more rustic style of cake, where imperfections are celebrated.

Buttercream frosting is also more cost effective than other types of icings.

These are the negatives – sorry!

With buttercream it is harder to achieve a flawless finish. Because butter immediately starts to soften once out of the fridge, it not possible to maintain super sharp edges.

Buttercream cakes don’t hold soft fillings very well. Even though I use ganache as a “dam” around the edge of each layer to hold the filling in, there is always the risk of the filling oozing as the outer frosting starts to soften.

I have found that buttercream does not take colour very well. To get a dark colour a lot of gel colour needs be added which can impart an unpleasant taste.

Buttercream is very heat sensitive. Our summer temperatures reach in excess 30˚C which is not ideal for a buttercream cake. They like it cold.

A possible unpleasant side-effect of our hot weather is that the cake will start to “sweat”, take on a shiny appearance and in extreme cases the frosting may suffer slippage and fall off the cake.

A peak into what goes on behind the scenes: I always transport wedding cakes as separate tiers and then stack them at the venue. This is to reduce any possible damage to the cake during transport. However once at the venue, stacking a buttercream cake is a little tricky. The buttercream has already started to soften, it’s slippery and there’s no easy way of handling the tiers without some damage to the buttercream taking place. Please don’t let this put you off, this is merely an insight into the life of a cake creator (smiley face).

To wrap up.

Buttercream cakes are a traditional favourite and I can’t stress this enough – super delicious! If you have your heart set on this type of cake for your Special Day  – go for it. It’s your Special Day, your dream wedding.

I’m here to help you make your dream wedding come true. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

I look forward to creating you a beautiful and above all delicious wedding cake.

Featured image photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash