why oh why are brides set on having hideous traditional toppers on modern funky cakes? My bride has picked a fab cake - its a 4 tier white square stacked cake with tiny swags of pastel blossoms and a wired butterflies coming out of the top - so excited to be doing this design i love it. this cake has the butterflies on top, it needs NO topper the butterflies ARE the topper but today she gave me what can only be described as an 80's nightmare bride and groom with the brides dress being made of REAL satin on the hideous plastic figurines. OMG this is absolutly horrific like something a 4 year old would pick up at a charity shop and totally is against every aspect of the cake. I am so not photographing it with the topper for my website!!

i dont understand how brides can still want this stuff. she is so young and trendy and i sent her all the really beautiful sites for ideas like pinkcakebox, maisiefantasie, cake girls, etc none of which have these hideous cake ruiners on - where do they get the ideas for them from

Maybe it's a family heirloom. I've had a couple of those.

Oh I feel your pain!

Just make sure you get a good pic without the topper. That's what I always do.

not its not an heirlom - she actually chose it and bought it off the internet and then liked it enough to give to me today - THERE IS NO EXCUSE!!!!

I agree....the topper on a wedding cake often says NOTHING about current trends...but EVERYTHING about tradition, sentimentality, honor, and family.

I wouldn't argue with it. Do what you can with what you have.

There is no honor in a 12-inch tall Wilton WT plastic topper bedecked with tulle.

[quote="Mensch"]There is no honor in a 12-inch tall Wilton WT plastic topper bedecked with tulle.[/quote]


MWahhahahahha yup thats what i think. i know i cant do anything about it - im just sad its going to COMPLETELY ruin the look of the cake, it truly could not be any more hideous like a nightmare and the faces of the figures,.....well my dog could paint better

I bet Leahs is right! I bet it's a family heirloom or something - not that that's a good excuse!
For my first marriage (in the 70's ha!ha!) I wanted to use my grandmother's bride and groom topper. It was some kind of ceramic and the veil was real, but it was torn and yellow. One of my bridesmaid's offer to fix it for me. Well, she took it, repainted the groom's tux peach ( I know, hideous to say the least, but it WAS the 70's) darkened the groom's skin color (he was Hawaiian) and added a mustache..oh, wait, maybe this post should go in Cake Disasters!

Try to think of it as kitsch, maybe that will help.

Take a pic before they put it on, and you never have to worry about it.

BTW, met with a couple this weekend for a tasting, they are already booked, just needed to pick flavors. Asked if anything changed, any updates to the design, concerns, questions...oh, are you putting a topper on the cake? "Yes, it's a set of bells with white tulle and lace and pearls."

((crickets chirping))

Oh, ok. This is going on a completely modern black and red cake. What....the....????

We (as cake decorators) have to remember that the wedding is not about "us".

We can guide as we see fit, but in the end, it is what the client wants.

Just as if the DJ is a die-hard rap fan, but the family wants classic rock.
Or if they want 80's music, but we love grunge.
or if they want new-age, but we love traditional (with the chicken dance thrown in)
I've been to wedding where they DEMAND no "I Like Big Butts"
and where they want the Carpenters played over and over.

The cake/the music....no difference. Give them what they want. Ultra-modern wedding....70's music.

Ultra modern-cake....70's topper......

I picked a "modern" topper - a glass square with our names & the date.
The cake decorator did a beautiful job.

BUT

I came into my reception and someone had shoved the glass block into the top layer of the cake. It was pretty deep in and the ganache on the cake was cracked open. All I could do was laugh! A little too late to do anything else.

I had a bride bring me that clear double heart topper from walmart that you see in so many pictures. I asked if she trusted me and she said yes. I asked if she would mind if I remade it. She agreed so I bought the most realistic red roses I could find ($6 each) and used them to replace the horrible white shiney roses that were on it. The rest of the cake had more of the roses on each tier and she was very happy with it. I think the consultation is a good time to address toppers and what would be appropriate for the design of the cake.

