Christmas provides basically a built-in color scheme and theme for a winter wedding. New Year’s is great in that regard, too, but that’s a post for another day.

Couples often go with a Christmas-gift look or something similar, usually with red tones and silver.

Light blue and red is another great color combo for winter in general, in my opinion.

Here’s a wedding cake we did a few weeks ago. The tree makes a lovely backdrop to the cake in general, and the deep red roses and silver/gold sprigs on the cake corner provide understated elegance to the display.

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Questions relating to cake to ask other vendors

Caterer: Will your company cut the wedding cake?

Florist: Will you work with my cake designer to plan the cake flowers? Who puts them on?

Gown shop: If a color match is needed, can you provide one to my cake designer?

Rentals: What type/color of linens will be on the cake table? If a color match is needed, can you provide one to my cake designer? Do you have cake stands for rent?

DJ: When do you like to time the cake cutting? Do you have it on your schedule for the night?

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Here is a list of questions I presented at a workshop a bit ago. It might be helpful.

10 questions to ask your cake designer

Can I taste your cakes before booking you? Are your tastings free? When do you do them? How many people can come to the tasting?

 Are you a licensed bakery? At home or at a commercial kitchen?

Do I have to choose one of your designs, or can I bring my own? Can you mix and match elements of different designs? Can you achieve the look I want in a smaller/bigger version of the cake in the photos?

Can I see photos of cakes you actually have designed?

I’m on a budget, what options are there for cost savings? Can I get sheet cakes from a different store, or do you provide them? Do you bake cupcakes, other desserts?

Can I have a buttercream-frosted cake for a summertime, outdoor wedding? Can the cake be set up inside and moved outside when the reception starts? What is fondant, and what does it taste like?

Does the total number of servings and price include the top tier?

 When should I book a designer?

How far in advance do you bake the cakes? Do you freeze them? How long does the decorating take?

Do you deliver and set up the cake, and what is that fee? Also, do you deliver the cake in one piece or separated?

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I know I’ve said this before, but this might be my favorite of the year. It’s in the top three for sure. It was SUPER time-consuming to do all the piping — which was all freehand, thank you very much — but I just loved how it turned out.

I piped some additional decorations on the left corner of the second tier but forgot to take another photo after I did it. I wish I had! Ah, well. I still think it’s awesome.

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Another way to make buttercream icing a bit more interesting is to add vertical or horizontal marks. It gives the feeling of movement without looking messy.

This design technique looks great with fresh flowers or, as you see below, with sugared fruit (all purchased from local growers, by the way).

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You know those cans of frosting you can buy at the grocery store, the ones with the photo of the perfectly frosted cake on the label? It usually features super swirly frosting, heavy on the spatula marks.

Well, here at Myriad we call that a “rough frost,” to differentiate it with either a smooth buttercream frost or a fondant exterior on a wedding cake.

Rough frost has been very popular in the last year, and the weird thing about it is that it looks primarily rustic but also a little bit classic, perhaps because it has appeared on frosting cans for decades. Here are some cakes we did this summer featuring variously aggressive rough frost techniques.

In the next blog, we will talk about textured buttercream.

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