Cupcake Wedding Cakes! A Fresh Twist on a Favorite Dessert

As with all fashion, wedding trends come and go. The wedding industry is a lucrative and ever growing cash cow that thrives on change. When spring approaches, you can barely elbow your way through a bookstore without being attacked by a stack of wedding planner books, wedding magazines, and targeted magazine advertising from involved industries like floral, travel, fashion, and food. Through the marketing hype, brides have gradually come to view the various elements of their wedding design as a combined personal statement, coming out party, and good luck charm for the success of their marriage. With pressure like that, it's no wonder that the newest trend to emerge in the last five years is the anti-trend.

Stealthily growing from its roots within the alternative culture attitude towards marriage and pageantry, non-traditional wedding style has gained some acceptance within the mainstream wedding industry. So when creative couples began wowing their guests with cupcake wedding cakes, trend watchers sat up and took notice. If cupcakes seem a little childish to you, fear not. A little browsing through the links at the end of this article will open your eyes to the artistic, even elegant possibilities. And those with their hearts set on the cake-cutting tradition will be pleased to see the many styles of tiered cupcakes topped with a small conventional wedding cake.

The popularity of the cupcake wedding cake is easy to understand. Cupcakes are cheap, fun, easy to decorate, and come in many flavors. A wedding cupcake cake can be designed with enough variety in flavors that all guests are sure to find something tasty. Better still, the cupcakes can be baked weeks in advance, frozen, and easily transported to the reception. And really, if even Martha Stewart has thrown her hat into the ring,it has got to be a winner.

The best thing about the popularity of cupcake wedding cakes is that it can be either a DIY creation or a professional's work. Web sites like Offbeat Bride, the brainchild of Ariel Meadow-Stallings and author of the book of the same name, showcase the work of couples who decided to take their wedding down the path less traveled and created unique weddings based on their personal lifestyles. Ariel, a self-confessed child of hippie parents, amassed such a wealth of resources while planning her own offbeat wedding that she put her journalist talents to work and compiled everything into her book, "Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives For Independent Brides." Since the book was published in 2006 and the accompanying web site created, Ariel has received e-mails, photos, and testimonies from couples all over the world volunteering to share their wedding ideas. The wedding cupcake cake, or cupcake tree, is such a prevalent theme that it has its own search tag. Most of these cupcakes were created by the brides, family and friends as a means to cut down on costs. Some are simple, some are stylish. Each of them are perfect compliments to the personality of each couple.

On the other hand, professional bakers have taken wedding cupcake cakes to the height of couture and expense. Beautiful creations of fondant, frill, and flowers in miniature form can now be easily ordered from most bakeries and design ideas are almost limitless. Following are a few web sites across the US (and one in the UK) with examples of wedding cupcake cakes that they have created. Brides-to-be who are interested in having their own cupcake wedding cake can pull inspiration from their photos, or engage their services.

Whatever you decide, remember that nothing eclipses the happiness of you and your intended, and all the family and friends who wish you well. A wedding is about celebrating the power and magic of love, in all forms. All the rest is just icing on the cake.

Martha Stewart WeddingsButterfly Cakes
Maisie Fantasie (UK)
Cupcake Tree
Sylvia Weinstock
Colette's Cakes
Hanics Cake Shoppe