Colourful wedding cakes aren’t a new phenomenon. They’re simply enjoying another moment in the spotlight.
Apparently, colour is making a comeback in weddings.
Which is wonderful news.
Although I wasn’t aware it had gone anywhere.
For years, wedding cakes have existed in a world dominated by white, ivory, beige and every shade of barely-there imaginable. Beautiful? Sometimes. Personal? Not necessarily.
And while I’m delighted to see couples becoming more adventurous with colour, I can’t help finding the idea of its grand return a little amusing.
Because colour has never been a trend to me.
It’s simply something I’ve always loved.
How Did White Become the Default?
I think the rise of the semi-naked wedding cake played a significant part in the shift towards neutral designs.
Suddenly, rustic simplicity was everywhere. Barely covered sponges, muted flowers, soft greenery and an abundance of beige.
There was nothing inherently wrong with any of it.
But somewhere along the way, one particular aesthetic became the expected aesthetic.
White became the default.
Neutral became sophisticated.
And anything colourful risked being labelled bold, unusual or a statement.
As though choosing a colour other than ivory required a particularly rebellious personality.
The problem isn’t white wedding cakes.
The problem is the assumption that white is somehow the natural choice, while everything else needs explaining.
I’ve explored this before in my article, “Timeless Doesn’t Mean White”, because elegance has never depended on a particular colour.
Let’s Talk About Trends
Wedding trends have a fascinating habit of presenting themselves as entirely new ideas.
Take Lambeth piping.
Those elaborate swags, frills and intricate layers of royal icing that are enjoying such enormous popularity today?
They aren’t new.
Lambeth-style decoration has roots in Victorian cake artistry and has enjoyed periods of popularity throughout the twentieth century, including the 1930s and the 1950s and 60s.
And now it’s everywhere again.
So does that make it timeless?
Or does it simply demonstrate that design is cyclical?
Something can fall out of fashion, return decades later and suddenly be described as the next big thing.
Which raises an interesting question.
If trends continually come and go, why are we so concerned about whether our wedding cake will date?
Wedding dresses! The perfect comparison!
Bridal fashion changes constantly. Silhouettes, necklines, sleeves, fabrics, embellishments. What was fashionable in 1995 looks very different from what was fashionable in 2015 or today.
Yet when someone finds their wedding dress, do they stand in front of the mirror worrying whether it’ll still be fashionable in 20 years?
Usually, no.
They choose it because they love how it looks and how it makes them feel.
So why do we put wedding cakes under this peculiar pressure to be timeless?
I’d add this directly after the Lambeth discussion:
And What About the Wedding Dress?
Here’s something I’ve always found interesting.
Bridal fashion changes just as much as wedding cake design.
Think about the enormous sleeves of the 1980s, the sleek silhouettes of the 1990s, the strapless gowns of the 2000s and the countless styles that have followed.
Every era has its own look.
And yet, when you’re choosing your wedding dress, are you worrying about whether it’ll look dated in twenty years?
Or are you choosing something that makes you feel incredible on your wedding day?
Because that’s what matters.
Of course, you’ll probably look back at your wedding photographs in thirty years and recognise the era you got married in.
And what’s wrong with that?
Your wedding happened at a particular moment in your life. It doesn’t need to pretend otherwise.
The same applies to your cake.
Why should something created to celebrate one extraordinary day be expected to remain fashionable forever?
I’d much rather create a cake that you absolutely adore on your wedding day than one chosen because somebody promised it would never date.
Why are we so determined to make our wedding cakes timeless when we’re perfectly happy for our wedding dresses to tell the story of when we got married?
Some of the colourful cakes I created five or six years ago still look every bit as fabulous to me today.
Not because they followed a particular trend.
But because they were thoughtfully designed.
And there’s a difference.
Why Colourful Wedding Cakes Don’t Have to Be Chaotic
One of the strangest assumptions about colourful design is that it must somehow be less sophisticated than a neutral palette.
