Our Favorite Wedding Cake Trends: 2025
2025 COUPLES: Here are some of the cake trends that we are absolutely LOVING right now, and that you’ll want to know about as you plan your big day.
1. Oversized Cakes
BIG cakes are back! When we started making wedding cakes at Honey Crumb back in 2010, multi-tiered cakes were all the rage. Then, cakes got really small for a couple of years (most of our orders were for single-tiered or two-tiered “cutting” cakes). Now, the pendulum has swung back, and the bigger the cake, the better. All the same, please don’t think that this means eight or ten cake tiers, stacked to the sky, taller than the newlyweds. Your cake doesn’t have to be a vertical behemoth to be BIG on impact — you might opt for a “table runner”, i.e. a long slab of cake that runs the length of a catering table, or a giant 25” diameter round cake topped with mesmerizing rows of raspberries. Either way, it’s the kind of confection that will instantly grasp your guests’ attention and get them super jazzed about eating that delicious cake for dessert.
2. Dome Cakes
This non-traditional take on a wedding confection has also been called the “anti-bride” cake. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a cake shaped like a dome, for couples who like to color outside the lines. Accents include colorful fruit, garden-style flowers with long stems placed at jaunty angles, bows, and playful piped buttercream squiggles. It’s harmony AND chaos. Pro tip: Make sure that any flowers that are added to your cake are either faux (silk) or handmade out of sugar, or else completely edible (like nasturtiums, violets, marigolds, etc). Typical, commercially-grown fresh flowers are NOT food-safe and typically have pesticides and other potentially harmful residues that should not directly touch the buttercream that guests will eat (or be inserted into the cake beneath!). Likewise, fresh fruit adornments should be organically grown and well-washed before use as cake decor.
3. Vintage Cakes
This style isn’t going anywhere in 2025! Nostalgia, character, personality, and the maximalism of yesteryear are all wrapped up in this retro style. Here’s one piece of advice for 2025 vintage cakes: it doesn’t have to be white, but if you’re looking for a slightly more updated version of this very “retro” look, choose just one color for the cake’s exterior and piping trim for an elegantly monochromatic centerpiece. This type of cake is typically very heavy on the buttercream, so be sure to pick it ONLY if you love frosting — and ask your baker what type of frosting they use. (At Honey Crumb, we use Swiss meringue buttercream exclusively, which is two-thirds less sweet than a typical powdered sugar-based buttercream like American frosting.)
Take some over-the-top frills and ruffles, shell piping borders, and a custom message on top like “just married” or “‘Til Death”, topped off with a few carefully-placed maraschino cherries, edible pearls, or custom sugar flowers — and you’ll have a regal, aesthetically impressive confection that guests will be talking about long after your wedding is over.
Image courtesy of Lloyd Photo & Films
Image courtesy of Bear Beau Photography
4. Ceramic- or Stone-Inspired Cakes
Another unique wedding trend for 2025 is cakes that double as sculptural works of art, inspired by ceramics and/or natural stone. Cakes with “patina” are challenging to create, and require an artist with deep knowledge of the various edible media at their disposal. These cakes are typically embellished with additional details, like bas relief sculpted florals or sugar blooms, with winding vines and other organic elements as another popular touch. Some bakers knead other elements into the sugar paste covering, like sesame seeds, or sugar pearls, to create additional texture. There’s a lot of room to play with this style and the end result will draw admirers. Wedding photographers also tend to LOVE ceramic- or stone-inspired cake designs, as they photograph beautifully and capture light and shadow in playful and compelling ways.
Image courtesy of Mary Pastuh Photography
Image courtesy of Courtney Bowlden Photography
5. Cake Designs Requiring Expert Artistic Skill
This is the year to really “wow” people with your cake. If you’ve always wanted a big wedding cake, go even bigger! If you’re hosting a Spanish Hacienda-themed shindig, lean into it with Spanish tiles and terracotta-inspired sugar flowers on your cake. Feeling inspired by Bridgerton? Go for a romantic, hand painted floral cake. Getting married under a Chihuly glass installation? Choose a cake designer who can create “blown glass” out of sugar. Have fun dreaming up concepts for your cake that can capture your personal style, adopt the mindset that nothing is off limits, pick an artist whose portfolio truly impresses you — and then let them run with it!
Cake created for Styled Shoots Across America
Image courtesy of Amy Weiss Photography
Image courtesy of Belathee Photography
Image courtesy of Ksenia Vasenev Photography
Image courtesy of Mist of Morning Photography
Photo by Carla Callahan
6. Memorable Flavors
This is not the year to choose vanilla, chocolate, or red velvet! Think of your wedding as an opportunity to offer a delicious feast of memorable flavors that your loved ones will be talking about for years to come. Earl Grey, pistachio, and smoky caramel are flavors that will excite the taste buds without being experimental. Likewise, you’ll hit a home run with your guests if the cake flavors you choose incorporate texture (think crunchy cacao nibs or nut praline), acidity (think raspberry compote or lemon curd), as well as restrained sweetness (think delicate Swiss meringue buttercream rather than sickly-sweet American frosting).
Hint: Take a close look at your wedding cake baker’s menu. If it has many dozens of cake flavors and even more filling flavors and add-ins to choose from… or worse, if the baker urges you to mix-and-match your own cake flavor… steer clear. When you walk into a fine dining establishment, do you expect to be handed a twelve-page menu of entree options? Nope. It’s usually just a single page, with a curated selection of delicious dishes that the chef is most proud of. Every chef has their own palate and opinion on what is delicious, along with a strong instinct for flavor pairings, all of which they love to share with others. Their deliberately limited menu is also what garners awards and attracts patrons to their establishments. The pastry chef who is creating your wedding cake should be evaluated by the same standard.
Image courtesy of Lloyd Photo & Films
Image courtesy of Courtney Bowlden Photography
Good news if you’re getting married in Seattle, WA or surrounding areas! There’s a cake studio who can do all this & more! At Honey Crumb, we combine our love of cake artistry with our passion for memorably delicious flavors to create the type of cake that will leave you and your guests in complete awe.
