Tiers of Joy: 12 Wedding Cake Trends for 2023, As Predicted by Some of America's Best Bakers - Over The Moon (2024)

When it comes to weddings, no decision is a piece of cake—not even the cake. Forget the binary options of vanilla or chocolate. Menu lists brandish flavors like Yuzu Cardamom, Coconut Guava, or Hazelnut Praline.Will you save the top layer or eat it all at the reception? To fondant, or not? More importantly, have you and your spouse-to-be discussed whether or not you will smear cake in each other’s faces? (Best to do so before ruining someone’s makeup in front of the photographer’s lens…) There are literally layers to your choice. Think of Naomi Biden’s towering 7-foot-tall cake at the 19th White House wedding. She and her groom, Peter Neal, used a ladder to reach the top of the lemony eighth tier. The cake-cutting is a moment not to be trifled with. After all, Marc Jacobs and Char Defrancesco’s five-tiered Grace Kelly-inspired wedding cake had its very own entrance at their reception, complete with a jazzy opening act.

Here, we streamline the process and ask a coterie of industry experts to predict 2023’s sweetest cake trends—the crème de la crème.

1. Bespoke Baking

There shouldn’t be anything cookie-cutter about a wedding cake, which is why Elizabeth Mayhew’s confections are in such high demand among brides and grooms. Her “Charm Cakes” transcribes mementos from the recipient’s life into icing. “Just like edible charm bracelets!” Mayhew remarks. For weddings, couples can request symbols—college insignias, native home state flowers, and beloved pets, for example—to visually share their love story in a way no ready-to-eat cake ever could.

Renowned Israeli-American celebrity pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel, who created confections for Brooklyn Beckham’s wedding, agrees. Every cake his celebrants have placed orders for in 2023 is completely customized. This year’s newlyweds want a unique cake wholly personal to them and their tastes.

2. A Return to Classics

When asked what they anticipate in 2023, most cake connoisseurs agree on one thing: Classics never go out of style. Dessert Gallery Bakery and Cafe’s most requested flavor is their “Old-Fashioned Diner Cake,” after all. Perhaps inspired by the old Hollywood glamour of Damien Chazelle’s just-released Babylon film and the recent frenzy surrounding the Harry & Meghan docuseries, Nadia Colella of Nadia and Co. foresees traditional, royal wedding-esque cakes in 2023. “Layers of piping, endless hours of sugar flower making, and relief textures are upon us!” she posits.

Ben-Israel expands further, believing receptions may have a return to 19th-century royal wedding cakes. Think Lambeth cakes with ornate flourishes that make the exterior look as rich as the interior tastes.Some brides and grooms are even turning to Wedgwood, the Queen’s personal favorite china, for sweet inspiration. Empire Cake adds that this traditional aesthetic looks delectable on cakes of any proportion—bite-sized or towering tall.

3. Matching Motifs

No detail is too minute when planning a wedding. With so much thought going into each place setting and even the bouquet ribbon, it makes sense that couples want to incorporate these elements into their cake. Nadia Colella of Nadia & Co. says, “As well as patterns, the timeless toiles and needlework florals we see in fashion and textiles are creeping their way into wedding stationery and cakes too.”

These types of cakes are inspired by the decorative arts and coordinate with other aspects of the wedding. Elizabeth Mayhew notes, “People want to connect their cake to whatever style decisions they’ve made.” She has even been commissioned to bake cakes that match the reception napkins. Brides and grooms will take into account their reception venue colors and see if their bakers can complement—or even contrast—with the space’s style.

4. Couture Confections

“Rich.” “Sumptuous.” “Airy.” These are all words that could describe a dream wedding cake—or dress. Fashion and confection go hand-in-hand. (There’s a reason Carrie Bradshaw’s peerless “Mille-Feuille” tulle gown is named after dessert, after all.) Designers and bakers are collaborating on a new type of couture creation: wedding cakes. In 2018, Vera Wang and Parisian pâtissier Ladurée launched a capsule collection of white macarons and tiered cakes inspired by bridal styles. Nadia and Co. worked with OTM favorite Sarah Flint and Gracie Studio to confect resplendent hand-painted frosting prints that are almost too pretty to eat. We predict more couples cutting a cake that matches the ruffles or lace of a wedding gown. With this trend, brides can have their cake—and wear it—too.

