For many people the phrase ‘fondant cake’ brings to mind something quite traditional (and, dare we say, a little stuffy?); the classic wedding cake from back in the day, your granny’s Christmas cake, or a stocky Madeira slice from the supermarket. We invite you to forget everything you think you know about fondant. It’s actually our favourite way to craft the most creative, artistic wedding cake designs you could imagine. Modern fondant wedding cakes are wildly versatile, and offer almost unlimited (or should that be crumblimited…) options for expressing your style on your big day.
The sky really is the limit with modern fondant wedding cakes. The possibilities only stop when your imagination does, whether we’re designing a tantalising 2-tier tidbit or a sensational six-storey showstopper. Whatever the theme or style of your wedding, a fondant finish allows you to play with colour, texture and decoration to effortlessly shine in any style of venue.
Each of our fondant cakes starts life the same way. We create a perfect blank canvas with wafer thin, crisply finished fondant. There is no sinking your teeth into inch-thick layers of peeled-back fondant, we promise! We also feature a layer of Belgian chocolate ganache, glossy and luscious, allowing the icing to lie silky smooth on the cake. This provides the ideal first layer for us to build on and get creative with your design. We’re going to take you through just some of the possibilities for stylish, on-trend ways we can play with fondant on your wedding cake. Prepare to be inspired.
Modern Fondant Wedding Cakes with Texture
Texture is one lovely way to really bring a cake to life, and can transform even the simplest of designs into something couture and luxurious. We can use texture to echo the stone walls of an industrial chic venue, the soft flow of a chiffon table runner or even the delicate material of your dress.
Cake lace is one way of adding subtle sophistication to your design. This elegant edible decoration complements so many other elements of a modern fondant wedding cake. In the past we have used a lace texture as a background to a design featuring macarons, gold leaf and our signature sugar flowers. The end result is intricate and almost too good to eat!
Other ways to include texture on your wedding cake include ruffles and sugar molding, both bold ways to make a statement and add a dramatic element to your design. Ruffles work well as the base tier of a larger cake, and can be styled as petals, a wavy fondant effect or even a torn paper style. This makes them perfect for contemporary cake styles as well as those on the more traditional end of the spectrum. Sugar molding is another great three dimensional addition, providing a striking contrast to delicate sugar flowers. We generally only use it on one tier; less is more to elevate the design.
Colour in Modern Fondant Wedding Cakes
There is definitely something timelessly beautiful about a pure white wedding cake, but we not-so-secretly love using colour in our designs! Fondant wedding cakes carry colour wonderfully, and there are a few ways to work in the hues of your wedding theme or flowers.
Going full-colour might sound scary and a bit over the top, but we’ve created some lovely cakes in the past using subtle colour effects such as marbled or ombre fondant. Using toned-down shades of your chosen colours and adding contrasting sugar flowers becomes beautifully impactful, and is so much more interesting than a monotonal design.
If you’re a colour-lover like us but want to pare it back just a little, adding a focal tier is very a la mode. A splash of colour is very on trend. Your modern fondant wedding cake could feature a block colour tier or even spun gold for a touch of opulence. It’s also possible to create a clean white fondant base and then add lots of colourful sugar florals, adding vibrancy and intrigue on every tier. Speaking of which…
Sugar Flowers
You might have noticed by now that at Bluebell Kitchen we love crafting delicate, realistic sugar flowers; it’s become our signature. Every style of cake looks magical when adorned with bonny blooms, and modern fondant wedding cakes are no exception. We can add them to a smooth, pale background to add a cascade of colour and texture, or use them to soften a bolder design. You can browse our gallery of sugar flower designs here, and we hope you’ll agree they are exquisitely lifelike!
Hand Painted Fondant
Finally, one of our most popular design choices (which we are still getting requests for in lots of different styles) is hand painting. Our abstract hand painted modern fondant wedding cakes are true passion projects for us. We treat the fondant like a canvas to create something akin to an oil painting. With this it’s possible to achieve a real depth of colour and add metallic highlights that glint and glow. There are so many directions the hand painting can be taken in. One of our most popular requests is for hand painted marbling; we can’t wait to hear what you’ll ask for next!
Letting creativity run freely with modern fondant wedding cakes is truly a joy for us and our clients. It’s possible to craft incredible designs with fondant; in fact, you could say you can have your cake and eat it too.
If your imagination is already running wild and you’d like to commission a wedding cake in fabulous fondant, please contact us through our form
The kettle is on and our sketchpads are at the ready!
Photos: Fiona Kelly Photography, Louisa Dettmer Photography, Beth Whithorn Photography
