Blog: wedding cake
Charlie Charlie

A rustic wedding bouquet of fragrant herbs and a wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary

Charlie

A rustic wedding bouquet of fragrant herbs and a wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary // Miki Vargas Photography // styling A Monique Affair // flowers Laura Miller Designs // cake Cakes Made By M.E.

I absolutely love it when rosemary is in flower, with those tiny pale blue flowers it takes on a new dimension to its very green version that we mainly see and associate with it here in England. We have featured rosemary and other herbs in abundance here on the blog because they have so many lovely qualities – their fragrance being number one in my opinion.

This simple white wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary is a wonderful example of how you can achieve a pretty and less conventional look without spending lots of money or time. Invest in a great quality wedding cake, made from organic and fair trade ingredients, and then just decorate it simply with naturally grown herbs.

A rustic wedding cake decorated with flowering rosemary //Miki Vargas Photography // styling A Monique Affair // flowers Laura Miller Designs // cake Cakes Made By M.E.

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A creative and practical guide to making an edible leaf wedding cake

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Edible leaf wedding cake // Maddocks Farm Organics // Bees Bakery // The Natural Wedding Company

I was blown away by this unusually decorated wedding cake with its edible leaves, a fantastic collaboration between TNWC recommended supplier Maddocks Farm Organics and Bees Bakery. If you’ve read our blog for any length of time you’ll know we are big fans of edible flowers, but edible leaves on a wedding cake? It may sound odd, but as you can see from this beautiful cake it creates the most stunning effect. It is both modern and natural, and feels like it could have been painted on. I particularly like the combination of purples and greens used.

Sourcing Edible Flowers For Wedding Cakes

Whilst this is a design you could ask a wedding cake maker to create for you, Maddocks Farm Organics have helpfully given some tips on how to do it yourself. Firstly, it’s important to remember these key points about using edible leaves:

  • Flowers and leaves should not be eaten unless sourced from a reputable organic supplier of edible varieties (we recommend these edible flower suppliers).
  • Many flowers and leaves are poisonous and can cause a whole range of serious symptoms if ingested. Even if you don’t plan to eat them, it is wise not to attach them to any food items in case they are mistaken for being edible when they are not. Even if they are just decoration, sap or fine hairs could leech onto your cake and cause irritation.
  • Do not be tempted to pick up supermarket or regular floristry flowers to decorate your cake. They are routinely sprayed with chemicals that you absolutely do not want to be ingesting or touching your wedding cake.

So when sourcing your edible flowers or leaves, ensure that you 1) buy from a reputable organic supplier; 2) Ask your supplier how they are grown, picked and processed; and 3) Discuss with your supplier how you want to use them.

Natural and modern edible leaf wedding cake // Maddocks Farm Organics // Bees Bakery // The Natural Wedding Company

How To Use Edible Leaves On Wedding Cakes

With that in mind, here’s Maddocks Farm Organics top tips on how to use edible leaves on your wedding cake:

  • Edible leaves work best when pressed into buttercream.
  • They should be added to your cake on the day of your wedding.
  • Choose from organically grown leaves, herbs and wild foragings.
  • Use clover shaped and fern shaped edible leaves in a variety of shades to create a striking design (like the one above).
  • More robust varieties include rosemary and lavender (examples below, but please note I am not sure if any of the other flowers/leaves shown on the cakes are suitable, as per the advice above – please check with your supplier).

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Tamsin and Alex’s relaxed eco-friendly wedding with woodland handfasting ceremony and the best cake ever

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Tamsin and Alex's relaxed eco-friendly wedding with woodland hand-fasting ceremony and the best cake ever // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Eco-friendly wedding with handfasting ceremony

What a beautiful way to welcome in the New Year with this down-to-earth, relaxed eco-friendly wedding of Tamsin and Alex. Captured by the lovely Emma of Emma Stoner Photography (and second shooter Heather Birnie), who can be found featured on the Photography + Film page of our directory, this wedding is bound to inspire you. Plus it has my new all-time-favourite wedding cake and wedding hair!

Tamsin and Alex got married in September at Middle Coombe Farm in Devon, where they fell in love with “it’s wonderful inhabitants and beautiful sprawling woodlands.” Here at TNWC we recently fell for the charms of Middle Coombe Farm and are delighted that you’ll now find them on the directory too.

