Leaning Tower of Wedding Cake
It’s a fear that everyone has… something happens to the wedding cake! Make sure that a leaning tower of cake (or worse) doesn’t happen at your wedding. There are a few precautions that you can take before hand to make sure that your cake is safe and secure for all of your guests to enjoy when it is time.
1) While meeting with the bakery, if you are going to have a tiered cake, make sure that they use the proper support through each layer of cake to support the weight of the layers above. This is normally done by driving dowel rods or plastic support sticks all the way through the layer of cake from the top of the icing to the top of the board the cake is sitting on.
2) Make sure that your cake is not going to be delivered too early. Many locations will not turn the air on full in the event space until close to time of the event. It may be comfortable in the room for setup, but it could be too hot for a cake to sit it, especially if that cake is made of buttercream icing. (It will melt and bubble off the cake!) Cakes should be delivered one hour to no more than 2 hours before the reception is to start. If it must be delivered earlier, check with the venue to see if there is a refrigerator that it can be stored in. Talk to your baker especially to see what they recommend holding storage to be for the specific cake you are getting.
3) Check the location of the cake table. If you are having your reception in the middle of the afternoon/early evening in a room that is complete windows overlooking the ocean, it’s the middle of summer, and in Florida, DO NOT put your cake near any of the windows. The suns heat that is pushed through the glass will melt your cake faster than you can set it down and turn around to grab a cutter. Make sure that it is away from any heat sources, but still in good view of all the guests. Don’t cram it in a corner just because that’s the only “safe” place to put it. Talk to your venue to see if they would do a grand entrance of the cake if it must be in a spot that is hot. There are many different options to have.
While these are just a few of the things that you can do to help make sure that you don't have any wedding cake disasters, always be open and honest, and communicate everything with your baker, your venue, and everyone else involved, especially your wedding planner!
