Image courtesy Carrie's Cakes
When choosing your wedding cake, don’t forget about the groom. Traditionally a staple in Southern weddings, groom’s cakes are making a countrywide comeback.
Professional wedding cake baker Carrie Biggers, owner of Carrie’s Cakes, Sandy, Utah, believes that the popularity of wedding cake TV shows like the Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” and TLC’s “Cake Boss” have gotten men more interested in sugary decision making.
“Now grooms want to get in on the act,” she says. “It’s a good way to involve the groom when most of the wedding is really planned around the bride.”
Professional wedding planner JoAnn Moore, owner of Mountains and Meadows LLC, Vail, Colo., agrees. “They don’t just want the bride to be the center of attention. They want to have some fun in the planning process,” she says.
So what makes a groom’s cake different from a standard wedding cake?
“A groom’s cake usually reflects an interest that the groom has such as a love of sports, favorite movie or hobby,” says Jennifer Luxmoore, owner of Sin Desserts, Providence, R.I., Which makes them much more informal and playful than their traditional counterpart. “They are rarely stacked like a wedding cake. They are usually carved into a shape,” Luxmoore says.
At Sin, Luxmoore’s crafted groom’s cakes to look like a looming AT-AT machine from “The Empire Strikes Back,” a slot machine and blackjack table, a sushi display and an electric guitar. Later in the year, she’s set to make a pirate ship. Biggers has made groom’s cakes that look like cheeseburgers, cars, golf bags and beer coolers.
Although these informal cakes take on such humorous shapes, the amount of time it takes to sculpt them into such designs can actually make them cost more per serving than a traditional wedding cake. “But because it’s smaller overall the cost is usually cheaper,” Luxmoore says. The average groom’s cake typically serves between 10 and 40 people.
Flavor, too, sets groom’s cakes apart. “A lot of the time, a groom’s cake is chocolate,” Moore says. Luxmoore adds red velvet, peanut butter and chocolate chip as other “fun” flavor ideas.
Since groom’s cakes were traditionally served as a gift from the bride to her new husband, consider surprising your groom-to-be with a cake of his own on your special day.
“The wedding is mainly about the girl. A groom’s cake is all about the guy,” Luxmoore says. “It’s a nice way to acknowledge the groom as part of the wedding couple.”
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