Please forgive my rant...I don't mean to blast anyone's noticeable talent (and there's a lot around here!), but I am picky with what I like.

Where are all of the interesting wedding cakes? If I see one more plain white 3-tier cake with sprays of buttercream flowers down the side and some Swiss dots, I think I'm gonna vomit.

Does anyone specialize in the weird?

My wedding cake in 2003 was simple but semi-funky, inspired by a Martha Stewart design (I was not yet making cakes, so the caterer did it). I loved it, and I rarely see anything cool in today's weddings.

Lemme clarify...I've seen lots of cool pics here in the forums. What I see that is so boring are the websites and brochures of places in my area. Don't very many bakeries do anything funky on purpose, or is it only special requests?

Most bakeries don't go out on a limb with funky wedding cakes. However, some bride's want traditional instead of contemporary or funky.

I love doing funky cakes with lots of color!!! I really do try to guide couples into choosing something fun, however, most of my couples want white and classic.

I swanee, if I have to do one more all white, three tier stacked fondant cake with drop strings and red roses I will puke. The funny thing is, they all think they are SSSSOOOOO unique when they choose this cake. Gah.

On the lighter side, I have done that same cake so many times I can do it in my sleep, and it goes quickly.

Chutzpah, I'm so curious as to who that is in your pic. I've always wondered if it's you or a relative, or who?

I think bakeries that focus on production are going to do what's easiest and cost effective over special and creative. However, it's up to the couple to determine the style. Too bad some people don't have good style, right!?

Hi Sugared Up!

It's not me, it is Florence King, the author. I love her right slap to death.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

I agree with you. When I got married 10 years ago the cakes in all the bridal magazines were all 'elegant' ivory or white 3 tier cakes with flower or ribbon decoration. Whilst I think many of these cakes are stunning they just didn't reflect my taste.

My MIL is a fabulous cake decorator so she gave some cake books to look through. The books were out of date and just showed traditional styles - I couldn't find one I liked so I just told her to do what she liked. I ended up with a two oval fruitcakes on a floating stand with a large spray of gumpaste flowers on top of each.

It was elegant but not my style at all. I wish I had known about this website and all the beautiful and non-traditional designs available. Perhaps I'll renew my vows and use it as an excuse to make a really cool wedding cake!

I try to get clients to choose non-traditional designs, and sometimes I get some good ones. I had one couple get a cake that was decorated in swirly-fog colored buttercream and I made a topper that was a bride and groom who looked like the figure in Munch's "the Scream"

I can sometimes get people to do a lot of color, but I think that most people come in with a mental image of what a wedding cake "should" be, adn it's hard to get away from that. Not to mention that the mother of the bride is usually sitting there with a sour look on her face if the bride wants to stray from that. You know that she's going to hear about it on the car ride home.

I think that people are getting educated about what you can do, though, with more visible non-traditional cakes on tv these days. It's changing, but slooooowly. I totally know what oyu mean with the red roses and swiss dots! For me it's the white-on-white piping with different patterns on each tier. I can do that one in my sleep now.

I wish every bride would give us decoraters free control over the cake and design everytime!! Imagine the stunning creations we could turn out!!

oops! duplicate post.

I'm a traditionalist, so some of the funky looking cakes "bug" me, but I love the creativity of them! I, too, am so bored with "dots and a ribbon" cakes I could scream. Geesh, it takes no talent to do those but it's what the bride wants, so it's what I make.

But traditionalist that I am, for my own birthday, I did all kinds of funky color!! http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1303013 (It may seem calm to some, but it's wild and carefree to me! )

Give me a good overpiped cake with BC roses, swags and stringwork that displays lots of creativity and talent and I love it!!!

Let's not forget the MOB's. My cousin really wanted me to do her cake but her mommy wanted a classic cake.

Keeping up with Jones' plays a part, too. Brides may want a wild cake, but then think twice if there is a chance someone will talk smack about it.

OMG! I have the coolest wedding cake in the works right now! It is for delivery this weekend................I took pictures of a cake in Atlantic City at the RBA Expo in Albert Uster Imports booth and fell in love with it.........all black and white and really "funky" looking....I live in a small town and thought "I will never have a bride allow me to do this"... Anyway- I sketched one similar to it for the bride who told me to surprise her- but used her colors- teal, brown, and gold.........and she loved it! I was so excited...........I will post pictures Sunday!!!! It has lots of gumpaste flowers with dots and stripes on them!!!

I also think that brides tend to go for traditional looking cakes as they want to look back at the photos in 20 or so years later and know that their cake was elegant and 'timeless' rather than funky, trendy and possibly gaudy.

That's a great point; I remember back in the 80's when we thought there was NOTHING wrong with our fashion, our hairstyles, our makeup, etc. but to look at pictures of myself now I just about die laughing!! So, what works for the here and now and considered 'cool and trendy' may be something a bride will regret down the road, so they stick with safe and classy.

I'm with you on the fondant thing; I love it! Much more so than bc, but I think people have heard enough negativity about it they go into tasting it automatically assuming it's bad, so, then they say it is.

MacsMom:- You took the words outta my mouth!

I personally LOVE funky, unique, over the top cakes....lots of color, unconventional shapes..etc. Then again...I'm an 80's girl and I still can't wait for someone to tell me to go get a mega spiral perm and break out the electric blue eyeliner. If I have a bride that wants something really unique and fun but is afraid to go totally over the top, I recommend doing the completely wild design...but in different shades of white and add luster or glitter for texture contrast.

I love funky cakes too. My very first wedding cake was a 3-D volcano that smoked. AWESOME!!

But we are limited by what the brides want.

Well, the brides aren't asking me for much, but the kids sure are. Here's one I did with rolled buttercream and fondant, it sure was a lot more fun.

I've been an actual business since Oct. '07. I just did my 3rd bridal show. I had several brides come up to me and ask if I would even do fondant. Apparently the other cake person at the show said she would not work with fondant, not only because of the taste, but it was hard to work with. She's been doing this for over 20 years. I happened to bring some bite size pieces of fondant with me and had them try it. The Wilton is nasty, but I use Pettinice. The brides are surprised to find out that it doesn't taste bad. The other decorator sticks with the more traditional designs. I hate doing all that frilly stuff, and very rarely get requests for it. I do very few "all white" weddings either. I find that if it is the mom who has more input, it's more tradional. But if the bride is making her own choice, it's a whole lot modern.

Here's one I recently did. The original design was in fondant, but they wanted to stick with all buttercream. http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1310245

Yes, funky cakes are fun , but IMHO - sometimes simple is the most elegant. And many brides want elegant on their wedding day.

Hey jkalman, I am down with that!!! A volcano that smokes...how coooooooool. By the way...I am from NH!! Grew up in Manchester, Auburn area. Moved after high school and only go back to visit family. It's just cool to see someone from NH...rarely happens to me!!

Interesting topic - and how timely. My friend and I were just discussing a couple days ago that we're afraid we've finally seen it all as far as cakes go. We haven't really seen anything new or unusual and all the cake magazines are starting to look exactly the same. I've cancelled a couple of my subscriptions already because it seems that every month is a recycled version of the previous month's issue.