Unique semi-naked cakes inspiration
This post will serve as inspiration for your own wedding cake, to show you that semi naked cakes can look amazing and unique.
Semi-naked wedding cakes have been incredibly popular in the world of weddings in the last few years, and they’re not going anywhere. A lot of my couples love the raw, natural and rustic aesthetic of them – but still want a unique and special cake – so they always ask me, “how do we make our semi-naked wedding cake different to all the others?”. I thought you would be interested in these tips, too.
Use other elements than fresh flowers on your wedding cake
Dried flowers
Dried flowers are very popular at weddings, and they can look stunning on a semi-naked cake. Dried flowers can be arranged in many ways on wedding cakes, and your cake maker will have a huge range of colours, textures and styles to play with and create a truly unique cake.
Sugar flowers or wafer paper flowers
In the same way that dried flowers give a totally different look to semi-naked cakes, sugar flowers will create a very interesting contrast – the raw nature of the cake with a clash with the modern rigidity of sugar flowers.
Wafer paper is an in-between; more paper-like than real flowers but less rigid than sugar flowers, they can be a great whimsical and romantic alternative.
Crystals
In this wedding cake, I used crystals and fresh flowers – the crystals reflected light and added depth to the arrangement; and with the bright purple tier mirroring the bright blooms, this semi-naked cake is truly unique.
A modern take on semi-naked cakes – a mix of a semi-naked top tier and a fully iced bottom tier, a big floral statement and crystals to make this cake pop. Adding colour to semi naked cakes is a fabulous way to make them unique. Photos by Fairweather Photography.
Play with the look of your wedding cake’s tiers
Mix semi-naked tiers with fully iced tiers
They can be colourful to add a modern touch, like the above cake, or white for a more minimalistic and subtle style, and they can be covered in fondant, for more a mat and modern finish, ganache or buttercream, which will look more rustic and shiny.
This first cake’s bottom tier is covered in dark grey fondant and painted with buttercream flowers, for a modern yet romantic look. The three semi-naked tiers on top, adorned with fresh flowers, add the rustic touch but stay unique and modern.
Play with coloured ganache or buttercream
Who said semi-naked cakes have to be white and beige? Let your imagination loose, tie the icing colour to your wedding scheme – make it YOU, so it is not a wedding cake, but your wedding cake. This semi-naked cake was covered with a mix of white and pink buttercream, and adorned with fresh flowers, to tie in with the rest of the wedding stylist and respect the colour scheme. Photo by Annabel Farley Photography.
Curate it like you would an art piece
This tip works for all kinds of wedding cakes – in order to truly showcase them as the showstoppers they are, they need to be curated the way a work of art is – thinking about the stand they will be on, what will be around them, where they are placed and the light that will be in that spot, the table… But it is even more relevant for wedding cakes that are a bit more traditional than others so that the whole set up becomes part of their uniqueness.