Wedding cakes are created to look and taste fabulous, but sometimes flavor is compromised for style. When selecting a wedding cake, the perfect combination of taste and appearance should be paramount. The goal is that you and your guests admire the design of the cake just as much as they love eating it!

Wedding cakes come in a wide variety of flavors these days and couples no longer have to choose between traditional tastes like vanilla, chocolate and marble. Modern wedding cake bakers provide a wealth of flavor choices including imaginative combinations as diverse as coconut key-lime, chocolate hazelnut mocha, lemon poppy seed and orange-mango.

A good parameter to use when making your flavor selection is to coordinate it with the colors and theme of the wedding - or select the cake first and plan design details around it. Other important factors include the season and location of your wedding, so decide on your priorities before beginning the wedding cake selection and sampling process.

The simple rule is heavier chocolate cakes in the colder months/climates and airy, light cakes during the warmer months/climates.

The top wedding cake flavor suggestions for the seasons are as follows:

Fall/Winter

• Kahlua Mocha- dark liqueur cake with coffee, vanilla and chocolate liqueur and topped with fudge icing

• Mexican Chocolate Cake- moist and enhanced with three types of chocolate and a bit of cinnamon with a smooth milk-chocolate frosting

• Red Velvet Cake- traditional Southern chocolate-red cake with cream cheese frosting

• Texas Turtle- devil's food cake with nuts and caramel filling and fudge frosting

Spring/Summer

• Princess Cake- moist, creamy white cake topped with cream cheese frosting (traditional choice)

• Orange Marmalade and Lemon Cake- tangy lemon cake made using bitter English orange marmalade and lemon zest with a lemon butter sauce poured over the cake after baking and iced with cream cheese frosting

• Fresh Strawberry Cake- chopped strawberries folded in a white cake batter topped with rich cream cheese frosting

Be sure to spend ample time seeking out a bakery that will suit all of your needs since there are plenty of options and competition for your business. You might want to start your search online or through referrals - then begin deciding which providers seem most appropriate for your needs. The more time and patience you spend selecting your cake, the happier you and your guests will be with the outcome.

There are additional cake-related decisions to consider. If you are concerned about price consider using fresh flowers and fruits in lieu of frosted ones. You can also order a beautiful cake that is a bit too small to feed the crowd and serve from less extraordinary sheet cakes that can be left out of sight and sliced and delivered by the venue staff. You also might want to consider a square cake as opposed to round being that square cakes cut more slices and will feed more people.

Of course, these are just suggestions and many wedding cake bakeries allow the happy couple to customize their cake to satisfy their palette and pricing concerns. Be sure to have an idea of how many people will be attending and ask the bakery about price per slice when considering the various flavors and shapes.