5. Layers of Decadence

After scaling down in 2020 and 2021, bakers are now noticing a return to multi-tiered cakes. “Big is back! The parties are on,” Nadia Colella shares. Some couples want decadence and grandeur after a pandemic filled with doom and gloom. They can’t even wait for the toast to have their Champagne and drink it too. One of Nadia & Co.’s most popular wedding flavors is a pink vanilla cake with a Champagne ganache strawberry topping.

Something to keep in mind for couples who want an extravagant cake but worry about excess: Ron Ben-Israel arranges for any leftovers to be donated to charities like City Harvest.

6. Dessert Options Galore

While grander soirées are on the horizon, bakers also anticipate orders for dessert tables with bite-sized offerings. Think macarons, demitasse servings of tiramisu, and petite tarts. Caroline’s Cakes, available on Over The Moon, bakes Mini Cake Bites as an alternative to their more sizeable, multi-tiered confections. Packaged in a bright yellow box, these treats can even be an easily distributed party favor.

Some brides and grooms don’t even particularly like cake, if you can imagine that, but still want a traditional cake-cutting photo op. Empire Cakes crafts smaller cakes for this purpose. “We have been obsessed with bento boxes or ‘lunchbox cakes.’ You can order them on Over The Moon,” Empire Cake dishes. “They are mini cakes, which would be such a fun way to serve your guests in place of a slice!”

For the single-tiered wedding cakes she bakes, Elizabeth Mayhew creates a cakelette with a similar design and gifts it to the couple as the de facto top layer they can devour later for their first anniversary. For Tracy Dubb’s pandemic nuptials, this little cake quite literally saved the day when servers dropped the main wedding cake. The bride and groom made do and cut the itty-bitty confection instead. It was so good, though, guests got the original cake off of the floor and ate it. “It’s a great story, and it speaks to the go-with-the-flow ease that a lot of brides have now,” Mayhew muses. “If there’s one thing that the pandemic has taught us, it’s that you can’t get upset. You just have to pick it up and go forward!”

7. The Icing on Top

While doughy fondant molds to any sweet sculptural structure and photographs well, it tastes very different from sweeter, butter-based icings. “We have seen couples move away from fondant exteriors,” Empire Cakes confirms. Instead, soon-to-be-weds dream of buttercream.

8. Color Is In

Traditionally, wedding cakes are made of hues as white as the bride’s dress; but that trend is becoming a thing of the past. These days, couples are gravitating towards color—whether that be a subtle pastel frosting-covered edge, delicate hand-painted illustration on the sides, or an all-over bold color lathered on the cake. Vivid florals can adorn a white-iced cake, bringing color and texture to the sugary landscape.

9. Creative Groom’s Cakes

And then there is the groom’s cake to consider. Without careful consideration, a groom may just pick red velvet for his themed confection, à la the unfortunate bleeding armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias. Thankfully, OTM grooms have excellent taste and utilize the groom’s cake to showcase a few of their favorite things: traveling, New York-style pizza, golf, florals, Star Wars, hockey, and travel.

10. Funfetti Is Forever

Brides and grooms are taking a more playful approach with flavors in 2023. “We’ve had couples choose a traditional exterior for the cake—think white buttercream and flowers—with the cake layers tinted to reveal a rainbow cake when sliced or a tier filled with sprinkles that pour out of the cake when cut,” Empire Cakes confides. “We’ve seen a few couples skip tradition altogether and opt for cake completely covered in rainbow sprinkles!”

Bakers predict a return to familiar comfort food flavors, especially one you might recall from an elementary school friend’s birthday party. Top chefs agree that 2023 could very well be the year of Funfetti. Empire Cakes shares, “In 2022, we saw a lot of couples requesting Funfetti, a fun twist on a traditional flavor with a touch of childhood nostalgia.” Even though Ron Ben-Israel offers more sophisticated flavors like guava and passionfruit, he and his team anticipate that they will bake layers and layers of Funfetti. They are eager to mix vanilla batter with coordinating sprinkle colors to even confect a custom Funfetti creation.

11. Traditional European Cakes

Cake provides couples another opportunity to honor their heritage or pay homage to a destination wedding locale. In 2023, we’ll likely see, and hopefully taste, cakes that incorporate regional recipes like the French mille-feuille cake—or its Italian equivalent, millefoglie—or Swedish Princess cake.

12. Spruced Up with Sprigs

Looking for a way to make a plain white cake look less . . . vanilla? Couples can ask chefs to place greenery atop their confections. Cascading vines and speckled sprigs are anything but minimalist.