Over to Tamsin to tell us more…

Tiered Victoria sponge wedding cake with flowers, ferns, berries, and yellow raspberries // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Woodland hand-fasting ceremony at Middle Coombe Farm in Devon // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Wedding rings // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Hand-fasting ceremony in a woodland // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Woodland animal themed wedding table names // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Woodland wedding ceremony // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Seasonal late summer bridal bouquet in shades of blue and white // Flowers by In Bloom Devon www.inbloomdevon.co.uk // Photography by Emma Stoner www.emmastonerweddings.com // The Natural Wedding Company

Middle Coombe Farm for a woodland wedding

“[We wanted] a relaxed and rustic [feel], with lots for everyone to do and an eclectic take on decorations and as eco conscious as I could make it. We chose Middle Coombe Farm after finding out about it’s wonderful inhabitants and beautiful sprawling woods. The accommodation was also spot on, with a place for campers, a campervan, family and close friends and little ones! It advertises itself as an eco venue too so we were very sold!

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TNWC Real Brides: Vicky tells us about her locally sourced wedding meal and ‘help yourself’ popcorn dessert table

Charlie

TNWC Real Brides: Vicky tells us about her locally sourced wedding meal and 'help yourself' popcorn dessert table

Locally sourced wedding meal details from real bride Vicky

A weddig topic close to my heart – food! In the past I think wedding food has often been an after-thought, but more and more it’s becoming something that couples really put a lot of thought into. Here are Vicky and Steve’s plans for their wedding feast!

>> View Vicky and Steve’s DIY village fete wedding here <<

Over to Vicky…

A hog roast with handmade cutlery packages for guests

The food and drink we’ll be serving at the wedding is at the forefront of my mind at the moment as we firm up numbers and start to make the final purchases.

We decided from the very start that we wanted to keep it quite simple to help save the budget for other areas and keep the day relaxed. In the end we settled on a cream tea reception followed by a hog roast is the evening.

The hog roast was easy to organise as our best man’s father-in-law does these as a sideline to his farming. A quick chat on the beach, followed by an impromptu dance lesson (only in Devon!) and we had booked a hog and ram roast with a few roast potatoes thrown in the bottom for good measure. Excellent!

We’ve put together a little bag for each guest to pick up before they eat which have a napkin, wooden cutlery and a hand wipe in. They have been decorated with a personalised stamp which we found on Etsy.

Paper bag eco-friendly wedding picnic cutlery

A cream tea wedding reception

After that came the trickier task of finding a company to do the cream tea for us. Lots of the caterers we approached seemed keen to sell us their idea of what we wanted rather than what we wanted. A simple cream tea became a full-scale afternoon tea. It all sounded amazing but it wasn’t what we wanted.

Thankfully a friend then recommended the lovely Hannah and Sima from The Kitchen Table in Totnes. They have been brilliant, sticking to what we wanted, answering many questions about scone sizes (seriously, how did I turn into someone who worried about the size of a scone?) and even talking us down on quantities.

Even better they are advocates of using local produce, which fits our day perfectly. They will provide the mini pasty canapés, sit down cream tea and all the salads and rolls for the evening do, plus some vegetarian options. Their food looks beautiful and I can’t wait to try it all.

Salad with edible flowers

Victoria sponge wedding cake

They also put us in touch with Queen Bee Cakes, who make the most amazing wedding cakes and are a supplier on The Natural Wedding Company. Sadly they were already booked for our weekend leaving us with no choice but to try and re-create something similar ourselves.

So my lovely Mum and Aunt have gamely taken on the challenge of making the cake. From reading about other weddings I know this is quite common but my Mum is not the most expert of cooks, once serving up a dessert of sausage pie and custard – don’t ask!

Her cakes, however, are normally really good and with the amount of practice runs she’s been doing I’m sure it’ll be great, even if we won’t fit into our dresses any more! She will be making two sponges, which will sit on top of a fruit cake which my Aunt is busy soaking with brandy.

I’m planning on adding a liberal scattering of flowers and icing sugar to make it look pretty! Hopefully it will eventually turn out something like these cakes.

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Cake love: an exquisite summer meadow wedding cake of handcrafted sugar flowers

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An exquisite summer meadow wedding cake of handcrafted sugar flowers - made by Amy Swann Cakes www.amyswanncakes.co.uk

Well it has just about been forever since I last shared some wedding cake inspiration here on my Cake Love feature, but I am back with an absolute beauty that I’m convinced you’ll all fall in love with.

This exquisite ‘Summer Meadow’ wedding cake was designed and made by our very own Amy Swann Cakes who you will find listed in the Cakes section of our directory. Amy is a firm favourite of ours with her incredible talent at creating sugar paste flowers that look almost more real than real flowers!

Beautiful summer meadow wedding cake with sugar paste flowers - made by Amy Swann Cakes www.amyswanncakes.co.uk

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Izzy Izzy

A stunning jewel toned wedding cake with edible flowers, petals and berries for a rustic autumn wedding

Izzy

Jewel toned autumn wedding cake with edible flowers and berries

Today we have a mouth-watering guest post from P-J Parker of Emily Harmston Cakes, with a gorgeous autumn inspired wedding cake that features such beautiful rich purple colours. When we first saw these cakes we fell in-love with the use of edible flowers and petals – why not take a look for yourself?

