Written by Jan Minda Tesch
Cake pictured above was created by Julia Usher

Though much changes about weddings from trend to trend, the bride remains the featured star in this, one of the longest running stories told. And like the bride, whether dressed in froth and lace, or in more subtle and simple lines, the wedding cake is the center of attention at the wedding's reception.

But the bride has changed a bit over the years. She is no longer a possession being passed from father to husband, part and parcel of a package that also includes property and money. She has rewritten the story and placed herself in the director's chair.

The bride that Don Krause of Krause Kakes & Katering encounters is, as he says, "more mature and knows what she needs." She knows she can have her cake, eat it, and insist that it taste good, too. The emphasis is on quality, rather than on serving a cake that looks good in photographs but has few other virtues. Although Krause specializes in traditional, stacked cream cakes, he loves to work with a bride and groom to customize a design. One of his favorites was a ski-slope cake created for an athletic, down-hill couple.

New combinations of flavors are another recent trend. Many of Krause's clients are now requesting side cakes in addition to the main wedding cake, which allows them to offer guests more than one flavor of cake for dessert. The wedding cake may be traditional white or yellow dough adorned with whipped cream, fresh mangos, kiwis, or strawberries. The side cake might then be a chocolate or fudge cake split and filled with fresh raspberries or sumptuous mocha cream.

Cynthia Winders, fourth generation baker of the family-run Knodel's Bakery, observes that they cater to a traditional bride who often describes her choice in weddings as "simple elegance." "Our bride wants a magazine cake," Winders says, "so we work with each client on different designs to create a cake that fits both the vision and the budget."

Winders agrees that couples want to offer their guests more than just a pretty wedding cake. One of Knodel's many specialties is the groom's cake, a tradition which originated in Europe, where it was made for unwed female wedding guests, each of whom would take a slice home and place it under her pillow. The dream inspired by the sweet slice of cake would reveal the dreamer's future husband.

Now the groom's cake may serve as a surprise dessert for the groom, since often so much of the wedding revolves around the bride and her wishes. A groom's cake may be presented at the reception and cut for the wedding party. It can be saved for a wedding brunch or served at the rehearsal dinner.

Knodel's most popular groom's cake is called the Tux-berry. It is made of chocolate dough, adorned with strawberries, then robed in a chocolate tuxedo.

Julie Usher, who started AzucArte four years ago, describes her cakes as "not all drapery and romantic, but more modern and sleek." Because, as she says, "historically cakes looked pretty, but did not taste delicious," Usher made a commitment to bake cakes that were both. She feels her clientele is distinctive and chooses "styles with the same flare you might associate with the bride and groom's personalities." While she has baked novelty cakes, she finds that many of the clients who come to her are most satisfied with subtle shape and color.

Usher, like her clients, knows what she prefers. A "textured, more interesting cake" that blends two dominant flavors with three to four other elements. Her chocolate hazelnut torte is a chocolate cake with mocha mousse, hazelnut cream, and hazelnut dacquoise (a crunchy, meringue wafer).

"Decorating is independent of what's inside a cake," says Usher, whose trademark is her intricate designs: perhaps chocolate tiles and piping used to create a lacy pattern and then applied to rich buttercream. She is also fond of fondant, but suggests that clients taste this European-style icing first. It is "sweet and chewy, which makes it ideal for appliqué and piping," but is not always compatible with the American palate.

Another trend in wedding cakes honors both luxury and economy. Pam Meenach of Karen-Ann's Cakes says, "We can accommodate three hundred guests with a wedding cake that feeds one hundred and fifty." This is done by baking smaller, undecorated replicas of the wedding cake that have the same fillings and icing. These are plated in the kitchen, then served to guests. The bride has her dream cake, the guests a delicious dessert, and the budget some welcome relief.

"We do a lot of custom work. Anything our brides want, we'll try to tackle." Karen-Ann's Cakes regards the added extras as their specialty. Meenach describes an English icing design that the bakery uses as rolled buttercream. "It is comparable to fondant, but tastes much better." Karen-Ann's also specializes in life-like gum paste flowers that can be saved as a sweet token of the wedding day.

This article was contributed by Saint Louis Bride Magazine, working in partnership with Wedding-Club.com. If you have questions or comments about this article, please email their editor at nancy.slade@wheremagazine.com.