Wedding Cake FAQs

Generally, we recommend nine to eighteen months. However, we get lots of couples who book with less than 6 months to go.

Unlike smaller companies or those cake makers who work alone, we are fortunate enough to have a large team and can create more than one wedding cake a week, so we can even accommodate last-minute orders.

However, the further in advance you book, the safer you are of securing your date.

We certainly are! We work closely with a number of local venues and we are the recommended or prefered supplier to:

• The School House
• Drayton Manor
• Shustoke
• Coton House
• The Castle Hotel
• New Hall Hotel

To see more information about these venues, and others we work closely with, please see our venues page

This is entirely up to you! Generally, most couples cater for everyone attending the day and evening. It is better to make sure everyone gets a piece rather than go hungry.

Once it is sliced, you can always ask a member of the bridal party to offer it around, everyone likes a sweet treat.

If you have extra cake leftover, you can ask your venue to wrap up what’s left and you can enjoy it over the next few days.

Whatever you like? Classic white cakes are still very popular and beautiful, but many couples opt for a pop of colour that matches their overall theme.

Check out our various colour cake galleries for inspiration

Pink Wedding Cakes | Green Wedding Cakes | Blue Wedding Cakes | Purple Wedding Cakes | Metallic Wedding Cakes

If you want to serve everyone, then the short answer is no.

You need to be realistic about the size that the cake needs to be to get enough portions. A two-tier cake to serve 150 people would be absolutely huge and look like a complete mess.

As a rough guide, we would suggest:

• 10 – 40 guests = two tier
• 41 – 85 guests = three tier
• 86 – 130 guests = four tier
• 131+ guests = 5 tiers plus

Well…. a really small three-tier wedding cake will serve just 36. Whereas an XL three-tier wedding cake serves 165. But make no mistake, both these sizes will look quite odd!

All cakes are made up of layers of sponge. Most party cakes have two layers, and wedding cakes have three or four layers. The more layers = the more portions. (still confused? See our wedding cake jargon blog)

Then you have tiers, so the size of each tier will determine the look of the cake and the number of portions. Generally, wedding cakes increase by two inches for each tier (so a 6 inch, goes on top of an 8 inch, which goes on top of a 10 inch) However, you can go up three inches and it still looks lovely.

But this will rapidly increase the portions from 90 to 125!

Then if you want a really contemporary cake, you can add four layers of sponge so the whole cake appears taller. So a four-layer, extra-wide cake will serve 165! But honestly, at this point, we’d strongly suggest a four-tier cake or larger!

Yes and no. This really depends on what you want your cake to look like. The tradition of “save the top tier” is long outdated. Fruit cake is a completely different height from sponge cakes, so having the top tier as fruit cake is going to look odd as it will be out of proportion with the other tiers!

Here’s an example of what a fruit cake would look like on top of sponge tiers….weird?

If you really love fruit cake, our advice is to have it as a cutting cake.

A cutting cake is a cake which is never seen by the guests. It sits in the kitchen, and once you’ve cut your cake and it is taken away to be portioned up, the cutting cake is also cut and portioned up. This might be used as the only cake, or in addition to the cake that has been on display.

(sometimes called a tray cake or sheet cake)

A lot of people ask if they can have an artificial cake to have on display, and have cutting cakes to serve to their guests to save money. You can absolutely have this, but please don’t assume it will be cheaper.

We still have to purchase and cover the dummy cakes. The cake then needs to be decorated, and often the decorative elements are the most time-consuming part of a cake. Therefore this aspect won’t change. We also have to make, bake, buttercream and decorate the cutting cakes. These cutting cakes still go on a board and in a box. So while they are not as elegant and made with super sharp edges as the display cake, we still incur cost and time to make the same number of portions.

So generally, the short answer is not really!

Of course! Wedding cakes are made fresh to order so you cannot really collect them ahead of time as they simply won’t be ready.

They are also generally very heavy and it takes practice to carry them properly.

Finally, the morning of your wedding day is for you to relax, get fussed over and be pampered, you don’t need to be worrying about deliveries. We take the stress away! You turn up at your venue and your cake will be there.

We do. You’re paying for the mileage and our time. If the cake is particularly large it often takes two of us to take it as we will need to open doors and lift it together. If you want to collect the cake you can do, but we do not recommend this.

Quality Cake company supports couples’ decision to use their preferred florist for adding flowers to their wedding cake. If this is your option, we shall not be held responsible for any circumstances arising from the inclusion of flowers, added by parties other than ourselves, onto your wedding cake.

If your florist would prefer to provide us with the flowers as stems and have Quality Cake Company prepare, cut, wire and add them to the cake, this comes with an additional £20 fee for our time to do this and the florist will need to deliver them to our shop the day before. We will not add flowers to the cake at the venue.  

We work closely with a local florist Fanciful Flowers and prefer to order flowers for your cake through her. This way we can add them to the cake before it leaves the shop. We work well with Claire who advises us on types of flowers and what works and what doesn’t. We know how many to order and can ensure they are arranged well before the cake leaves the shop.

Quality Cake Company shall not be held accountable for the cake’s final appearance or overall finished look when prepared or decorated by others.

We have left cakes at venues for the florist to add flowers to, and when we saw the photos afterwards, we were so disappointed. They look sparse and not arranged well. Ultimately this is then a reflection of our work and once we leave the cake, it is out of our control.

We believe some couples feel we are not experienced enough to add flowers to a cake and because florists know flowers, they should add them. But in our experience, the opposite is actually true.

Flowers added or provided by florists:

These cakes were lovely and we are in no way knocking the arrangements done by the florists. But we feel they look sparse. And one of them has gypsophila on *holds head in hands and cries* (see question below)

Flowers added by us:

In our humble opinion, the flowers look more luxurious, fuller and arranged well.

No, no no no! It is toxic! Gypsophila or babies-breath can cause irritation if ingested. If you see any on our cakes, it is either artificial or has been added by naughty florists! See the question above!

True naked cakes are stacked sponge layers with buttercream (or filling) in the middle and nothing on the outside). Semi-naked cakes have a thin scrape of buttercream around the outside.

Naked cakes are less stable and they go dry a lot quicker and for this reason, it is not something we offer.

The thin covering of buttercream on semi-naked cakes means the cake looks a lot more professional, is more stable and retains more moisture.

I’m sorry we only have a delivery limit of 30 miles for our wedding cakes. They are fragile and do not like travelling.

We are happy to deliver wedding cakes and corporate cakes up to 22 miles from our shop (B78 3RF).

If your venue is further than this (up to 30 miles), there is a minimum order value of £500.00+ for wedding cakes.

Yes! We do not add cakes made by other people, we believe in being transparent and want to only showcase our own work.

Yes! This will probably be one of the most lavish cakes you ever get, so go all out and have whatever you like! We can create a flavour sign to display next to the cake once cut to let your guests know what yummy flavours you picked.

We certainly do, click HERE for more information.

Yes, see our cake flavour page for more information. Vegan and gluten-free options do increase the price. So if you are opting for this for just one or two guests, it might be worth getting them a cupcake instead.

Yes sure! You can add artificial tiers to increase the size of the cake without wasting the actual cake. No one will know!

One of these is real and one is artificial. Can you tell the difference? No…? Neither will your guests!

Of course! But please bring it to us before the big day! The number of times we’ve arrived at a venue to find a cake topper on the table that we knew nothing about, and there are times when we cannot put it into the cake because we have already added flowers or other items to the top.