PJ Magerko-Liquorice and Jordan Millington-Liquorice’s ten-foot wedding cake. Photo: Corbin Gurkin
From architectural wonders to vegan options and even a Funfetti confection
In need of wedding cake ideas? We’ve got a few. The ceremonious confection has, after all, been a tradition for millennia: its roots trace back to ancient Rome, where grooms would break a barley cake over their bride’s head to officialize their union. Thousands of years later, Queen Victoria served a royal icing cake to her bridal party for her marriage to Prince Albert—the earliest precedent of the all-white style that’s still so commonplace today—whereas her son, Prince Leopold, is often credited with being the first person to serve a completely edible tiered cake on his wedding day in 1882. (A photograph of the historic cake, which is on display in Kensington Palace, shows it was decorated with putti figures holding bows and arrows.)
Fast forward to modern day, and wedding cakes have become a highly personal matter of preference—and, as we’ve seen in Vogue’s wedding coverage—sometimes even an art form. Take Umber Ahmad s brutalist-inspired cake, or PJ Magerko-Liquorice and Jordan Millington-Liquorice’s ten-foot wedding cake that required sabers to cut. At the culmination of their three-day St. Tropez extravaganza, Sarah Staudinger and Ari Emanuel cut an enormous Tarte Tropézienne, while Babba Canales served a Swedish “princess cake” with a miniature 3-D print of the couple on top.
Below, see some of the best (and most unusual) wedding cakes published in Vogue weddings—perhaps you’ll find inspiration for your own.
1/18
Anna Mack and Ben Pardee
A creation by Christoph Artisan Chocolatier. There were three flavors in each tier—lavender, espresso, and tres leches. The flowers were made with traditional French chocolate molds.
2/18
Umber Ahmad and Ray Crisara
The couple worked on their architectural cake with Heather Anne Leavitt, of Sweet Heather Anne in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
3/18
Makeda Saggau-Sackey and Thomas Rabioux
Khadija Fouchard of K&Kakes created two cake flavors for the couple; one with red velvet with cream cheese frosting and one vanilla cake with lemon cream. They saved the top layer, which was a combination of both flavors, to celebrate their one-year anniversary.
4/18
Chloe Richards and Lee Rubenstein
A berry-topped, tiered confection.
5/18
Babba Canales and Carl Waldekranz
A traditional Swedish “princess cake”—a torte made up of sponge cake and pastry cream—decorated with roses and a miniature 3-D print of the couple on top.
6/18
Camille Charriere and Francois Larpin
This giant St Honoré cake was the biggest the patissier ever made, at 80 cm in diameter.
7/18
Ivy Getty and Tobias Engel
The couple’s cake was made by Flour & Bloom.
8/18
Alexandra Daddario and Andrew Form
This cake was cookies-and-milk-flavored.
9/18
Sarah Staudinger and Ari Emmanuel
A gigantic Tarte Tropézienne, the one and only dessert of St. Tropez.
10/18
Dasha Muzaleva and Max Aengevelt
This cake was accented with floral garlands and icing made to look like lace.
11/18
Latisha Duarte and Luke Mccoubrey
A tiered lemon crème fraîche cake.
12/18
Caroline Sieber and Fritz von Westenholz
Layers of cake and flowers.
13/18
Elizabeth Fisch and Michael Dishi
A carrot cake with layers of buttercream and all sorts of berries.
14/18
Gabriella Campagna and Mario Milana
An Italian-style wedding torta made out of custard and berries.
15/18
Nicole Schuetz and Kevin Systrom
The cake complemented the greenery of the Napa vineyard where the wedding was held.
16/18
Pamela Love and Matthew Nelson
The newlyweds cutting their cake, which included one vegan tier for the groom.
17/18
Sabine Ghanem and Joseph Getty
The couple named their cake “Il Robbiano.” It was inspired by the Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia. “We loved the meringue, cream, and crown of fresh fruits on the flat cake,” Sabine says.
18/18
Jamie Schneider and Nico Mizrahi
The cake flavor was Funfetti, which the couple served alongside old-fashioned peanut butter, chocolate chip, and sugar cookies.
This story originally appeared on Vogue.com