As though restraint can only exist in shades of cream.
But colour is a fundamental part of art and design.
Interior designers use it to establish atmosphere. Artists use it to create movement, balance and emotion. Fashion designers use it to express identity.
Why should wedding cakes be any different?
A cake is an edible art medium.
The beauty of colourful wedding cakes lies in how thoughtfully those colours are combined.
Colour can be used to create harmony, contrast, depth and cohesion. It can highlight architectural details, emphasise sculptural forms or connect different elements of a design.
A bold palette doesn’t mean throwing every colour imaginable onto a cake and hoping for the best.
It means understanding how those colours work together.
Sometimes that means using several vibrant shades.
Sometimes it means allowing one extraordinary colour to do all the talking.
And sometimes it means knowing exactly where to stop.
Sophistication isn’t the absence of colour. It’s the thoughtful use of it.
Designing Colourful Wedding Cakes That Belong at Your Wedding
This is something I feel particularly strongly about.
I’ve seen the most incredible weddings.
Beautifully considered venues. Gorgeous flowers. Thoughtful styling. Personal details woven throughout the celebration.
And then there’s the cake.
A perfectly lovely cake.
But one that looks as though it belongs at an entirely different wedding.
Your cake shouldn’t feel like an afterthought.
It doesn’t have to match every flower arrangement or reproduce your invitations, but it should feel connected to the celebration you’ve created.
And there are so many ways to achieve that.
Perhaps it’s a colour taken from your flowers, a texture inspired by your venue, an architectural detail, a favourite piece of art or something completely unexpected that means something to you both.
It might be a tiny, quirky detail that nobody else would think to include.
Those are often my favourite details.
Because they’re the things that make a cake yours.
Not somebody else’s Pinterest board.
Not a wedding magazine’s prediction for next season.
Yours.
Colourful wedding cakes can complement your flowers, venue, stationery and overall wedding atmosphere without matching everything exactly.
What If You Love White?
Then have a white cake!
Seriously.
I’m not campaigning for the abolition of ivory buttercream. 🤣
If white is what you genuinely love, then it’s absolutely the right choice for you.
I wouldn’t dream of having a white wedding cake myself. In fact, my own was emerald green.
Not because I was trying to make a statement.
Because that was me.
And that’s exactly how I think couples should approach their own wedding cake.
The aim isn’t to be different for the sake of being different.
It’s to stop treating somebody else’s idea of what a wedding cake should look like as a rule you have to follow.
If you adore minimalism, embrace it.
If you love colour, use it.
If you want something sculptural, unconventional or gloriously unexpected, explore it.
There isn’t a correct aesthetic for getting married.
The Best Wedding Cakes Aren’t Following Anything
I love that colour is finding its way into more wedding conversations.
I love seeing couples becoming confident enough to experiment with combinations they might once have dismissed.
And I love that the possibilities for wedding cake design are expanding.
But I hope this isn’t simply another trend that disappears when the next wave of neutral styling arrives.
Because colour deserves better than being treated as a passing fashion.
More importantly, so do the couples whose personalities don’t happen to fit whatever aesthetic is currently fashionable.
A wedding cake can be elegant without being white.
It can be colourful without being chaotic.
It can be unconventional without sacrificing sophistication.
And it can be beautifully designed without resembling anything you’ve seen before.
My advice? You do you.
Choose the colours you love.
Add the quirky details.
Include the things that make you laugh, the things that mean something and the things that feel unmistakably yours.
Don’t choose somebody else’s wedding cake.
And don’t let a trend decide what yours should look like.
After all, you’re not planning somebody else’s wedding.
You’re planning your own.
A Wedding Cake That’s Unmistakably Yours
At Crumbdidilyumptious, I create bespoke wedding cakes across Scotland for couples who want something personal, thoughtfully designed and a little unexpected.
If you’re dreaming of a cake that feels like an extension of your celebration rather than an afterthought, I’d love to hear what you’re imagining.
Because I don’t do forgettable. 💜