The Best Wedding Cake Flavor Ideas for Your Big Day
If you’re planning on having a cake at your wedding, you’ve likely given some thought to how the cake should look and taste. Do you want a towering, highly decorated masterpiece? Something a little more understated? Do you want a classic, crowd-pleasing flavor like chocolate, lemon, or vanilla, or are you looking for something that brings a little more “wow” factor?
Let’s talk about wedding cake flavors you should consider for your special cake. From the expected combos you may never have seen before, you’ve got a lot of options—and we’re breaking them down.
How to Choose the Right Wedding Cake Flavor
When you’re looking at options for your wedding cake, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. After all, there are tons of different options, from cake flavors to filling choices, to decorative touches, and beyond. Here’s how to zero in on the right flavor combinations for the perfect cake for your big day.
Think about Your Personalities or Wedding Theme
Are you and your partner super fancy? Outdoorsy? Into reading, dark and moody colors, and deeper conversations? Consider letting your personalities drive the kind of cake you select for your wedding reception. Something frothy and fun vs something rich and indulgent.
Think about the Season or Wedding Venue
Though you don’t have to go with seasonal wedding cake flavors, there are some flavors that will feel more natural or at home in specific seasons or at specific venues.
For spring and summer weddings, go for something light and fresh like lemon cake, strawberry, raspberry, elderflower, coconut, or mango cake.
For fall and winter weddings, think richer, deeper flavors like almond, spiced carrot, chocolate, coffee, and the like.
Think about Your Planned Menu
If you already have an idea of the kind of food you’ll want to serve at your wedding, you can use your cake to balance it all out. If you’re going with something light for your main course (like grilled fish, for instance), you can pick a bolder, more decadent cake. If you’re going indulgent for the main (like beef and gussied up truffle mashed potatoes), you might prefer going with a lighter flavor combination for your dessert offerings.
Think about the Fillings
When you’re picking your wedding cake flavors, it’s a good idea to pick the full combination of flavors. Sometimes, the cake flavor might feel a little lackluster, but when paired with the perfect filling, it’s elevated to something special (and vice versa). Other times, you might just feel like the components you picked separately really don’t go well together. Picking the full flavor combinations in one go can save you the hassle of trying to decide who’s going to give up their favorite.
Think about Your Guests’ Personal Preferences
While your wedding is undoubtedly about you and your partner first and foremost, taking your guests into account when selecting things like menus, cocktail offerings, and, yes, wedding cake flavors, can be a good idea. Maybe you want to mix and match different flavors so that everyone can find something they love or maybe you want to avoid certain flavors you know won’t win over your guests. You don’t necessarily need to make a decision solely on your guests’ preferences, but if you’re caught between a few options, thinking about them could help sway you one way or the other.
Book a Tasting
One of the best ways to determine which wedding cake flavor might be the one for you is to taste them yourself and see which you like best. Contact your baker and set up a time to meet with them and taste some of the different options they have available. You can’t go wrong with something you’ve personally tasted.
Some of Our Favorite Wedding Cake Flavor Combinations
Classic
We love a well-made classic. Consider these crowd-pleasing pairings:
Vanilla & Raspberry: Vanilla cake with raspberry filling goes so well with rich, creamy buttercream or silky chocolate ganache (white chocolate or traditional—they’re both great). It's a popular choice for a reason.
Chocolate & Salted Caramel or Dulce de Leche: Rich and decadent, this combination is a classic for a reason. Any chocolate lover is sure to fall in love with this one.
Fruity
These combos are lighter and fresher than other options. You really can’t go wrong with one of them:
Lemon & Elderflower: Love a French 75? Then you’ll love this sweet, summery, and romantic pairing. This cake is perfect for warm-weather affairs (or anything during the summer months). Pair an elderflower cake with lemon curd filling and a vanilla buttercream frosting for a sort of traditional wedding cake with a twist.
Strawberry & Champagne: Light, bubbly, and effervescent, this flavor combination with fresh strawberries and champagne frosting is elegant and celebratory.
Nutty
For an elevated, refined combination, go for something nutty:
Espresso & Hazelnut: If you love a cup of hazelnut coffee, then this cake is perfect for you. For an even better version, pair it with a rich chocolate buttercream or whipped ganache.
Almond Amaretto Cake: Sweet and nutty, this combination would go so well with berry flavors (like in a fruit compote) or even chocolate.
Tropical
For something a little different than the normal go-tos, try a tropical pairing, which would be an especially great option at a beachy outdoor wedding.
Coconut Cake & Passionfruit Curd: Slightly creamy, slightly tart, and completely tropical, this cake is one your guests won’t soon forget.
Working with ECBG Cake Studio
If you’re local to Chicago and ready to start working with ECBG to create your dream wedding cake, you’ll first reach out to book a tasting, either in-person or at home. At your tasting, you’ll try a variety of our most popular flavors, but we can also create samples of custom flavors by request. Then, you’ll meet with ECBG founder Erin Martin and ideate what you want your cake to look like. Finally, we’ll work hard to bring your cake to life.
We tend to book up quickly for weddings, so it’s best to start the process at least 4-6 months before your wedding celebration. We also make groom's cakes and create dessert tables with a variety of options.
FAQs
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Because our schedule tends to fill up quickly, we recommend prospective couples start the process about 4-6 months before their wedding date
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First you’ll fill out a booking form to inquire about a wedding cake on our website. Once that happens, our wedding manager will reach out to schedule your tasting. There are two options for tastings through ECBG, in-person or at home. Our tastings include our most popular flavors, but we can also whip up some custom flavors by request if there’s something you’re especially interested in trying.
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Of course you can! We love to work with clients to create their dream cake. Erin and the team can guide you through the process of selecting flavors, designing the cake, selecting colors, and more. Then, we’ll work to create the perfect cake.
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We deliver within 10 miles of the bakery from June through October and within 30 of the bakery from November through May. Our minimum wedding cake for delivery is $800.
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We can definitely accommodate many dietary restrictions, but we ask that you please list any allergies or restrictions on the initial inquiry form (or reach out to our team ASAP to let us know what they are) so that we can determine whether or not we’ll be able to deliver what you need.
Ready to get started? Reach out to start the wedding cake process with ECBG or place an order for a smaller cake through our Cake Shop.
If you’d like to try your hand at making a cake yourself, brush up on your skills with our in-person or online cake decorating classes and check out Erin’s favorite tools to set you up for success.
We also offer custom cakes. Let us help you create the cake you’ve always wanted.
