Fashion Inspired Wedding Cake
Cake decorating is a multi art form! We can craft it, sew it, knit it, crochet it, draw it, paint it, nearly everything! I love the idea of putting a sense of fashion beauty on cakes. Fashion is a source of limitless inspirations; but how to turn fashion designs into your own edible creations? Below are some of my tips:
1. Get inspired:
Sometimes I spend hours browsing famous names for images of their latest collections: Dolce& Gabbana, Ralph & Russo; Zuhair Murrad, Giambattista Valli, Alexander Mc Queen are some of my top favourites because of their very fine patterns and designs which are so transferable into cake details.
2. Combine different designs under the same theme/trend
It’s unnecessary to turn everything you see on a single design into a cake. Incorporate various elements from different gowns, bags or shoes under a logical theme that interests you! For the Ralph&Russo Wedding Cake that I made last year for an American Cake Decorating feature, I decided to combine 3 different designs which I thought would go perfectly together in their colors, romance and harmony in shapes into one. But be consistent! All the elements should match, either in color pallette or theme logic.
The cake canvas was inspired by the pastel lavender grey that appeared in 2 of the 3 designs; and the rosette, swirls and ruffles were formed bringing blush pink, elegance and femininity together.
3. Sketch the cake
Though you have all the ideas on your mind, it would be helpful if you put everything on paper. Simply mindmap which pattern or details will go into which tier and which part of it. Close your eyes to imagine about floral and foliage toppers too if you want to add any! For me, it would be perfect to finish off with something very close in the color scheme and trend. Like for the Ralph & Russo cake, I immediately decided on a David Austin rose & dusty millers as the design itself evokes ROMANCE. Anything better can match than an English rose?
4. Work out the techniques!
If the designs you fall in love with have very subtly delicate details, you need to investigate them. Use high-res photos and zoom in on all the details; then brainstorm about how you can translate them into our own language, the language of edible medium! Fortunately, many things that fabric can do can also be figured out on sugar: from sophisticated bejewled embellisment, bows, ruffles to abstract textures!
5. Select proper materials for each technique
We need to evaluate the movement of the fashion elements that we want to replicate to decide on which to use: ruffles & rossettes are gum paste as they are somewhat like flowers in textures and dimensions, feathery details can be wafer paper, etc.
To bring all above ideas to light, I have a detailed tutorial for free to show you how the cake takes shape from inspiration & logical thinking. Click on the link below to download at your own use!
