I was watching NBC news show this morning when I saw a business that only makes and rents fake wedding cakes. She doesn't even own an oven!!! Her husband makes the fake tiered cakes out of styrofoam. She said in wedding cakes can be cost between $300.00 to $3,000.00. It didn't say how much she rents them for. She solved the cake cutting dilemma by having a secret cut out in the back to place some real cake for the cake cutting. The most time consuming part of a cake, to me, is the decorating. How much money could you really renting a "fake" wedding cake? I also found this article on the internet.
Fake wedding cakes for thrifty couples
By Associated Press
Advertisement
GRANDVILLE, Mich. -- For the budget-minded bride and groom, a new business is offering a less costly alternative to buying an expensive wedding cake: renting a fake one.
The idea is to have an elegant, multitiered pretend cake for show while serving guests slices from a real, tasty and inexpensive sheet cake.
The inside of a faux wedding cake crafted by Fun Cakes in Grandville contains mostly plastic foam, with a secret spot reserved for a slice of real cake to be shared by the bride and groom. Everything is covered by gum paste and fondant, a frosting-like confection made from sugar and water often used in cakes and pastries.
After a bride and groom take the traditional first slice of their real wedding cake, it's often wheeled away from guests, out of their sight, to be cut up and served on plates. Do the same thing using a fake cake and a sheet cake, and guests will be none the wiser.
"The only difference is the inside. nobody can tell," said Kimberly Aya, whose 3-month-old company also bakes real cakes. The online version of her business is called CakeRental.com,
Fake cakes aren't new but renting them is fairly novel. Susan Lobsinger, who opened Rent the Cake of Your Dreams in East Aurora, N.Y., last year, said she knows of only one other cake-rental business - and it's in Canada.
Mary Brown, manager of Cakes Plus in Grand Rapids, said her bakery has rented out its window displays a few times when brides were desperate and needed something at the last minute.
"It was happenstance. It's not something that we do," she recently told The Grand Rapids Press. "But I don't see why not. It probably would be good business."
Brown said a typical three-tier cake serving around 100 guests costs an average of $200 to $250. Aya charges $100 to rent an in-stock fake cake and $150 for a custom design.
Bride-to-be Nicole Kreuger, 26, of Grand Rapids, said she will spend about half as much on a fake wedding cake from Fun Cakes paired up with a sheet cake as she would have spent on a real cake elsewhere.
"That's saving us a ton of money," she said.
What do you think?
I hate to admit this but that is what I though about doing. Imagine having a month to piddle with the cake (15 min. here and there) you wouldn't have to worry about spoilage and rushing to bake and decorate in 1 day. No worry about the cake sinking, icing cracking, crooked tiers, etc... I think it would cause way less stress.
There's been a number of threads on this topic. I went to a family get-together a couples of weeks ago and I was hit with "did you hear this story...?" from the radio. I think it's THE news filler story this year. Every magz, radio DJ, blah blah blah is talking about it.
What a shame that brides will get the idea that a fake cake isn't the same amount of work as a real cake.
I saw this, too! I thought it was very...interesting. As someone who's planned a wedding on a tight budget, I can see where it might sound appealing. But the cake is one of the most important parts of the wedding! Wouldn't the guests notice the icing being completely different. Many of the cakes they showed were covered with brightly colored fondant. I doubt they're buying sheet cakes with that on it. As someone who loves the decorating part way more than the baking, it sounds great! And half the cleanup, too!
I can't help but wonder... so what if the guests realize it isn't the same cake. Why will they care? The cake is for picture purposes and decoration, what does it matter if the guests get the actual wedding cake or not, they got dessert. Besides the occasion isn't about the cake so hopefully the guests wouldn't feel cheated..their friend did get married after all.
When I got married almost 10 years ago, I rented my cake, and had no interest in paying more than the 50 bucks I did for a cake. My Mom made a sheet cake of my favorite chocolate covered ith Cool Whip and that's what we had. I think that there are many people these days who think it's no biggy to have no cake. I have a friend who's getting married next summer who's having a fake cake made, and just serving finger desserts. If I went back now, I'd want a real cake and I'd make it myself, but at the time, it's what we could afford and no one at the wedding said anyything bad about it.
Tara
as a bride i would be totally mortified if someone accidentally found out i had a fake cake...
and the guests may not care...but i would...knowing that the cake they were eating wasn't the same one that they saw...plus i may feel a little guilty about it...
at the reception...the main attraction is the couple and the cake...i'm having a light set up for mine...
I read the website www.cakerental.com and found this to be puzzling... she has all the designs copyrighted and no copying allowed.