Lol...ketchup bottle. Yep, they can put their stinky tennis shoe on top of it for all I care. I guarantee I would never post a pic of it advertising my work, but I will surely come here and talk about it though!

I've seen some ugly (in my opinion) toppers, but what gets me is when the style of the topper is completely different than the style of the cake. I think that's what the OP meant, not that the topepr sounded nice-looking. It's the design disconnect taht gets me, but what can you do? Oh well, just take your pictures before you put the topper on...

I did one wedding recently where the cake wasn't too "modern," but it had very clean lines. The topper arrived in the mail, and when I opened it I was horrified to see a 10" tall, tulle and lace-encrusted arch with Kermit and Miss Piggy standing under it in wedding clothing! What got me about it was the height of it, and the fact that it's hideousness had obviously been special-ordered from somewhere. I think that it had glitter all over it, too. So I stuck it on the cake and skedaddled. If the bride liked it for whatever reason that's her call.

One of the waitstaff there did make the comment that it made you wonder what the bride and groom looked like!

I wish the topper was the problem with the cake a bride wants....I normally say "no" to wedding cakes but this gal is a co-worker with my daughter. She says "it can be real small 2 tier, 8" & 6"" ....she says "my colors are white and black, and ivory...oh well I guess theirs really no white....and fall colors" as I must be staring blankly at her while she's talking she also says "ya, I ordered a flower cake topper when I ordered my flowers" So I ask her "so, like yellow, orange and red, or yellow, orange and brown for fall colors?" .... She said, "ya....whatever, I'm not picky" ARGHHHH...

Mind you I haven't finalized anything with her but it is just frustrating when someone is so flighty. And come on.....Ivory, black, yellow, orange and red or brown. I'm just not getting a good feeling about this, which is exactly why I don't like to do wedding cakes!!

i have had a scenario like this and have gently tried to sway the bride away from her choice but without luck so gone with her choice of evil topper, its her cake

I feel your pain, but bottom line it, it's their cake. I do what they want me to (but within reason of course)

Jen

Many will disagree with me, but I won't put a topper on a cake unless it's worked into the design in a reasonable way. They can stick whatever the hell they want on the cake after it's delivered, but if they want me to put it on the cake it's going to fit the design of the cake. 99% of my wedding cakes don't have "toppers" (meaning a traditional wedding topper purchased for the top of the cake), but rather flowers or some other design element that fits into the scheme of the cake.

On a personal note, when I got married the first time (with the big wedding I wanted no part of--before my caking days, by the way), my mother bought me this hideous Wilton topper with all-white porcelain bride and groom backed by these ugly 80's curved glass panels... it was atrocious... it never saw the top of that cake (I think stuck it on the favor/steaing card table or something).

And for a visual... this is the topper dear old mom got for me:


**shudder**

Oh dear, Tara, my eyes are bleeding.

What I hear a lot of is " well it's pretty but it just doesn't look like a wedding cake" so cheap wilton wedding people go on a fabulous expensive cake. I say bring on toppers IF they fit the cake and the style of the bride and groom, don't just stick plastic crap on there to make it an official wedding cake

i had one of those square acrylic toppers and it fell over into whipped icing no less. I never took it out of the bag after the bride brought it to me (mistake #1), and just figured, "hey, its a cake topper- its made to go on a cake." (mistake #2)- how can I have been doing this as long as I have and am still an idiot!?
So I ended up getting a repair kit when the hall called me and rushed back over and propped it up with one of those long sucker sticks. It worked, but you could see the stick a tad. So definitely use a support in back and lean it slightly.... then hope no one bumps the table! Those acrylic things are SOOOO dumb!

I don't do too many wedding cakes. But the last one I did, the bride brought me a topper someone had given her as a gift. She liked it, and did not want to disappoint her friend. It really was beautiful, a porcelain wedding couple dancing. But it weighed about 5 lbs and was about a foot tall. Neither it nor the cake would have survived had I put it on top of the cake. So we stood it on the cake table next to the cake. Her friend seemed happy. I was relieved.