Eight great ways to crown your wedding cake.
1. If the traditional look of white-icing ribbons and flowers isn’t your style, top your cake with a toy, memento or travel souvenir that says something about the two of you. For instance, if you plan to honeymoon in Paris, consider a miniature Eiffel Tower. If you’re both avid tennis fans, deck the cake with two toy tennis rackets.
2. Do as one Canadian couple did: have a talented friend create a miniature sculpture in clay or Fimo (a popular moldable material found in craft stores) portraying the two of you in wedding finery enjoying a favourite activity—in their case, jet skiing.
3. Ask your florist to create a living floral cake topper to co-ordinate with your bridal bouquet. Have your bridesmaids place their bouquets around the cake for a beautiful setting for your cake-cutting pictures.
4. Register for a fine china or crystal figurine of a bride and groom, two doves, a delicate flower or a sculpted heart to top your cake. This lovely gift could be handed down to grace the wedding cakes of future generations in a family-honoured tradition.
5. Find a baker who knows the secrets of European confectioners to create masterpieces in marzipan and icing: a bouquet, a pair of swans, a tumble of ribbons—whatever you fancy for the sweetest of cake toppers.
6. For an informal wedding, a gingerbread-cookie bride and groom make a great whimsical touch to top off your cake.
7. A wedding with a Victorian theme inspires a preserved-flower arrangement with each blossom chosen for what it symbolizes, such as lilacs for first love, ivy for fidelity, white roses for pure love or rosemary for remembrance and friendship.
8. Create an edible fantasy with sugar-coated fruit and flowers. Do some research into edible, pesticide-free flowers—sugar-coated rose petals and violets were favourites in Victorian times. Then design an arrangement, perhaps featuring a chocolate basket to hold the goodies, to get your guests’ mouths watering.