Behind the Scenes of an Elegant Winter Wedding Dessert Table
Last November, Sarah and Andy said ‘I do’ in the magical setting of Froyle Park Country Estate in Hampshire. It was an elegant winter wedding for which I had the pleasure of designing and creating a complete dessert table featuring three different wedding cakes, iced biscuits engraved with their wedding date, cookie pops, meringue kisses and white chocolate pyramids with silver leaf. Here I’m taking you behind the scenes of the journey from initial commission to the very last crumb.
When Sarah hired me for her wedding to Andy, she was armed with plenty of inspiration for the wedding day as a whole on her detailed Pinterest board. This gave me the overall feel for the day: a black-tie affair full of sophisticated, understated glamour, using neutral tones of taupe, softest blush and silver to offset the dark suits.
Below is a mood board that Sarah (as a graphic designer) made for her wedding.
Venue
Once we knew the colours and style, we thought about the venue itself and how this could and should influence the cake design (read my post about matching your cake to suit your venue here). Froyle Park has a gorgeous, light and airy ballroom with neutral tones and marble style flooring, so we decided to incorporate the marble effect into a tier of one of the cakes. It’s a large room so we didn’t want the cake to get lost, therefore opting to make a really eye-catching display of the table.
Flowers
This wedding was an all-roses affair – classic and sophisticated in neutral tones. Sarah also opted for dusty miller and eucalyptus as foliage for its silvery tone to give a wintery, frosty effect. I took this theme and recreated it in sugar – neutral and soft pink sugar roses with sugar dusty miller. (Not sure whether to go for sugar or fresh flowers? Read this post here)
Season
In addition to the frosty foliage, we gave one of the tiers a wintery look by using white edible sequins, mimicking the glitter of fresh snow. The taupe edible paint had a sheen to it, again adding a little extra gleam of light and shimmer. We took that idea into the little sweet treats too with dainty meringue kisses like snowfall and shimmery sequins on white iced biscuits engraved with the wedding date.
Flavours
Sarah and Andy decided on flavours of classic vanilla, ultimate Belgian chocolate and luscious lemon for their wedding cakes (don’t worry, if you want multiple flavours, you don’t need multiple cakes – each tier can be different! Read the menu here).
Here’s what bride Sarah had to say about the process.
“Having followed Hayley’s work for over a year, I knew there was no one else I would have wanted to make our wedding cake. We wanted a dessert table that would get our guests talking – and it certainly did that! Working with Hayley was a delight; she took my overall wedding ideas and used her creative, cake-designing genius to come up with something that exceeded my expectations. I went into the ballroom before the guests for a sneak peek, and the dessert table honestly took my breath away. Everyone said it was the best they’d ever seen, and tasted too! I still dream of the soft ganache beneath the fondant icing… it has to be tasted to be believed.”
Ready to start your own wedding cake journey? Enquire here.
Photo credits: Hannah McClune Photography
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