Grab a fork and a glass of milk. It’s time to dive into cakes—face first!
(This year’s birthday cake—I didn’t wait for a fork!)
Here are some of the inspiration images we brought to our cake tasting with Baker #3, Hotel du Pont. They’re divided into categories for easy browsing, too!
Patterned:
Aqua fondant coins circle their way round and round in overlapping layers. There’s another version with octagonal tiers and circles that look more like Nilla Wafers. Cookies on a cake—dessert win!
Unadorned layers of loveliness—no icing on the sides! How cool is that?! I love that it exposes the layers for a Neapolitan/spumoni look. Using varying shades of yellow and white would be a softer effect…but I also like the idea of using a bold yellow with analogous colors for a big pop. Random considerations: Would this cake be too dry without the side icing? And would it dry out faster, meaning it’d have to be completed on some insanely close deadline?
Whimsical:
This lovely has enjoyed much popularity online. I think it started out as black icing on a white cake, but this yellow and white version is the most cheerful and sweetest.
Although a newer Martha cake, our baker has already constructed one. Good: she has experience with it and the kinks are worked out. Not so good: my desire for originality is slightly squished.
Add a little color, keep the tonality, and we’ve got ourselves a top contender. And with a bakery name like Eat Cake Be Merry, you can’t go wrong!
Textured:
Piles of dark-chocolate curls. I’m in texture heaven with The Megeve. Wonder what the June heat will do to the curls? It’ll melt, won’t it? Drat! Why can’t we marry in the fall just to have this cake?!
I love this towering seven-tier confection by Martha—because we’re seriously obsessed with coconut and I love texture. It doesn’t require too much effort to create this look. As in, the design isn’t so precise that it’ll require hours of extra work (and drive up cost).
Simple and elegant:
Source (from Krose Cakes)
Clean. Modern. Adorned with a simple flower or two.
A clever twist on a simple cake. I’d have several stand-alones in lieu of a stacked cake.
The varying height makes this April Reed cake very appealing. Our baker figures we’ll need about four tiers. It may look like way more cake than a four-tier, but I think it’ll amount to the same. And is leftover cake the worst thing that could happen??
A little more frilly than we’d like, but it shows the different heights well.
What cakes inspired you? Summer brides: am I nuts for wanting a chocolate-curl cake?
Yum cake. Pregnant woman want cake! They’re all so pretty and the chocolate curl cake is so different. I kind of like it.
If you’re having the cake outside, the curls will definitely melt 
Even buttercream melts in summer heat, (I’ve seen it happen!) so I can’t imagine what it would do to chocolate. If it can be placed inside, no worries!
Also, I’m not digging the un-iced cake…even though I prefer to eat cake without icing (yum!), In my experience, it would get dry pretty quickly if it was made a day or two beforehand.
We had a ganache-covered cake outside on a 70-ish degree August day and it survived fine. We just had stripes in the ganache though, so there wasn’t much to mess up. We had a separate “naked” cake with no frosting on the outside and it was even better than the ganache cake! It didn’t dry out or anything, and it looked really cool.
I LOVE the first one!!! I’m a huge fan of simple modern cakes.
And your birthday cake is deeeeeeeeeeeeeelish!
I love all of these cakes (: Almost all of them were already in my inspiration folder 
great minds think alike haha. I love the idea of the “naked” cake, but it might be hard for the layers to look that perfect and straight in real life.
You are so cute! I’d imagine if your reception is indoors that the chocolate curls won’t be a problem? I am drooling over the 2nd cake, though (the Neapolitan)!
Cake with no icing make Lox a sad panda. I am totally that girl who saves the icing for last because it’s the best part. 
Also, I love the pictures of you and your birthday cake!
The frostingless cake is super cake! Looks like they served it with matching ice cream/sorbet? They would help would any potential dryness?
STOP WITH THE CAKE POSTS!!
But seriously, don’t stop, because I love them.
I really like that last cake. And the chocolate curl one is crazy!! (It sort of reminds me of this dog: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/16/sports/20110216-westminster-dog-show-parade.html?hp#/0_67)
@TheFutureMcBride: It is very different… and one reason why I like it so much. Our baker would curse us if we requested this one.
