Contributed by Cindy Arora
KANSAS CITY, MO — As the saying goes, everything old becomes new again, and as bakers prepare for wedding season, this couldn’t be truer than in cake’s return to the spotlight.
Retail bakers are witnessing a sea change as the resplendence of wedding cake, in all its ornate glory, is making a bold return.
“People still love a sweet bar, and they still want to see the lemon bars, mini cheesecakes and tiramisu, but cake has become a focal point,” said Kindra Browne, a wedding planner in Kansas City, MO. “It’s really a time of resurgence for cake.”
Bakers are emboldened by the demand but must also look at the logistics that come with creating big, bold and beautiful cakes for weddings. This includes additional training in decorating, hiring more staff for transport and providing on-site assistance on the day of the wedding.
Heather Wong, owner of Flouring LA, a bakery tucked in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, has made a name for herself with her abstract watercolor-painted and fresh flower cakes. She uses flowers with the same generosity that a baker uses to add rainbow sprinkles to a cupcake. But for wedding season, it’s Heather’s table runner cakes that are popular with couples who love the idea of an interactive cake-cutting experience that’s a feast for the eyes.
“Our table runner cakes are very popular, and we do full tablescaping with them,” Heather said. “It’s a giant, long sheet cake, about two to six layers, and it looks like a bar of cake. People can cut into it, it’s fun for everyone, and it’s very much the showpiece for the wedding. Cake is kind of having its moment, and bakers are having fun with it.”
Heather said the biggest challenge for table runner cakes is transporting them from the bakery to the venue. If the cakes are too long, they are delivered in sections, and her staff assembles them at the event.
Noelle Blizzard, founder of New June Bakery in Philadelphia, has seen an upward trend in what she coins “maximalist cakes.”
“We get so excited to do these cakes,” Noelle said. “These are trends we love because these maximalist cakes are showstoppers. There’s so much artistry behind them, and for a while, these types of cakes weren’t happening.”
This style of cake can be mixed with fruit, cherries, flowers, foliage or even jewelry.
Much like the table runner cakes, New June’s maximalist cakes require plenty of strategy. Staffing, transportation, wedding venue, and refrigerator and cake size are all part of the behind-the-scenes planning for these cakes.
“These are statement cakes: vintage-looking with fruit, multitiered, cascading with gold leaf, and they are huge,” Noelle said. “They are beautiful and traditional-looking, but you have to be very hands-on from start to finish.”
At Hers Bakeshop in Los Angeles, pastry chef Tasha Sanchez has seen an upswing in requests for vintage cake styles but with a modern twist.
This means the look of Lambeth piping, sweeping edges that resemble doilies, real satin ribbons, monochrome colors, cherries dipped in edible glitter, and fresh flowers that match the color scheme of the wedding party.
Much like the showstopping cakes being created by Noelle and Heather, Tasha said her wedding clientele is leaning into cakes that create a breathy “wow” factor when they are rolled out to guests.
“I hope the trend never goes out of style,” Tasha said. “They are so fun to make. It’s the same piping from back in the day, but it has been reinvented, and they are super cool and cute. Because of all the different ways you can adjust the style, this is not the piping our moms did.”
Wedding cakes are certainly experiencing a renaissance. As trends turn toward eye-catching elaborate feats of engineering that require talent, special transportation and out-of-this world imagination, bakers have a clear runway for innovation and creativity.
This story has been adapted from the March | Q1 2025 Craft to Crumb mini-mag. Read the full story in the digital issue here.
