Let Them Eat (Wedding) Cake

A wedding cake is so much more than dessert. It’s meant to encompass the couple’s feelings for one another and the event’s theme and colors; of course, it must taste heavenly, too. 

That’s a challenge that even some of the best bakers are hesitant to tackle. Nonetheless, there are some hearty and creative souls who are known for their wedding cake prowess. Here are three of them. 

Lexie Verbruggen has been creating fancy multi-tiered wedding cakes for a dozen years in her bakery called Sweetified, which began on Marco Island but is now in Naples. 

Because of the subtropical location and the number of destination weddings she does, Verbruggen offers tropical flavors along with the standards. 

Among the popular choices these days are white cake with key lime mousse and a dense pineapple cake paired with cream cheese icing. In addition to a cake, many couples offer a dessert buffet loaded with cookies, brownies, and cake pops. Customization per personalities is popular, too.

“I made a cake for a bride who was a veterinarian and had five cats,” she says. “So I put little frosting paw prints up the back of the cake as a nod to their kitties.” 

Jazmine Cuccuini, who has owned SassyCakes in Naples for a decade, is a fan of different flavors for each layer. 

“That way there’s something for everybody so it gets eaten up,” she explains.

Among her most popular combinations is a layer of brown sugar cake with salted caramel filling, one classic vanilla with fresh strawberries, and one lemon-blueberry layer with cream cheese frosting. 

Clifford Parris, head baker and bakery manager of Tony’s Off Third, says since the pandemic, he has seen a trend toward smaller-tiered cakes.

 “The flavors are mostly basic, with buttercream frostings rather than the fondant,” which looks great but doesn’t taste as good, he notes. “Traditional carrot cake with cream cheese icing is popular. A couple from Sweden was inspired by our key lime tarts, so we did layers of vanilla cake, layers of key lime filling, Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, and graham cracker crumbs on top.”

Smaller need not be plainer, Parris explains. Candied lemons, fresh florals, and foliage create an elegant look.