What’s the newest addition to The Big Fat Indian wedding? A dream destination? A designer outfit? A customised wedding invitation? The latest addition to these is wedding cakes. Couples are found to be spending a lot of time on their wedding cake.

Wedding cakes are supposed to bring luck and happiness to the newlyweds and there are different types of cakes made based on flavour, themes, presentation, and sizes. These could be big larger than life cakes with multiple elements or small, simple and elegant cakes.

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But are the Indian wedding cakes similar to their western counterparts?

Though the concept is definitely Western, Indian weddings have taken this trend to the next level with innovation and grandeur.

Alisha Shirodkar Aggarwal, Vice President Business Development, Tamarind Global, and Suchit Mahajan from Deliciae Cakes share some nuances of this latest trend as we present some of the types of wedding cakes in demand.

SEMI NAKED BUTTERCREAM CAKES

This avoids fondant and keeps the buttercream to a minimum too. A touch of gold foil on these cakes adds zing. “Innovation for us this time around is in the flavors. We’ve introduced the White collection that has a lot of interesting new flavors like the Raspberry Cream cheese, and also the Gluten Free health cakes which we will also be doing in our wedding cakes,” says Suchit.

METALLIC CAKES

Everyone loves a little bling, especially when it comes to weddings. Metallic cakes are the latest in the market. Gold and white or silver, copper, rust are the most trending hues. They are being incorporated along with classic designs, flowers or even sequins and gold lace. The white and cold wedding cakes are the latest trends and clients accessorise them with coloured flowers or gold lace. Suchit says most wedding clients come to them for the Luxury Collection cakes. They recently did a 7-tier (160 kg) wedding cake.

THE ‘TOPPERS’ CAKE

It’s a cake with cute little toppings which can be in the form of some figurines, a monogram of your wedding, small miniatures of the newlyweds or even for that matter the recreation of a special moment in the couple’s journey. Cake toppers give the classic old wedding cake a quirky twist and add some colour, fun, and significance to it. “We tend to see everything ranging from completely over the top, extremely innovative and artistic to understated and elegant. We once saw a huge dragon-shaped chocolate cake where there was actually fire shooting out of the dragon’s mouth making quite an impact. Guests could take the marshmallows laid out, dip them in the dragons chocolate portion and roast the smores on the flames”, says Alisha.

THE LACE CAKES

Think romance, think delicate and think Lace. Lace inspired cakes have always been a favourite but they are returning with the edible lace cakes. The lace cakes take the traditional plain cake to a whole new level where the designs of the lace could even match your wedding outfit. Earlier the lace colours were restricted to pastel shades but now the cake designers are experimenting with tangerine, blue, bright green, and everything that catches the eye. For Bipasha Basu’s wedding, Deliciae Cakes made a simple looking white on white cake, with pearl finishing. The base was a slightly dull white, and the lacework was a bright white, so it stood out. The flowers were in a very slight shading of light pink. And the topper was in line with the Monkey Wedding theme.

PRINTED WEDDING CAKES

The latest trend to hit this season is the concept of ‘printed’ wedding cakes. Any design that you want whether a quote, song lyrics, wedding invitation, the couple’s initials or images, all can be hand painted on the fondant covered cake.

THE ‘INDIAN MOTIF’ CAKE

You can get a foreign trend to India, but you cannot take the Indian influence out of it. The latest trend to hit the market in this context is the ‘henna inspired’ cake, which often carries the most intricate and complex designs, often the same henna design that is on the bride’s hand. The next in series are cakes in all shapes and sizes ranging from a ‘saree draped’ cake with traditional motifs made in edible gold, to the ‘’peacock motif’ cakes and even cakes in the shape of the matkas, dhols, elephants and more.

“The trick is to find a perfect balance between presentation and taste. Couples make a statement with the cake in different ways – they could completely customize the look in keeping with the theme or just go elegant but opt for grandeur through tiers and embellishments or even get an international brand such as Sprungli to make an impact. We have seen Sprungli counters at weddings where fresh truffles and cakes were being made for every function,” says Alisha.

The Western concept of wedding cake has made its way into at least one of the many Indian wedding functions — be it the engagement or reception. “Couples love to have fun with the cake decision – the flavor, the theme, the number of tiers or the general grandeur – we have seen more and more innovation with the cake that almost all weddings feature in some way or the other. Most often the cake cutting becomes a grand celebratory ritual post the wedding and is accompanied with champagne, fireworks, cold pyros and often the married couple’s entry into the function,” adds Alisha.