But this is copied and pasted from the website:
4) Choose a theme from this web site or any other source,
i.e. magazine, photograph, hand sketch etc. Check
www.funcakes4u.com for ideas. Send us an email, with
your name, shipping address and the desired arrival date.
i think due to our excessive exposure and obsessive nature, we are WAY OVER ANALYZING THIS 
yes, people do like to look at the cake, but i'm sure florists obsess about the flowers, but you see people all the time go with silk or dried, because their budget is dictating their choices....and you know what????? the wedding goes right on, the people still dance, the flowers are still flowers, and as long as the cake is tasty, they could care less.
i will say this much: it does say something about our society when we feel like we have to live up to the material examples others have set before us, (such as renting a huge fake cake when we're on a small budget) BUTTTTTT we are all guilty of it. heck, if i could have, i would have been one of those people that had a wedding that portrayed every single fairy tale dream i'd ever had, but on a $2000 budget, i had to get really creative. memories were made nonetheless, and i am just as married in the end.
<<<trips over her feet as she steps off the soapbox>>>
starlataylor has good observations. How many remember when it was UNHEARD of and almost a scandal for a bride to rent her dress? Even tho' guys have been renting their wedding attire for year and years? Now it's very common.
My sister, who has been married 25+ years, said if she had it to do over, she would have rented her dress. She said "I bought one because you're "suppose' to keep it for your daughter to wear."
She had two boys.
I am actually going to do this for my upcoming wedding. Everyone keeps asking me if I am making my cake. I really want to but do not want to nut trying to get everything done in time. I naturally was picking about the cake and did not like any of the cake options that were included in my wedding package. The site is making me the cake flavor i want and that is the cake the guests with be served. The cake they will be looking at that day will be stacked dummies made ahead of time by me. This way it is exactly what I want, I can do it ahead of time, and will have a stress free wedding (yah right).
Maybe I should take my dummy after the wedding and start renting it out?
I have mixed feelings about the fake cakes...I love decorating more than baking so it somewhat appeals to me...but I love the fact that my creations are edible. I love working on dummy cakes...as someone mentioned ...no worry of crooked...or spoiling cakes. As far as the guests knowing...I don't know how many care...but you wouldnt have to serve sheet cakes...you could do torted filled cakes ....but not worry about decorating or stacking them. I think ( hopefully) a market for both will remain...and honestly if you have several dummies to rent out and charge a little damage deposit so they stay in good enough condition to rent out several times...you could make a killing! Just my two cents.
I'm with you Kay, there is a profit to be made they don't spoil, easy to store and re-use. You have them as example's of your work, better in 3-D than pictures. Besides I doubt everybody will want one. There will still be plenty who want real cakes!! I also think they are great for people who have small weddings but still want the big cake. I have seen a lot of beautiful sheet cakes here on CC they don't have to be boring and they can be torted and filled. Just cause it's a sheet cake doesn't mean it can't be pretty and taste good.
If I wanted a BIG cake and had a smaller budget or heck maybe you arent having that many guests but you want a jumbo cake you can make the bottom teirs real and top teirs fake 
On a different board we priced it out and it came out to tie'n up about $600 of the wedding budget to rent one of those cakes. It was $200 for the rental of one of their "standard" designs, then shipping both ways, and a refundable damage deposit. Then there's the cost of the actual cake that is served to the guests... But overall, the response was "GROSS!!!" these things aren't sanitized from week to week, how do you know someone with something contageous didn't sneeze on the cake (sugar) and it incubates for a week or two before your wedding... Just overall the "Gross" factors just were too much...
This is just blasphemy! ha... I do enjoy the baking and decorating pretty much the same actually. Its funny though because baking the cake isnt the expensive part.
Ditto on the gross factor. Yucka! I would not want a cake that someone else had at their wedding.
Did anyone ever see the Sex and the City episode where Carrie and the girls go to LA? They get fake Prada purses (or whatever brand they were) and Carrie opts not to buy them because even though everyone else will see the label, all she will see is the sad purses in plastic bags being sold out of the trunk of a car in an alley? 
In some ways, that's how I see the whole fake cake thing. Some people will only want them for apperance, even though they are fake. If I can provide a service for these people and make money, I have no problem with it. However, if I were the bride (and this is my own personal opinion) it would be odd........I buy most of the clothes for me and my family second hand, so a snob I am not, but I would always look at those wedding pictures and think "That cake is fake!"
And I do hate that these articles get everyone thinking fake cakes are a time saver....are they dense? Do they not realize you need to get the styro and you still need to decorate the darn thing? I sat down one day, calculator in hand and unless you are having a small wedding but want a big cake, no way is doing a fake and ordering sheet cakes cheaper. The only way that works is if you have a bunch of fake cakes that you rent out - not a custom fake ........ a 'custom-made fake' - rotflmao!!
I don't see anything wrong with it.. Those who aren't leagal can use this as an opportuity to get customers and when or if they decide to become legal then.. they have already established their base... as for sanitation... it's not like you're eating it... when you go to the grocery store or anywhere else.. you have no idea if someone sneezeed on the packaging or coughed or whatever.. I doubt that you clean the package of your cookies before you open it up and take one out..
The point is, there is a market and If I can do... I will. Money is money and My job is to accomadate any way that I can.
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