I normally don’t take the time to write too much about styled shoot or open house cakes that I create but I think this one needs a little exposition.

Very last minute, the night before, I was asked if I could provide a display cake for a wedding venue’s grand opening event in Scottsdale. I didn’t have anything already ready but since the opening wasn’t until the next night at 6 I figured I would have time during the day to create something. When I create a display wedding cake one of my main goals is to make something that I have never created before. I want to push my limits and showcase something new.

After I looked at some photos of the venue and found their colors, I decided that a black cake would be the way to go. Their walls are white and their floor is concrete. A black cake against white walls will make sure that it will always stand out whereas sometimes a white cake can just blend into the background.

I haven’t showcased many other shapes of cakes so a square wedding cake seemed like a no-brainer for me. It’s sharp lines make for a very modern look!

There are many different ways to go about a black wedding cake but I really wanted a stone texture. I was trying to find inspiration for a black stone textured cake and was finding very little to go off of so I just want with my gut and previous experience making an ivory stone texture from fondant before. In the stone texture I dusted just a hint of gold to not only give it a little extra dimension but also bring in the venue’s logo’s secondary color.

The next step for me was to add a long piece of draped fondant on the front of the cake. I think that some of the best art is a mix of hard and soft so adding this piece made it feel elegant and elevated.

The final addition was a shoulder armor piece, gold dusted floral wire mainly because I liked the look and it felt like another strong element to me that was protecting the soft, delicate draping.

This is definitely one of those custom wedding cake designs that quite a bit of thought went into even if it was a short period of time I had to work with! If I had had more time to work with, I would’ve liked to have created a grouping of sugar paste florals in a dark moody color scheme that felt like it was crawling up the stone. I real showpiece!

Creating unique, luxury wedding cakes like this for my Arizona clients brings me such joy! And it’s just January! I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2023 brings.