Right now, we’re all daydreaming about the day when everything can “get back to normal” and bring with it happy occasions such as weddings. And what’s the best part of a wedding (other than the couple’s happiness)? The cake at the reception, or dessert table with little petit fours and French macarons, apple roses and chocolate strawberries; a station with fruit tarts and trifles. The dessert–besides an open bar or champagne fountain–is likely to be the most popular part of any wedding reception, with everyone from the flower girl to the bride’s 89-year-old grandfather visiting once or twice.
While the current pandemic has upended a lot in our world, it hasn’t stopped couples from continuing to propose and get engaged. So if you are, with sweet hopefulness, still planning your wedding, baker and tastemaker Susie Sarich can help advise you on your dessert course.
Founder of SusieCakes, Sarich’s all-American bakery has expanded from a sole standalone store to more than 25 locations in California and Texas. To SusieCakes, “every day can be a celebration, [but] there is no bigger day than the big day,” and your desserts–baked with only the best, most fresh ingredients–should represent that.
Read on for some of Sarich’s anticipated wedding dessert trends.
Susan Sarich’s 2020 Top 10 Wedding Dessert Trends:
1. Weddings are not just for cake anymore! Guests are opting for pies and cookie bars; opulent dessert tables with many options outside of the cake.
2. Many customers are offering their guests an array of alternative desserts, while also purchasing a small cake for the traditional cutting ceremony.
3. Cakes with simple textures are becoming more and more popular by the year. Many guests have their florists put succulents and ferns into their wedding cakes to add an extra element.
4. Steering away from the traditional wedding cake–SusieCakes customers are becoming more prone to purchasing flavors like German Chocolate and Cheesecake for their guests to enjoy.
5. Rather than having one large cake in one flavor, it’s becoming more popular to purchase multiple 9” cakes in a variety of different flavors to please all guest palates.
6. Sticking to the trend of having multiple wedding cakes–it’s also becoming more common for customers to purchase one cake for each reception table.
7. One of the best wedding traditions to date is having a smash cake prepared to cover your loved one in frosting. An increasing number of customers are ordering a bunch of smash cakes, so each of their guests can participate. Who doesn’t want to have a small food fight at their wedding?!
8. As weddings have trended to the casual, cakes are following suit. Less and less formal cakes are being ordered by customers for their big day.
9. Many newlyweds are deciding to keep their wedding cake intact. Couples are now ordering a beautiful one tier wedding cake, and then a selection of sheet cakes for their guests to eat. That way the one-tier cake stays in one piece and acts as more of a décor item.
10. A new creative concept that is on the rise is ordering a large batch of frosted sugar cookies and using them as place cards that double as a wedding favor for guests. You can never go wrong with sugar cookies–and every wedding guest would be happy to eat their place card as soon as they find their seat.
Featured image by @the_grovers.