Wedding cakes have been around since the Roman era, and though many traditions over what to do with the wedding cake - such as breaking it over your (bride's) head, keeping a piece to eat for your first year anniversary, or making you and your new husband kiss over the cake - have thankfully passed, almost every wedding will still have a cake. It has become the quintessential symbol of marriage.
Back then it was a simple, single-tiered, often white (to symbolize purity) cake. Over the years, the tiers have added (and added), the current contender for the record being a 17 foot, 7-tiered, 15,032 pound cake made by Mohegan Sun.
As cool as this may seem, it's certainly going to be out of place in a place like Toronto. So how should you choose among the many wedding cakes in Toronto?
What Cake Would You Choose?
It seems like a simple enough question, isn't it? After all, a cake is a cake is a cake. Besides, how many wedding cakes in Toronto can there be? There are literally THOUSANDS of wedding cakes in all shapes, sizes, flavors, and forms, from traditional to extra kinky (yes, kinky) for you to choose and be confused from. When your baker starts babbling on about how this is better than that, wouldn't it be nice to know what he's talking about?
What You Should Know
Here are a few definitions that may help you sort things out when choosing wedding cakes in Toronto. Tier means layer. The number of tiers dictates how tall the cake is going to be. The most popular number is three - extravagant enough, but not too much. When you are asking for a quotation, be sure to ask if ALL the layers in that quotation are edible and not styrofoam.
The most common types of cake base from fluffy to dense are sponge, chiffon, and pound (including the fruitcake-type). For the icing, commonly used are butter cream, made of fat or butter and sugar, while foam icing is made of egg white and sugar or marshmallows and fudge icing are chocolate-based icings. All types are placed onto the base with a spatula or an icing funnel. Flat, royal, or fondant icings are basically sugar and water, rolled out into sheets and topped on the cake. However, royal icing has egg whites for thicker consistency, and fondant icing has glucose syrup and cream of tartar to give it that elegant porcelain finish.
Fondant icing is also featured on the most expensive wedding cakes in Toronto. The color to match your wedding motif may be added through the trimmings: flowers (fresh or candy), ribbons, fruit, candies, almost anything that is small enough to place on a cake can be. The last and final touch would be the cake topper. That's the small figurine of the bride and the groom at the top of the tiers.
And Off You Go
You are now armed with the basics, and can now keep up with the shop talk. Good bakers of wedding cakes in Toronto will also offer taste samples of the different cakes. So you can be assured that when you cut into that cake and give your new life partner that first piece, it will almost be as sweet and good as your love.
