Managing Wedding Cakes in Hot Weather
With the weather in the UK having become increasingly warmer over the years, it is important to consider the temperature and humidity of the environment where you plan to display your wedding cake. A hot day can affect the texture, stability and appearance of your cake. Here are some tips to ensure that your wedding cake will survive a hot day.
Choose the Right Covering
If you are having an outdoor wedding or reception, choose a cake covering that can withstand heat and humidity. The last think you want is a cake that has melted and is unstable. Fondant is the ultimate covering that can withstand the heat of a sunny day as the cake is usually covered in a thin layer of white chocolate ganache that creates exceptional stability for the fondant that covers it.
Buttercream is likely to be the runner up here. If you would rather a buttercream covered cake, ask the venue to place the cake in a cool room until the cake is required. Make sure that the staff at the wedding venue are happy to move the cake to the final location as most cake designers like to set up the cake themselves and make sure it looks perfect before they leave the venue. On a hot day, this might not always be possible.
Avoid placing any wedding cake in front of a window. It’s not just the cake that may suffer but also the flowers arrangement on the cake, which may wilt due to the heat.
Alternative Wedding Cake Presentation
Rather than having multiple tiers stacked on top of each other for your wedding cake, why not have a deconstructed cake where each tier can be a different height and placed on their own individual cake stand which could also be of varying height. This alternative approach can look very effective, especially if the table they are placed on has additional decoration like flowers, candle sticks, etc.
Wedding in an Orangery, Tipi or Outdoors?
If you are hosting your wedding in a venue where the building is made up of glass (orangery) or in a tipi that heats up very quickly or outside in the open, why not consider having a dummy wedding cake for display and photographs and a cutting cake in the kitchen to serve your guests when you are ready to serve cake. The dummy cake will look exactly like a real cake, and it is likely that nobody will notice that it’s a dummy cake! Alternatively, you may have one tier that is real cake and the rest of the cake as dummy tiers!
Setting Up and Keep the Cake Cool
Make sure the cake is stored in a cool, shaded area until it is time to display it. If a wedding is taking place in a venue where the ceremony will be in the same room as the reception, some cake makers will come and set the cake up for the reception as it is unlikely that the couple will want to have their cake on display during their ceremony. This means that the cake will be displayed later in the day so it will not have been standing in a warm room for a long period of time and, hopefully, the day will be a little cooler at the time of setting up.
Taking these tips into consideration will ensure that your wedding cake will hold up on your wedding day!
