2014 is without doubt the year of the sponge…or to be more accurate the Naked Cake sponge.
We just love Naked cakes. Who wouldn’t be tempted by a gorgeous, natural Madeira sponge cake filled with delicious layers of buttercream, jam and oodles and oodles of summer fruits.
Naked cakes might appear simple (doesn’t every cake maker shudder when that word is used!) but can in fact be a real statement wedding cake especially when placed on a beautiful tree trunk. Erica and Charlie both believe that the key to naked cakes is the quality of the bake rather than the decoration used. Just because it’s naked doesn’t mean that different flavours can’t be incorporated such as a light lemon cake, rich chocolate or even a strawberry and champagne…ooh this is really making us hungry now. However, do think about the colour of the crust as all of the cake is seen so we always make sure that the colours look good together e.g. a carrot cake will have an orangey crust whilst a chocolate cake will have a chocolate crust so if a bride is looking for uniformity it may be better to go for the same flavour for each tier.
They can even be personalised with homemade jams – the dad of one of our bride’s owns a farm and will be providing his own jam for use in his daughter’s wedding cake. What better way to make your wedding cake unique to you.
Naked cakes are perfect for rustic or boho weddings whether in your back garden (being based in Kent aka the Garden of England we have been lucky enough to deliver to some beautiful marquees set up in fields behind the family home) or at a fun informal venue such as Elvey Farm where a barbecue was enjoyed by all, followed by the wedding cake served as dessert with lots of extra summer fruits and cream!
One popular look right now is mixing flowers with fruit as the decoration. At Bluebell Kitchen we recommend using high quality silk flowers as an alternative to real flowers. This means that the bride and groom get to keep a memento from their cake. If real flowers are to be used we insist on liaising with our clients’ florist as they will be aware of any flowers that may be toxic and so must be avoided, and as with any decoration are never directly pushed into the cake.
One question we are often asked is whether the cake will dry out before serving. A naked cake needs to be treated quite differently to a fondant covered cake. Clearly it cannot be made and iced a few days before the wedding. At Bluebell Kitchen we always find out when the cake is going to served, we do not buttercream the cake until the morning of the wedding and then always stack the cake and decorate once we are at the venue.
Did you see we mentioned stacking the cake? As Erica explains “This beautiful confection will be the showstopper at your wedding and the last thing you want is a Leaning Tower of Pisa. As with any multi tiered cake, we use the correct internal support system to ensure that your centrepiece will remain looking wow!”
Quite simply naked cakes allow the cake shine through.
“Cakes baked with love”
