How much is a wedding cake?

[TunaSalad]

Getting married next year and have started looking at wedding cakes.

We plucked a random figure out of the air of £400 for our provisional budget.

I have fallen in love with a cake maker and her prices start at £575.

I am trying to convince my DP that this is reasonable and actually our guesstimate was way under. He wants to keep looking and find something closer to budget.

So what do wedding cakes cost roughly in your area? This is 3 or 4 tiers.

It would depend on certain factors, such as do you want a traditional fruit cake with royal icing or a sponge cake with fondant icing.
Will you be providing the cake topper, or will they?
All these things will add to the cost.
You need to shop around and where possible, read customer reviews.

I’d choke on a cake that cost that much and I had a very nice wedding. That said it was a long time ago and fashions change. Honestly try not to get sucked in to the wedding mania. It’s one party and then you have your life together.

I've seen some lush ones for close to £1000.

TBH, the cake is essentially a decoration. Not many people actually eat it or even remember it.

We had 100 cupcakes from a local bakery which cost £150 and then a small M&S cake to cut for the photos. The cake didn't end up getting eaten but the cupcakes were really popular as people could take them away at the end of the night or grab then whenever they wanted.

What about a naked cake less time to ice might be cheaper

We had a £120 cake from Lola's Cupcakes (two tiers) and everyone said it was delicious - I wouldn't know as our 50 guests chowed down on cake for 70 before we got a look in!! Obviously it didn't look as amazing as some of the things out there but we didn't care enough about a big, fancy cake to pay more than that. Totally comes down to what you value on your wedding day.

Mine was £800 9 years ago
Best chocolate cake ever
I have fonder memories of that cake than my marriage 😄

It depends on what kind of thing you are looking for and the number of servings you need. If it’s an intricate design with sugar flowers etc, then yes £600 upwards wouldn’t be unusual. £400 will get you a nice cake, but not a ‘showstopper’.

My friend had a 'Cheese' cake- huge rounds of different cheeses (3 layers on top.of each other) with grapes/ figs/ crackers/ oatcakes/ chutneys artfully laid around it. They cut it like usual for photos. Was fantastic.

It does have sugar flowers on which makes it more expensive.

DP has lots of views on what he does and doesn't want, so no real flowers on it for example, not square, certain flavours.

I absolutely LOVE cake so it will definitely get eaten even if we take it home and spend the whole of the next day in a cake coma!

It's hard to guess a budget for things with no idea how much things actually cost.

Ours was £260, 5 years ago for 3 layers. That was three different spring flavours (chocolate orange, lemon and coffee) and iced with buttercream. The florist dressed it with flowers she used on the bouquets and for centrepieces.

Mine was about 350, for 100 people. 3 tiers of different flavours on each tier. I also didn't get a look in but I hope my guests enjoyed it!

Oh he hates naked cakes too - thinks they look unfinished.

I love cheese but am lactose intolerant so that's out.

I don't want to get carried away but am happy to pay if it's reasonable to charge that much.

*sponge, not spring

M&S used to do cakes, I think they still do. That is probably a good place to get a budget from.

I paid £350 18 years ago.

It was too big but it did our wedding and two christenings so I suppose I got value for money.

We got married on a budget.

I arranged for a student from a professional patisserie college to make mine. She charged me £80 plus taxi to the venue to drop it off, and I provided some photos for her use. That price also included tasting of a cupcake version of the sponge with different icings. I think she did it as cost of materials x 3.

We made our own 3 tier chocolate cake, and have made the same for friends. Ingredients alone were £150+, and that’s back when butter was £1 a pack!

Add in labour etc & I’m surprised you can get one for £400.

A guest ate my sugar flowers then spat it out going oh it’s hard not soft.

I will get over it eventually but I paid £50 12 years ago for those pissing flowers <goes for lie down in dark room>

Around £500. But when I got married my husband's boss who is an amateur cake maker, made the cake. His work colleagues all kindly chipped in so it was his work's wedding present to us. And it looked and tasted amazing, just as good as any professional cake.

Would fake flowers be acceptable? Sugar flowers take hours to make. You are paying for the bakers expertise and hourly rate as well as ingredients.

We get married in a few weeks - we have 4 tiers raspberry sponge, naked cake with berries on. It’s £600. She’s not the cheapest but it tasted amazing!

Or a smaller cake with cutting cakes in the kitchen might reduce the price slightly.
Can you post a photo of it?

My mum made a 3 tier wedding cake for our wedding. It was traditional fruit cake and the ingredients alone cost £200. It did serve over 100 people plus we kept the top layer for our Christmas cake.

I can imagine if we had bought it then it would have easily been £600.

We got ours from M&S.

I’m in SE and decided not to have a cake after getting quoted £600+ multiple times for plain iced sponge (in colours matching our decor).

our local bakery then offered to make us one for £275. 3 tiers to feed 80, iced in swiss meringue buttercream, then our florist added flowers for £25!