When it comes to weddings, you can have your cake and eat it too.

The Naked Cake

While traditional white wedding cakes have undergone recent makeovers with bold colors, fun shapes and a whole host of toppers and accessories, the newest cake trend is a bit more undone. The naked cake lets the crumb of the cake show through a translucent, barely there or completely non-existent layer of frosting. This trend allows bakers to play with the arrangement of layers and colors of the cake for a more interesting, textured look, including adding fresh berries or decorative chocolates within the layers. Ombre, rainbow or pastel layered cakes are stunning in their own right, especially when drizzled and dripping with colorful ganache, caramel or chocolate. Bakers, and their wedding couples, then play around with different cake toppers and arrangements for even more unique displays: Think fresh fruit, botanicals, candies and sprinkles. To make things even more interesting, go for a trio of smaller cakes in different flavors and color combinations, or ask for individually-sized naked cakes for each guest. Famed baker and television personality Christina Tosi is widely credited with starting the naked cake trend from her kitchen at Momofuku’s Milk Bar in New York City. Tosi’s own wedding featured a stunning, and no doubt delicious, seven-tiered chocolate chip naked cake. Que Sera, Sarah Bakery creates lovely naked cakes out of its Ossian bakery.

No Cake Cakes

When choosing a cake, brides are going for a more simple and natural look – textured cake with fresh flowers. But some brides are choosing not to have a cake. Many are selecting cupcakes, and considering For Goodness Cakes has over 90 varieties of specialty cupcakes, there is a wide assortment of flavors to choose from. Others are using a dummy cake for part of the tiered cake and supplementing the serving of cake with sheet cakes or cupcakes. This helps to get the elegant cake in the pictures, but offers good cost savings. 

Icing On The Cake

The traditional tiered cake is always in fashion, but now with a twist. According to Krysta Young at Sassie Cakes, tiered cakes are typically three- to four-tiers. This gives a more traditional feel and allows the cake to make a statement without breaking the budget. There is also a shift from classic white to a rustic aesthetic, with cakes having lots of earthly inspiration. The use of greenery in cake decorations is very popular; there is also a shift from silver and bling on cakes to the use of golds, rose golds and coppers to compliment the more organic feel.