Before we get started, let’s get past the elephant in the room, the title of this blog. While we, the team here at Silver Rose Bakery, cannot fully support the idea of this whole “don’t love cake” thing that we’ve heard strange murmurs of in dark, cold places. We do understand that there are people out there who prefer this delicious, soft, sweet, perfect dessert in smaller doses than others. We even understand that there are some people (weirdos, if you ask us) who prefer other desserts to cake, but they still want to participate in the long-loved tradition of cutting a cake at their wedding.
So, what we’re saying is - if you don’t love cake as much as you should as we do, but you do love tradition, we still love you! We even have a solution! For generations, couples like you have suffered through ordering giant, rich, decadent, mouth-watering, moist (sorry, got carried away…) wedding cakes that they didn’t even want to eat. They would just pop the tiny top tier off, do the cake cutting ceremony, and hope their guests would eat the rest of the cake. Well, suffer no more, haters of buttercream frosted joy! The cutting cake is here!
What is Cutting Cake?
A cutting cake is a small cake made solely for the purpose of the cake cutting tradition. It is a way for newlyweds to have something to cut (and maybe or maybe not smush in one another’s faces) during the reception, and forego the larger, full-size wedding cake.
Don’t get us wrong, we do love the big, three, four, or even five-tier wedding cakes. The bigger the better. There’s nothing more exciting to us as custom cake decorators than a couple who wants to go all out on their wedding cake. But it is true what they say, good things do come in small packages and these cutting cakes are a testament to that. We love the challenge of creating something tiny and special that captures your personality as a couple in just the right way, just for the two of you on your big day.
This evolving tradition started as just the bride cutting the cake, to symbolize the loss of her virginity. Over time couples started cutting the cake together. Picking up a slice and feeding it to your new husband or wife dates all the way back to Ancient Rome, as a symbol of the couple’s first act of unity and caring for their beloved. Then, of course, the cake smashing began. It’s always the ones you least expect.
The cake cutting tradition has lived on for many years and has taken on many forms over time. Many couples are opting for a cutting cake these days because of its benefits:
- It’s not the top tier of a full-size cake - This one, cute little thing is the only bit you have to worry about. No transport nightmares, no leftovers, no worrying about pleasing everyone with the right flavor.
- Perfect for a micro wedding - If you’re short on space, eloping, or planning one of the increasingly popular backyard weddings - a cutting cake is a great way to keep the tradition alive and make your outside-of-the-box wedding feel more conventional.
- Great for tight budgets - Are you wedding planning on a budget? A cutting cake is a great way to keep the cake as part of your wedding, but cut down on costs, sometimes by several hundred dollars.
- Not served to guests - We’ll let you in on a little wedding cake bakery secret. Pleasing your guests is hard. Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through picking out a cake if that’s what your heart is set on. But just like we tell couples when they ask us about which flavor they should choose for their wedding cake, this is your wedding! You deserve to be happy. If you don’t want to serve cake to 300 guests – Don’t serve cake! A dessert table with assorted mini desserts is a great way to please everyone. Then, you can throw in the towel on the cake decisions and just get a cutting cake for you and your love. You literally, wait…I must apologize before I use this pun. Ok, ready? You can have your cake and you eat it too. Yup. I said it.
So, what’ll be? Are you going to go for the full-size wedding cake or a smaller, simple cutting cake? Either way, one thing is for sure, there must be cake!
