Elevating wedding cakes often requires creative ideas for a successful design. You can find inspiration from photo galleries or follow a few guidelines and tips for choosing the best way to display your wedding cake.
Elevating Wedding Cake Ideas
An elevated wedding cake has an extra touch of elegance and mystique. Whether the entire dessert is raised or each tier is separated by a platform or divider, the cake takes on a classic look, becomes easier for guests to admire, and will look phenomenal in wedding photographs for decades into the future.
Pillars
Pillars are the most common way to elevate wedding cake tiers. They're often used for cakes that have two or three tiers, but you can also put them to use with a cake that has just a single tier or a cake that has many more than three tiers.
- Wilton's 3 tier pillar cake stand elevates each tier of your cake on a single thick pillar and has space for large, medium, and small tiers. It's a simple way to display all of your cake without having to bother with dowels or support for stacked cakes.
- There are also thin, push-in pillars you can use that will act as dowels and support the weight of each tier above them. You can use the pillars to assemble an elevated cake of three or even four tiers.
- Professional decorators typically use dowels to support cakes on upper, elevated tiers. They may place pillars in between each tier using sets of separator plates that rest on top of the dowels and pillars that press into place on the plates.
Cake Stand
A basic cake stand is just as classic as a white wedding cake; its simplicity is what makes it desirable for showing off the dessert, and it raises it anywhere from a few inches to a foot or more off the table. However, unless you're going to be stacking your tiers and supporting them with dowels, you can elevate only a single tier cake on a regular stand. A few variations on the basic model present interesting alternatives:
- A funny print or pattern on a stand lends some personality to a plain white cake.
- A 3 tiered party stand, with space to display each cake tier and room for tiers of different sizes, gives guests a chance to examine each part of your dessert.
- Wilton's variation on the traditional three tier stand has the same amount of space, but it's a more ornate, vintage-inspired model that may be a perfect fit for garden weddings or ceremonies with an old-fashioned feel.
Cupcake Tree
If a cake isn't going to be the only dessert at your reception, it's worthwhile to consider using a cupcake tree to elevate the main event. The top layer of most trees is flat, providing a perfect space to lay a small tiered cake. You can fill up the bottom layers with cupcakes or other mini desserts to make a truly attractive display. If the top of the cupcake tree isn't flat, you or your decorator may be able to disassemble the tree and combine it with a tiered cake stand to create a combination display.
More Cake Elevation Ideas
Going beyond the usual ideas for elevating wedding cakes can give you some truly creative options, although they may be more difficult to execute. For example, you could modify a plant hanger or onion hanger to create a hanging cake stand and a beautiful display, but then you have to take extra care to make sure that no one will bump into the cake by accident!
Also investigate alternatives to separation plates and pillars. Fountains, stairs, fluted bowls, flower separators, and other elevated divisions are all sold online and at cake decorating specialty stores around the country, and your decorator may also have a few unique options for you to consider.
