Naked Wedding Cake Ideas & Simple Recipe
Photography by Kitty Wheeler ShawA naked wedding cake is a stylish choice that would suit any theme or colour scheme. Simple and understated, there are literally thousands of ways to decorate your naked wedding cake so you can truly make the design your own. We've got a wealth of decoration ideas below as well as a delicious naked wedding cake recipe. Feel free to practice this weekend. You are so welcome. The delectable cake in the header image is from Alix and Andy's beautiful pub wedding. Go take a look for ideas and inspiration on how to achieve the perfect day with lots of DIY touches (including the cake!). And if you're wondering how much cake you need to feed your guests, we also have this handy guide to portions, tiers and flavours.
What Is A Naked Wedding Cake?
If you are wondering what on earth a naked wedding cake is then the expression comes from the fact the sponge remains uniced. Typically all three tiers will be filled with buttercream, jam or chocolate ganache. Of course, you can have as many (or as few) cake tiers as you desire and fillings can be mixed and matched depending on your favourite flavours. Wedding cake minus the icing = nude cake. Or a naked wedding cake. Discover hundreds of ideas via our dedicated dessert Pinterest board.
How Do I Decorate A Naked Wedding Cake?
From a personalised cake topper to decadent arrangements of berries and greenery, the options are endless. Consider incorporating flowers that feature in your bouquet around the base of your cake or sporadically placed on each layer to provide cohesion. Just remember to remove your roses before serving a slice to Uncle Bob, very few florals are actually edible.
INGREDIENTS
Base Tier
You will need to make this mixture 3 times for the 3 layers
-
170g unsalted butter
-
170g caster sugar
-
170g self-raising flour
-
3 eggs
-
1tsp vanilla extract
Top Tier
You will need to make this mixture 3 times for the 3 layers
-
110g unsalted butter
-
110g caster sugar
-
110g self-raising flour
-
2 eggs
-
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
HOW TO MAKE
- Preheat oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease and line three 8 inch cake tins and three 6 inch cake tins.
- For each quantity of cake mixture, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add the eggs until well combined.
- Sift in the flour and fold in gently to the mixture.
- Place one quantity of the relevant mixture in each tin.
- Cook in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until the sponge is lightly golden and springy to the touch or a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove the sponges and leave to cool for a few minutes before turning out of the tins.
- Make the buttercream by combing the butter and icing sugar adding the milk until light and fluffy.
- Once the cakes are cool carefully trim the domed side to create a flat level cake.
- Place an 8-inch cake on a thin 8-inch cake board. Spread or pipe the buttercream on one of the 8-inch cakes and then place the next on top. Repeat finishing with the final layer of 8 inch sponge. Take a small amount of buttercream on a palette knife and spread around the outside of the cake. You don’t want this to be too thick as you want to be able to see some of the cake through. Repeat this with the three 6 inch cakes, placing on a 6-inch cake board.
- Insert 3 dowels into the base tier, trimming to the height of the cake, then rest the top tier on these.
We divided the total quantity by 5 for our cake to make 5 thinner layers, but 3 layers look just as good and are much less fiddly!
Pin this naked wedding cake post for when you're ready to get baking!
However, as simple as the above naked wedding cake recipe may be, if your cake baking interests stretch as far as passive judgement on The Great British Bake Off, then you might want to have a look at our Recommended cake designers. Who would be happy to take your glorious naked wedding cake visions and bring them to life.
