Wedding Dress Rose Inspired Cake

I love using fashion as inspiration for wedding cake design.  Especially when the bride is in love with her dress, as most are.  Our bride Laura Meeks came to us with this photo and her color swatches (yay for color swatches) and let us design something original.

Martina Liana 316

The first thing we did was to sketch our idea for the cake with a right cascade for a more modern placement.  The scripty "L" tied in with other design elements of the reception.  The main unique attribute - the bride wanted a gray cake! We love gray, but know that there is a fine line between a yuck gray and a beautiful greige, we tread lightly. 

The bride loved the sketch, so we proceeded with the next phase.... testing our ideas.  At our bakery we use new or invented techniques every week, but try to iron out any wild card ideas way in advance in case the execution is not what the bride had in mind.  In this case we pinched fondant in a rose shape to get the three dimensional texture that makes the dress so rich and lush.  Here is the result of our test:

Although we felt like geniuses, it ended up not being what the bride had in mind. She really loved the graphic feel of the original sketch.  We decided to do the rose piping in the deep ivory/light yellow in her color swatches. The scripty "L" monogram was made of gumpaste and royal icing, custom made for the 4" topper.  Here was the final cake:

We love to hear what design details brides get excited about.  Taking those details and incorporating them in the cake design is even more fulfilling!  Thank you Laura for trusting us!