@mightywombat: Heehee, it was messy fun!
@cb4690: I figured as much. Maybe our guests could dip marshmellows into the melting chocolate exterior – fondue cake!@Ally: Do you know how far in advance your baker made the naked cake?
@Gerbera: We like modern too. Nothing better than classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting! Mr. P did a very good job icing it. I think I’ll keep him around.
@sugarpea: I need to pick among all of these and I can’t… love them all too much. Any super favorite?? I need cake design opinions.
@Miss Tartlet: We could put it indoors, that’s where the dessert table will be. Neapolitan – I know!
@Miss Lox: Ok, no icing-less cake. Got it.
@alvina: If we serve it a la mode, I’ll have to see if the venue will supply it and decide on flavors. So many layers to these cake decisions!
@Denali: You can blame me for wrecking your eating habits this week ladies! 
How did I know it was going to be a Puli!? That picture is hysterical.
How did you manage to find the most perfect photos of cakes and put them all here in one place for us to feast our eyes on?? Oh man. I’m partial to textured cakes versus the perfectly designed ones. Oh, that coconut one!?
I better go eat some good, hearty breakfast STAT before I gorge on those brownies sitting on my counter. Thanks a lot, Miss P.
I love these ideas! I am a personal fan of the lace detailing on cake, but I love, love, love the simple cakes with the anemones on them!
I LOVED the eating the whole choc. cake pic! LOL!
I prefer simple cakes,but the coconut cake looked great! Happy choosing!
I love the look of the layered (without side-icing) cake! Not sure how it would taste without the icing, but pretty nonetheless!
even though I don’t even eat coconut, I’m loving the textured look of the cocnut cake! It’s classic cake with a modern twist
I was inspired to use cupcakes for several reasons: it wasn’t my or mrtimber’s first marriage, our children were our attendants, and cupcakes were far less expensive. We had a wonderful baker who specialized in oversized cupcakes with fillings and she gave us a bride & groom cake in a different flavor for the top of our tower. They were a big hit! As far as chocolate curls go… there is no “out” season for chocolate
the chocolate curl cake is AMAAAZING. like the most luxurious cake ever. imagine cutting into that, wow. also loving the first photo of you, you are such the funny girl the coconut cake seems super easy to do and so naturally pretty. can’t wait to see what you end up with!!!
That’s one of the most beautiful cake inspiration posts I’ve seen yet!
@Miss Oatmeal: Did you eat a healthy breakfast? Or brownies. Muahahaha!
@Mrs. Locket: The anemones ones are super sweet and it’s the flowers that really make it so… unfortunately we aren’t using anemones anywhere in our florals. Will have to see if we can swap it for one of our featured flowers.
@Lilacgal: Re: goofy cake photos — I do what I can. I’m here for the hive’s amusement!
@ktisthatbees: Seems easy enough for our baker to do too. I like that it’s not precise so the less perfect it is, the better it looks. Totally counter to my philosophy.
@Blueshoes2: Maybe our venue should leave a bowl of icing for the icing-love folks like Miss Lox.
@ktisthatbees: Another vote for the textured cakes! Would you be okay getting coconut on the outside if you were a guest?
@MrsTimber: “there is no “out” season for chocolate” — well said!
@Miss Crepe: We heart the chocolate curl cake but all of our tiers aren’t chocolate based, so I wonder how that’d go.
@mrspaetz: Thank you. That means we have similar taste in cakes, right?
Mrs. Pain au Chocolat, Wilmington, DE Age and Occupation: 29, Realtor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 34, Realtor Engagement Date: November 21, 2009 Wedding Date: June 2011 Venue: Greenville Country Club About Me: An ENFJ with an artistic streak who loves backgammon, sailing, graphic design, and sleeping in. Travel (near or far), good wine, and tasty food makes my heart sing. I'm a compulsive list-maker who lives to plan and organize. Mr. P and I have lived together for 4 years, all the while renovating our city townhome bit by bit. We're planning a whimsical, Anthropologie-inspired garden wedding in June 2011.
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