Organic Flower Arrangements

One of the biggest wedding cake trends over the past few years has been cakes that don’t look like cake. The movement started with Maggie Austin Cake. Austin is hailed for her asymmetrical, dynamic arrangements. She often takes cues from what is currently hot in the world of floral design. Though she never repeats a design, Austin is currently into sugar flowers inspired by paintings from Dutch Masters.

“I love the wild, organic movement of Dutch Masters and the everlasting blooms are truly timeless,” Austin said. “The arrangement may look like a still life painting, but these handmade sugar flowers are perfect for perching on a cake tier.”

Navy and gold

The color that keeps coming up again and again from cake artists across the U.S. is navy. That’s true for the creative folks at The Master’s Baker in West Chester, Pennsylvania, too, but they think this style is moving into slightly more feminine territory with the addition of another trendy home decor hue, blush.

“We see these colors every week in weddings,” says second-generation owner Chad Weldon. “This particular cake takes on a lot of trends at once and executes beautifully.”

Those other fashions he’s referring to are the geometric hexagon shape, marbled fondant and clean lines that have become very popular with brides around the United States.

Bold Colors and Anything-Goes Designs

“There is a fearlessness that I notice in many of my brides, and a desire to make it their own,” said Alex Narramore, creative director of Lexington, Kentucky-based cake shop The Mischief Maker. “I hope that is here to stay.”

While many of the brides that come to Narramore for their wedding cakes have been increasingly attracted to bold colors, even those who want a more classic aesthetic are looking to execute something that represents their personalities and not what their family wants. Whether it be a modern take on florals or something dark and broody, Narramore’s clients want cakes that serve as a conversation piece and make some sort of statement about who they are as people.

Tall Modern Tiers

Well-defined edges and crisp, geometric lines have become a go-to for brides and cake artists across the continent but, Scarlett Kilzer, pastry chef of Miam Cake in Dublin, Ohio, sees that trend transitioning into a longer and more dramatic form.

“I'm seeing a lot of cakes moving toward a modern look with sharp edges, clean lines and tall, skinny tiers,” she says. To give these stark cakes some interest without interrupting the contemporary form, she likes to incorporate sugar fruit like apricots, blueberries and cherries with leaves like her cake pictured above.

Gray

Just as it has become the new neutral home design, gray is a new, stylish shade in the wedding cake world. Foregoing the regular whites and ivories while honoring that classic wedding cake style and look, many cosmopolitan brides who don’t want to get into the deep, saturated colors have been asking for cakes in this cool, neutral hue.

“I think the gray is popular because it is very elegant and becomes a kind of neutral in itself, but with an edge,” says designer Penny Stankiewicz of Sugar Couture Specialty Cakes in Brooklyn. “It’s a great choice for a sophisticated feeling but with a bit of warmth.”

No Fondant

There are plenty of brides who want the clean lines of traditional fondant icing, but more and more they have been gravitating away from that classic look in search of cakes that look less fussy and more delicious, says Gabrielle Feuersinger, founder and designer of San Francisco wedding cake specialist Cake Coquette.

“The textured buttercream and semi-naked cakes are still the most frequent requests I get, but a new twist to this would be with chocolate ganache drip and fresh fruit to make these cakes look delectable,” Feuersinger said.

Sculptural Accents

When Jenna Illchuk, co-owner and designer of Jenna Rae Cakes in Winnipeg, Canada, made her own wedding cake last year, she wanted to create something that had never been seen before. She decided to combine a few trending cake designs into one stunning centerpiece. The masterpiece included a textural finish with frills and bas relief, a sculpture technique in which design elements are just slightly more prominent than the background to which it's attached, and capped off with more sugar flowers than she had ever stuck on one cake.

“It has an overgrown enchanted garden feeling, which is what we were going for the whole day,” says Ilchuk. “I feel like this will become a new trend this year for sure!”

Frosted Cake with Edible Garnish

While there are plenty of brides seeking out grand cakes that look like they should be exhibited in a museum, there has also been a swing toward cakes without the fuss. Jen Yee, the lauded executive pastry chef of Holeman & Finch, C. Ellet’s and Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, believes there’s been and will continue to be an uptick in the pure, bright flavors of fresh-picked, edible flowers, herbs, fruit and veggies.

“A simply frosted cake with fresh, edible garnish will never go out of style for me,” she says. “Nature and dessert are consummate partners and perfect symbols of celebratory events like weddings.”

Diverse Textures

For the last couple of years, naked cakes, marble cakes and cakes with gold and decorative molds were all the rage, says Sona Karapetyan, owner of LiMa Cakes in Toronto, but this year au courant brides have been moving toward hand painting, abstract designs and varying textures like velour, unrefined marble, painted buttercream and the torn paper effect invented by San Fransisco-based Jasmine Rae Cakes. These types of gorgeous, innovative cakes become part of the wedding decor, which is what’s been driving cake artists to push the limits of their creativity with new designs that have never been done before, says Karapetyan.

“Sometimes they come up with the technique or the texture that others start repeating, which is why every year one or two techniques become the trend of the year,” Karapetyan said.

Watercolors

The Monet-like rounds that are starting to appear at weddings these days incorporate a bunch of the au courant styles and designs into one dazzling motif. Bold colors are often used, but in a natural and very original kind of way, like a painting.

“They are a little bit imperfect and couples want their wedding to be more organic, natural, but also find ways to incorporate their color palette,” says Amy Berman of Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica and Pasadena, California, who designed the cake pictured above to match an invitation with plums and golds. “Watercolor cakes are one of a kind and completely unique each time.”