Lavish, lengthy creations, such as those by Toronto's Crybaby Cakes are finding themselves on many a mood board.emily michelson/Supplied
Sheet cakes have always been present at weddings, just not front and centre: Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, if you will.
“You would make the tiered cake for show and for cutting and then the sheet cake would be waiting in the wings to make sure you can feed the hundreds of guests,” says New York-based pastry chef Lauren Schofield.
Now, they’re stepping into the spotlight. Scroll through the corner of social media reserved for wedding inspo and you’ll see plenty of cakes that are going horizontal instead of vertical. It’s a trend bolstered by bakers-gone-viral such as New York’s From Lucie, Toronto’s Crybaby Cakes and Gallz Provisions, and Philadelphia’s New June, whose lavish, lengthy creations are finding themselves on many a mood board.
The wedding cake, as we know it, is historically a tiered affair; there are sources who date its origins back to ancient Egypt, while others pinpoint their emergence to 18th-century England.
“Some say the tiers of the cake held symbolic meanings, such as good fortune, fertility and a happy marriage,” says Dorrin Shahsavari, founder of popular bakery Tummy Depot in Los Angeles. And tradition has dictated that the top tier of the wedding cake (the tiniest one often crowned with a thematic cake topper) should be saved and consumed by the couple on the occasion of their first anniversary.
A big cake has generally always cost big bucks, too. “Showcasing a grand cake to guests is a way to exemplify status or give the illusion of it,” says Pamela Thibodeaux of Deaux Baker in Austin, Tex. It was also believed, Shahsavari adds, that the taller the cake, the more prosperous the marriage would be. (A belief that hasn’t necessarily held up. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, and Liza Minnelli and David Gest, had eight- and 12-tiered behemoths respectively.)
New June’s vintage-style rosette and ruffled sheet cakes have become a core part of the decor at many weddings, according to Noelle Blizzard of Philadelphia’s New June Bakery.Elizabeth Hasier/Supplied
As for the sheet cake, its associations are far more humble: For most people it’s the grocery-store dessert picked up for a kid’s birthday party. “The first sheet cake I saw was when my uncle took me to Costco,” adds Shahsavari.
And while a tiered cake would be a major stretch for the average home cook, part of the sheet cake’s appeal is its DIY accessibility. “Most people have the pans they need for it at home and recipes tend to be an uncomplicated one-bowl bake,” says Noelle Blizzard of Philadelphia’s New June Bakery.
It’s also budget-friendly. “You definitely get way more cake for the cost versus a standard tiered cake,” says Julia Gallay of Gallz Provisions, where the smallest tiered cake (6″ + 8″) starts at $400 and feeds 35, while a $400 1/2 sheet will feed 50-60. And she says that sheet cakes are her most popular request. “They are my bread and butter.”
“Though they’re viewed as a more casual, practical and economical choice compared to their grand, multilayered counterparts, to me they are the epitome of a perfect cake,” says Shahsavari.
A growing wave of couples agree. When Philadelphia-based wedding photographer Jason Moody got married last June, the event was small (with only 24 guests) and they wanted a cake that was beautiful but fit the low-key vibe. “Our inspiration for the cake came from From Lucie in New York and her signature sheet cakes decorated with icing, jams, curds and florals,” Moody shares.
The sheet style allows for more experimentation in design.Elizabeth Hasier/Supplied
For her October wedding at the Shangri-La in Toronto, Isabel Lee, a wedding planner and founder of Love Lee Celebrations, wanted a cake that nodded to her design scheme (light and bright with florals that incorporated seasonal fruit) and didn’t feel too fussy. “I loved that it seemed a little more casual and I also wanted to blow out candles like you would for a birthday and the sheet cake was perfect for this.”
Brooke Cowitz of Crybaby Cakes conjured a floral and fruit-strewn lemon poppyseed cake laced with raspberry jam, pistachio cream and lemon buttercream. To top it off, Lee got letter-block candles from This Candle is Lit that spelled ‘MARRIED!’
The sheet cake is a different kind of flex. Making a classically tiered cake is a test of a baker’s skills. “A well-executed tiered cake takes a tremendous amount of time and precision to construct,” says Thibodeaux. Technically, a sheet version is far easier to build, explains Schofield. From a baker’s perspective, they are more stable and easier to transport, says Gallay; for guests, they are less intimidating to cut. And Thibodeaux adds that their centre of gravity is much more manageable than a towering style so you can use more sponge and filling options.
But the sheet style also allows for even more experimentation with design. “There’s so much room for creativity,” says Lee. And the bakers who have been building increasing numbers of them agree. “It’s literally an edible blank canvas,” says Thibodeaux, who recently crafted a three-foot-long, two-layer wedding cake for an Austin affair inspired by the Texas hill country landscape (her husband, a fine woodwork craftsman, made a solid oak board for it).
For Shahsavari, more surface area has created an opportunity to push the possibilities of frosting. She’s been building upward and sideways, airbrushing and, recently, used buttercream to mimic the imperfect cragginess of a mountaintop.
And Blizzard says New June’s vintage-style rosette and ruffled sheet cakes have become a core part of the decor at many weddings: “These longer sheet cakes are now a centrepiece tablescape moment as well.”
As weddings continue to break with tradition in so many ways – such as non-white dresses and solo aisle walks, but also more out-of-the-box decor and settings – the sheet cake feels like a fitting evolution. The tada effect is still there when couples go long (sometimes very long; Shahsavari has scoped cakes that span the length of a table with seats for 50). Says Schofield: “Everyone still wants their wedding cake to be really special, but less people are wed to the idea that it has to be tiered.”
One in a regular series of stories. To read more, visit our Inspired Dining section.