Wedding Cakes - Cost of Shard cakes vs white icing

These wedding cake questions and answers have been taken from the wedding forum.

Q. I realise there are a lot of variables, but in general, is a 'shard' cake (with slabs of chocolate on the outsides instead of icing) likely to cost more or less than the traditional thick white icing?

A. A hard one. It really depends on the individual making the cake and how thick they like to make their chocolate shards. Obviously the thicker the shards of chocolate are, the more chocolate used, the more the cost involved.

Generally speaking though, a chocolate shard cake should be slightly less in price than the traditional icing.

You will find though that there will be variances in prices of wedding cakes no matter what icing is chosen. Sometimes your more expensive wedding cake shop doesn't necessarily do the best work and visa versa....Sometimes the least expensive cake decorator sometimes does a better job.

A good tip for anyone looking for a cake decorator but is on a budget...call your local Cake Decorating Association (every state in Australia has one) and ask for a list of their cake decorators who specialise in Wedding Cakes or ask for a Cake decorator who has won some awards for their work who also does wedding cakes (then you'll find the good ones). You'll find that a good 90% of them work from home which in turn gives you the saving because they don't pay for staff or overheads like a shop front does. You'll also find that a lot of the decorators who work in Shop fronts haven't won any awards for their work, they just pump out cakes like a production line. If you get in contact with the Cake Decorators Association in your area, you'll find that you can find an experienced, award winning cake decorator to design and make you a cake which is individual and unique at half the cost. There is no harm in asking and it may just save you a bit of money. Also, always ask to sample some cake so you can see and taste first hand what it tastes like.

Cake Questions can be posted in the forum

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