When Jess and Tim came to their consultation, they knew they wanted a beach wedding cake – but they didn’t just want any beach wedding cake. They wanted a beach wedding cake that represented a particular memento from a particular moment on a particular beach: their engagement!
The inspiration
Though Jess and Tim weren’t having an overtly beach themed wedding, the seaside holds special significance for them as a couple, and they wanted to represent that on their wedding day. “Tim and I spent a while looking at cakes that you had made in the past, and were really inspired by a sea themed cake you’d done which had a wave up the side,” Jess explains.
Jess is super creative herself and came to the consultation with some lovely sketches for their cake on her iPad. One thing in particular caught my eye, though: a story about a pebble! “When Tim proposed to me he proposed on the beach at Wells-Next-the-Sea.” Jess continues. “Just before Tim proposed I had found a pebble on the beach which I gave to him, and had layers of a grey-ish blue, cream and sandy yellow colour. We wanted to use this pebble as inspiration for our cake, and spent some time together creating some sketches as ideas.
“We then went to meet Imogen and showed her the pebble. We told her our proposal story a little nervously (thinking that perhaps we were being a bit strange to request a cake like a stone) but Imogen was so excited about the design and created a beautiful sketch for us in person which we could already tell was going to be brilliant.”
It goes without saying, Jess and Tim were not strange to request a cake like a stone - they were amazing to do that! Textured wedding cakes are my speciality, and whilst I’m more often found making cakes look like granite, concrete or marble, it was wonderful to work on emulating a different stone.
Bespoke beach wedding cake
I got to work straight away on recreating the stone’s unique colours and patina in a way that would translate to their beach wedding cake. Jess and Tim chose to have two tall, slim tiers, picking a zesty lemon and passionfruit curd flavour for the top tier, and a headier, richer coffee and Amaretto flavour for the base.
Using white sugarpaste as my canvas, I played around with creating the perfect texture before then starting on the colour. On one sheet of textured sugarpaste, I handpainted a warm, golden yellow colour, which I then used to wrap around the top tier. For the bottom tier I painted the sugarpaste with blue, in an ombré gradient style that reflected the pebble going from blue to white (and was also emulated by the watercolour blue menus on each plate.)
As Jess and Tim had expressed that they loved a wave feature on a beach wedding cake I’d made previously, I finished off their beach wedding cake by artfully arranging some delicate wafer paper on one side to look like some crashing surf.
Thoughtful wedding day details
Jess and Tim’s beach wedding cake wasn’t designed because they were having an overarching seaside theme, but because they were having a day that represented them as a couple. For example, after the ceremony they put some wellies on and went down the slip and the creeks in Wells, somewhere they spend a lot of time together, to take some photos.
This thoughtfulness extended to the decor and styling of the day, too. Jess had put so much time and effort into loads of incredible details throughout the day, including the tables named after special places, which all featured a scene hand painted on a wooden log slice. Jess had also lovingly created clay heart name tags for all of their guests, each hand stamped with their name.
Their main wedding colour was a pale, dusty blue, with bright shades of colour popping up elsewhere, like the meadow style flowers from Floral Sistas, the fun paper lanterns hanging from the rafters of the Manor Mews barn (and, later on, the space hoppers they bounced around on!)
A piece of art
So often we say things are a piece of cake, but we’re less likely to see cakes as a piece of art. However, that’s exactly how Jess and Tim saw their beach wedding cake, which made my day/week/month/life! Just as I was finishing the set up, Jess came to see me. She was delighted with the cake, which was obviously wonderful to hear, and also told me that she’d been telling everyone that an artist was making their wedding cake. Working with clients who appreciate artistry as well as delicious flavours is just so wonderful.
Looking for a creative, avant-garde wedding cake?
Whether you have your own special pebble and want to create a beach wedding cake out of it or have something else that’s super significant and that you’d like to incorporate into an unusual wedding cake design, I’d absolutely love to chat. I specialise in avant-garde, textured wedding cakes that blow your mind twice – once when you look at them, then again when you taste them! Get in touch here to tell me what you have in mind so far.
And don’t just take my word for it! Here’s what Jess and Tim had to say about working with me on bringing their dreams to life:
“We were both so excited to see (and eat) the cake on our wedding day and it more than lived up to our hopes and expectations. It looked incredible and tasted delicious – there wasn't much left after the wedding!”
Supplier list:
Plus, here are Jess and Tim’s other amazing Norfolk wedding suppliers:
Venue: Manor Mews https://www.manormewsweddings.co.uk/
Flowers: Floral Sistas https://www.floralsistas.co.uk/
Lanterns and chair sashes: Epic Event Hire: https://www.epiceventhire.co.uk/
Catering Unique Norfolk Venues https://www.uniquenorfolkvenues.co.uk/
Dress: George James Bridal, Bedford https://www.georgejamesbridal.com/
Hair and Make-up: Stephanie Alexandra https://stephaniealexandrabridal.com/
Photography: James Kilcoin https://www.jamesfilms.co.uk/
Videographer: J Avery Films https://www.javeryfilms.com/
Band: The Vagabonds
Car: Cromer Classic Cars https://www.cromerclassiccars.com/