Cheap Wedding Cake Ideas

Have you flipped through wedding magazines? Cheap wedding cakes do not seem to exist in them--only beautiful designer cakes costing hundreds of dollars seem to be listed.

The cakes pictured in the wedding magazines are fabulous works of art, but let's not forget they are made out of flour, sugar, milk, eggs, and oil, not precious metals!

Back in 1958, when my mom got married, her mother baked a beautiful wedding cake. It looked great and my mom said it tasted even better. I know this to be fact because my grandmother baked cakes for us all through the year from scratch along with homemade frostings and the cakes were truly works of art and incredibly delicious.

Back then, cakes only cost a few dollars to make. They really don't cost that much more today, certainly not hundreds or thousands of dollars.

What if you want to make your own wedding cake? As long as you can designate someone you trust to deal with the details, transportation and set-up they day before and on the day of the wedding, it can be done.

It seems cake designers and brides are trying to outdo each other on something that will be eaten and forgotten in just a short time. True, the bride will normally have photos of the cake, but do you really want to spend between $500 and over $1,000 for something that will be cut into pieces and eaten in just a few minutes?

With that being said, whatever happened to the plain white three-tiered cake with a pretty bride and groom or a wedding bell on top?

Believe it or not, you can still have a simple cake made at some small bakeries. You can also order a cheap wedding cake at the bakery in your local grocery store or even in Wal-Mart. No kidding. And, guess what? They taste good. But they start around $125 if they are wedding cakes. However, if you just order a plain white cake with some frosting flowers, you can add a cake topper and it becomes a cheap wedding cake for a whole lot less money than you would have paid if you told the baker it was for a wedding.

If you order a plain cake from any bakery, the cost will be much cheaper. Then you can add a topper of some kind or some rose petals or flowers and other decorations yourself. Another way is to find a relative, friend, or neighbor who makes pretty but cheap wedding cakes. Ask around. Chances are that one or more of your coworkers or others you come in contact with have found someone to make an inexpensive yet delicious cake. Word of mouth recommendations are the best kind of advertising around.

You may want to consider baking the cake yourself or getting help from your mom or some other relatives. Get two or three different sized round, rectangular, or square pans. Bake cake layers of different sizes. Then frost them and stack them or put them on three different tiers of a cake holder. Place a topper on the smallest tier and voila! You have made your own beautiful cheap wedding cake.

Of course, if you are going to go this route, you should practice months in advance, making sure you can do this.

***A word of warning: This is not for everyone. Some people bake great and others just can't. If you or your mom can bake a pretty cake, go ahead. If not, find a friend who will do it for cost or a little profit.

Make sure you bake your wedding cake a few days in advance with plenty of time to bake a new layer if it splits or something else goes wrong. Have plenty of extra cake mix or baking supplies on hand if you need to bake a layer again.

Another option is to buy a three tiered cupcake holder and make your own cupcakes. The good thing about this is that you can bake a variety of flavors and frost and decorate them in the colors you want.

Prepare cakes and cupcakes ahead of time and on the morning of the reception, take them to the reception site, hours ahead of time and set them up on their tiers or stands then. Do not do this before transporting or you will have a mess on your hands.
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Below are some wedding cakes made in Kuwait and they are not cheap wedding cakes, but they are unique and absolutely gorgeous. My husband spent time in Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries over the last five years. He said the Kuwaiti government pays its people so only the non-natives who do the majority of the work in Kuwait are not rich. Some of these cakes are taller than a man and are truly spectacular. Enjoy!

Wedding cake accessories can make a plain cake look very special. They can make a delicious cake more special. The most common accessory for your wedding cake is a cake topper. A lot of them are of a bride and groom. It used to be that the bride and groom were standing there together. But nowadays, there are some humorous bride and groom wedding toppers, such as the bride pulling the groom behind her, backwards by his shirt collar. Hysterically cute!

You can use wedding bells, flowers, the initial of the groom's last name, a heart, a cross, or just about anything that you feel is appropriate. You can also place the initial of the groom's last name in the middle of the top tier with the initial of the first name of the bride on one side and of the groom on the other side. The letter in the middle is usually bigger. The letters can sparkle with rhinestones or be a solid color.

You can find wedding cake toppers online, in wedding magazines, in craft stores, and even in Wal-Mart, Hallmark shops, and Party City. You can also find some at a lot of bakeries. If you want an unusual or unique wedding cake topper, try looking at online wedding stores.