Don’t forget we have a regular feature on wedding cakes called Cake Love, so do check out the link if you are after more wedding cake inspiration.

Over to P-J to tell us more about these stunning creations…

Purple and red autumn wedding cake with edible flowers and berries

We have just seen the end of a glorious English summer but it brings an abundance of our beautiful berries that rival any array of the fruits that are imported. The colours and choice are breath-taking; it’s almost as if all summer long the sun has become concentrated to give the sumptuous jewel colours inside our blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and damsons.

I really wanted to capture the beauty of this season.  The three tiered cake I made here incorporates two white chocolate and raspberry cake tiers at the top and bottom with a double layer of blackberry and raspberry cheesecake in the middle.  All topped off with fresh edible Dahlias and handcrafted blackcurrants lollipops.

Raspberry cheesecake wedding cake with edible flower petals

Edible flowers and petals for an autumn wedding cake

Slice of raspberry cheesecake with edible flowers and berries

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Exquisite ‘Springtime’ and ‘Vintage Dream’ wedding cakes with handcrafted sugar flowers from Amy Swann Cakes

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'Vintage Dream' wedding cake from Amy Swann Cakes

I have a lovely bit of wedding cake inspiration for you today.  These stunning cake designs were created by Amy who runs Amy Swann Cakes, and who is also one of our fab recommended suppliers on the directory.

Amy is incredibly talented at creating some of the most realistic and beautiful sugar flowers I’ve ever seen.  You might recall this incredible wildflower wedding cake design of Amy’s I featured last autumn, and despite recently welcoming twin baby girls into her family, she has still been busy dreaming up these lovely designs for her clients.

'Vintage Dream' wedding cake with sugarpaste flowers

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Izzy Izzy

Sarah and Sam’s old fashioned country village wedding with a pretty garden party reception on a shoestring

Izzy

Sarah and Sam's old fashioned country village wedding

Old fashioned country village wedding

I’m thrilled to be sharing another exclusive real wedding with you on the blog today – a gorgeous June wedding set amongst stunning North Yorkshire countryside.  The bride Sarah, was one of the lovely girls who joined me for my TNWC 5th Birthday Party last April, so it’s especially lovely to share her wedding after hearing about their plans last spring.

For anyone planning a wedding on a ‘shoestring’ then this wedding is for you – as Sarah mentions later on, they took ideas they saw and worked out how they make it themselves.  It’s a real DIY wedding on a budget, but a totally beautiful one.

Over to Sarah to tell you all about her beautiful wedding to Sam…

Country bride and groom

Bouquet toss

Sarah and her husband Sam chose the 23rd June 2012 to get married, “because it was the Saturday closest to the midsummer solstice and there’s an old English tradition of weddings on that day.  We wanted an old-fashioned country wedding with an informal feel, and we tried to make everything homemade if it possibly could be.”

“The week before the wedding was a crazy whirl of preparations because it was such a DIY affair.  Luckily we had a fantastic team of family, friends and neighbours who worked tirelessly to finish preparing the food and decorations.”

Bride with bouquet of country flowers

Wooden wedding sign

Garden party wedding

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TNWC Real Brides: Caroline tells us about making a wedding cake and getting help from family and friends

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Izzy Burton illustration

The countdown for TNWC Real Bride Caroline has really begun – her wedding is less than a month away now so preparations are going at full tilt!  Caroline, and her Mr-to-be Gareth, are planning a very homemade wedding on their farm in Nottinghamshire with a picnic lunch full of local produce.  On top of it all, this month Caroline has been busy making a wedding cake for her friends wedding!

Over to Caroline to tell you what she’s been up to in the lead-up to her wedding…

Well the most exciting news this month is that the cows are out of the barns and in the fields!!!

The clean up job has officially begun!  This is the bit where I gracefully bow out (I have sooooooo much crafting to do so not possibly time to get up to my elbows in cow poo!!) and leave the mucking out, power hosing and yard sweeping to the boys.

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Jessica and Paul’s natural countryside wedding with a Georgian mansion ceremony and magical woodland evening party

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Natural countryside wedding

Natural countryside wedding

This week I’m going to spoil you all with another gorgeous real wedding – one in which the groom actually built a beautiful timber framed tent for their wedding reception in a woodland.  It really looks as magical as it sounds!  Wow, wow, wow.

Woodland wedding yurt lit up a night

Rustic wood table name holders

Jessica and Paul were married in Kent in September 2012 and celebrated their wedding with a ceremony and reception in a Georgian manor followed by a magical woodland after party.

Country manor house wedding

Bottles of Sloe Gin wedding favours

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