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| Photo Courtesy of Islandbrides.com |
Many resorts in The Caribbean and wedding planners will include a traditional pound cake with frosting as your wedding cake, however, if you are left to deliberate the issue of the cake on your own, consider the following tips from the islandbrides.com team:
Choosing a Baker in a foreign land
Rely on word of mouth advice from the resort you are marrying at, or your wedding planner to find the right bakery for your wedding cake. Make contact with the baker well before your wedding day and discuss your options by telephone and ask them about their experience. It helps if the baker has a website and can show you some of their past cakes. Ask them to send you a contract which would include price, size, flavour, topping, presentation, and whether they will deliver and set the cake up at your venue. Once you have arrived on island, it’s wise to meet with the baker and finalize details.
Consider the weather
If your cake is to stay on display for any length of time, and your wedding is outdoors, then the hotter temperatures of the Caribbean will have an obvious effect on your choices. Try to stay away from whipped cream, buttercream and meringue and opt for more heat durable frostings like fondant or butter-based buttercream that will protect your cake from the sun. For those of you with British heritage and wanting the traditional “royal” icing on your cake, check with local bakers to see if they even do this in the Caribbean. it is not a local custom and the humidity in the islands makes it difficult to get royal icing to set to its crisp, hard texture like back home.
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| Photo by Dominican-caribbean-wedding.com |
If you insist on bringing your own cake to your reception, despite the offer of a free cake included in your package, beware of cake cutting fees that could hike the price of your “do”. Typically priced at $1 per slice, this fee should be negotiated at the time of booking.
Local traditions
Have you fallen in love with your chosen destination and want to include it in the wedding décor and flavour? Think about incorporating local customs into your wedding cake. In Bermuda brides use a small cedar sapling as a cake topper to symbolise the growth of the love between bride and groom. In the West Indies a rich fruit cake laced with heavy rum is covered with fondant icing. On a more simplistic note you flavour your cake in rum or pina colada for an extra hint of the tropical.
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| Photo by Dominican-caribbean-wedding.com |
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| Photo Courtesy: Islandbrides.com |
Etiquette of past tells us that the top tier of the wedding cake is to be served upon the couple’s first anniversary or at the christening of the first child. If your hell bent on sticking to tradition, have your baker wrap your cake in an airtight baggie and wrap it to protect it from sunlight. Ask your resort if they will freeze your cake for you and hold it in their freezers until it’s time to go home. Have a mini sized cooler on hand to transport your cake home packed with ice bags. You will need to check on the importation restrictions of your home town before you plan on doing this though.
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| Photo by BethHelmstetter.com |
Save money by making sure the size cake you choose will serve the amount of folks you have at your wedding. You could also reduce this by a quarter and serve mini portions alongside another desert option. Incorporate fresh fruit instead of a cake topper or fresh flowers and you could save on money and hassle. Alternatively you could take a tip from brides in china who present an imposter cake to their guests often made of Styrofoam or rubber and then serve sheets of flavoured cake from the kitchen as a desert
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