Some brides choose to have their wedding cake decorated with fresh edible flowers. They will have a large flower or a lot of small ones placed on the top tier of the cake and then have sprays or garlands of flowers placed either around the other tiers or streaming all the way down the cake from the top tier. They look very beautiful, but I have never eaten a real flower before.

My son's wedding cake had real flowers on the top of it. Other brides choose to have flowers made out of icing on their cake. They look incredible and I have eaten these. Yum!

Wedding cake accessories also include cake plates and tiered cake holders. These come in different shapes, sizes, and heights.

Then there is sugary wedding cake glitter that looks like sparkling fairy dust, usually in white or crystal that can be dusted on the top of the cake once it is set up at the reception site for a finishing touch.

Sprinkles or colored sugars can be put on top of cupcakes if you decide to have a cupcake display instead of a traditional wedding cake. You can also put M&Ms or other candies on the top of the cupcakes to make them look pretty.

You will also need a cake server set in order to cut and serve your wedding cake. This is usually a large cake knife with a pretty matching pie server spatula. These can be found online at bridal stores and in department stores. Now Wal-Mart carries them in their craft department with the other wedding supplies so they do not have to be expensive anymore.

My husband and I got married in early February 10 years ago. Since it was close to Valentine's Day, I thought a heart-shaped cake would be nice. We had a neopolitan-style cake. The bottom layer was chocolate, middle was vanilla, and the top layer was strawberry. Strawberry cake is both his and my favorite, so it was a nice touch.
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This is a great idea! Would be wonderful served with Neopolitan ice cream as well. Thank you for sharing. With heart-shaped pans, you could easily bake your own. My mother makes heart-shaped cakes. Thanks for the idea!

A little creativity will give you some great cheap wedding cake ideas.

One of the most clever is to do what some of the catering companies do. Put together a three tiered wedding cake made out of foam.

Actually, the top layer should be made of real cake. Frost the foam layers and add a small third layer of real cake. Frost it and decorate it. When the bride and groom cut the cake, they cut the top layer. Then some servers take the cake into the kitchen to slice. They return with slices of cake on plates to give to the wedding guests.

What they actually do in the kitchen is slice up a sheet cake. I saw this on a wedding television show and I was very surprised. This trick saves a lot of money. Instead of buying a very expensive wedding cake, you buy a few frosted sheet cakes.

Cheap wedding cake ideas can include cupcakes.

Make your own and decorate or buy a variety of already-decorated cupcakes from Wal-Mart or your local supermarket. Go to Michael's and buy some three-tiered cupcake holders, enough of them to hold one cupcake per wedding guest. You can keep the holders to use on holidays, birthdays, and special occasions to serve cookies, appetizers, snacks, etc., when having company. They will come in handy through the years.

Wedding cupcakes have been featured in all of the popular wedding magazines over the past year. As long as you don't tell your baker that the cupcakes are for a wedding, they will be cheap. You can add a mini wedding topper to each one, or decorate them with additional frosting out of a tube and then add some sprinkles or colored sugar.

If you would like a cake for the bride and groom to slice while serving cupcakes, bake a giant cupcake and decorate it. Place the giant cupcake on the top tier of one of the cupcake holders and the bride and groom can slice it for fun and photos at the wedding reception. Wilton makes a great giant cupcake/muffin pan. I have it and made it for my daughter's 16th birthday party, along with regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes. The pan is nonstick and easy to use.

A little creativity will help you find some cheap wedding cake toppers to choose from. Go to craft stores, dollar stores, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, and Target. If you go to the wedding section of these stores, you will find some cute typical toppers for $20 or so. But do you really want a cookie cutter topper? If you go to other store departments, you can find some unique and cheap things to use.

For instance, if you love Christmas and your wedding is in December, why not choose a pretty Christmas ball or decoration as your wedding cake topper? Consider using a larger ball on top and miniature ones placed around the lower layers for a unique Christmas wedding cake. Maybe a miniature wreath on the top of your cake decorated in your wedding colors. How about a display of candy canes. They come in many colors now.

The same could be done with seasonal decorations for a wedding near Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Day.

If you are an animal lover, go to the toy department and pick up some mini plastic animals and create a scene on the top of your wedding cake with them. A wild animal, zoo animal, farm animal, or marine life scene would work great on top of your wedding cake.

If you love gardening, get some mini garden tools at a craft store to put on top of your cake.

Buy miniature Barbie and Ken dolls, like those in Happy Meals and put them on the top of your cake.

How about some Victorian doll furniture, like a His and Hers chair for the top of your cake?

If you love teddy bears, buy a bride and groom teddy bear and use them as cheap wedding cake toppers.