If you're planning an autumn nuptial, harvest-themed wedding cakes are a great choice. You can customize a gorgeous fall cake to reflect your wedding color scheme in a creative harvest design.
Harvest Wedding Cake Ideas
It can be helpful to browse through a gallery of fall wedding cakes related to autumn and harvest wedding cakes to find styles and decorations that you prefer. Making your own wedding cake is another option. It's an ambitious choice, but if you have some background in cake decorating and are able to design the cake in advance and set aside some time for trial-and-error testing before the wedding, it can be well worth it to bring your own ideas to fruition.
Harvest Cake Styles
Tiered round cakes are the most common style choice for weddings, so many brides and grooms choose them to display their harvest theme. Tiered cakes are a nice option because their height allows for a great natural display of cascading leaves, acorns, or flowers. However, tiered cakes are also expensive, and they'll cost more with each added layer and type of decoration.
A more affordable style of cake is the flat wedding sheet cake, which can be adorned with fondant or gum paste edible fall leaves around the border and brushed in muted fall colors. Sheet cakes are a particularly suitable option for small weddings because a single sheet cake serves fewer people than most tiered cakes do.
Finally, cupcakes are another valid option that also saves on total expenses. Cupcakes lend themselves well to almost any theme, and they can be decorated simply with deep autumn colors or topped with edible harvest decorations for a bit of extra cash. Another way for artistic brides and grooms to save money is to get simply decorated fall wedding cupcakes and set them in an elaborate, harvest themed display that's built around a cupcake stand.
Decorations for Harvest Cakes
There are nearly as many decoration choices for harvest wedding cakes as there are brides and grooms to consider them. One of the most popular is fall cakes with leaves. Some cakes feature real leaves, which have been carefully and artfully arranged on the borders and sides. Other cakes have fondant or gum paste leaves, which can be nearly indistinguishable from the real things if they're made by an experienced decorator. For excellent taste, buttercream leaves are another option. They likely won't look as realistic, but they still make for a fabulous presentation, and most people prefer the taste of buttercream to that of sugar paste.
A very basic harvest cake doesn't have to have any ornate decorations; instead, it might feature rich colors of buttercream frosting or rolled fondant draped over layers. An understated but very effective design could include just a small spray of flowers with autumn shades or a miniature bouquet of fall leaves at the top of the cake.
A harvest wedding cake is all about celebrating the bounty of a successful season, so consider bringing an agricultural theme into the cake. Decorating with fondant apples, acorns, or even cornucopias can have a special significance for couples who have a deep connection to farming, and they're a refreshing change from the more traditional flowers.
Autumn Wedding Cake Flavors
Though presentation is undoubtedly important in a wedding cake, everyone will be less than impressed if the wedding cake flavor can't stand up to the visuals. Having a harvest cake gives brides and grooms a chance to get away with flavors that might not be as readily acceptable during other times of the year, so don't be afraid to consider some wild options.
The traditional vanilla and chocolate are always reliable standbys, but the beginning of a chill in the air can make a heartier cake seem more appealing. Try a pumpkin cake studded with dark chocolate, a ginger and clove spice cake with nutmeg, apple cake with bits of fresh fruit, or rum cake with a splash of vanilla and spices. Enjoy the tasting and planning!
