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1. Frequently Asked Questions
2. Cost Factor
3. Food Allergy
4. How To Organise Your Wedding Cake
5. How To Choose A Wedding Cake Design
6. How To Save Top Tier For Anniversary
1. Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT IS ROLLED FONDANT?
Fondant is a kind of sugar based dough that are rolled out and used as covering for cakes. It hold up very well in hot and humid weather condition. Due to the weight of fondant, I only use cakes with firm texture.
WHAT IS MARZIPAN?
Marzipan is almond paste. It is used widely among English decorators to keep fruit cakes moist. All top tier fruit cakes that will be kept for first anniversary are marzipanned. Some people may not enjoy the taste and texture of marzipan, but there are people that love the taste of marzipan too.
CAN I USE FRESH FLOWERS INSTEAD?
I am sorry I do not decorate cakes with fresh flowers unless the decoration is not touching the surface of the cake. Please refer to "Article 3 on Food Allergy" for further information.
HOW DO YOU PRICE YOUR CAKES?
I take into account of several factors in pricing my work: sizes and number of tiers, configuration of "Real"/ "Dummy" cake tiers, amount of gum paste flowers require, complexity of the design and piping work, number of flavour combinations.
HOW LONG IN ADVANCE DO I NEED TO BOOK?
As crafting sugar decorations is a labour intensive process, I could only cater requests with at least 2 months of advance booking. For any last minute requests, I would give privilege to the jobs on hand before accepting these requests.
WHAT IS THE VALIDITY OF QUOTATION?
Cherylshuen Wedding Concept reserves the right to review quotation prices without prior notice to customers, please call before confirming order. Bridal couples that booked with a deposit will not be affected by any price changes.
DO YOU DUPLICATE ANY CAKE DESIGNS?
Wedding cakes should be personalized to reflect personalities of bridal couples as well as to match wedding themes. Therefore, all photos published on my website serves as reference only, I do not replicate any cake designs.
WHAT ARE OTHER POSSIBILITIES?
I also design wedding favours, mini cakes and single-serving miniature cakes.
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2. Cost Factor
For most couples, cost factor is an important issue in determining how their wedding cakes to be. There are very few couples who plan their weddings without any budget constraint.
Most wedding cake designers derive their quotation by multiplying price per serving by the number of guests. There is no rule of how designers price their cakes but couples could expect a labour intensive design or a wedding cakes with more tiers to cost more than a simple and less tier design. A well-known designer could probably charge for his good will and level of expertise.
Rich fruit cake is a popular option but normally costs more than other cake flavours. Couples who do not intend to save their top tiers for first anniversary could save some money by choosing other flavours. Couples are recommended to set their eyes on cakes and designs that truly impressed them. Forgoing on design possibilities is not the best means to reduce budget. After all, wedding day is one of the most important days in our lives. In case of budget constraint, brides could order a smaller cake for display, and to accommodate more guests by serving sheet cakes.
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3. Food Allergy
When it comes to wedding cake decoration, there are frequent inquiries concerning fresh flower arrangement. The beauty of fresh flowers is unbeatable, however, a point to note is that there is a risk of food allergic through use of fresh flowers.
Most of the flowers we obtained from markets are supplied by commercial growers. In order to achieve a bug free environment, growers would apply pesticides and toxic fertilizers. There are chances where the growers would spray the flowers with excessive chemicals such as formaldehydes to achieve the result. These chemicals may cause bleeding nose, or even endangering life as a result threatening reactions.
In overseas, cake designers who practise fresh flower decoration grow their own flowers without applying pesticides and toxic fertilizers. For couples who insist on using fresh flower arrangement, please make sure your cake designer separate the flowers from touching the cakes. In case of budget constraint, couples may also consider using silk flower arrangements as a substitute.
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4. How To Organise Your Wedding Cake
Once couple sets the date of their wedding, they could begin to organise their wedding cakes. I advise couples to book 3-6 months ahead of wedding date, especially for couples who intend to have special cake designs on their big days. Most of the baking supply stores in Malaysia and Singapore have limited choices on cake decorating material and tools, a longer notice enables wedding couples more design choices as ornaments, material or tools needed to construct a specific design could be imported from overseas.
Traditionally, a small slice of cake is served with coffee or is packed individually for guests to take home. It becomes common that wedding cakes are served as dessert in modern weddings. Couples could expect to pay more for later option as they need a larger cake. For Malaysian and Singapore couples who settle for a 9 or 10 course Chinese dinner, a combination of fake and real tiers is one of the popular options.
A photo says a thousand words. Hence, bridal couples are encouraged to bring along wedding cake pictures that inspired them. Although I do not produce exact duplication of any works (due to my belief that all brides deserve something unique that are specially designed and handcrafted for them), photos help me to understand the couple's taste and style.
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5. How To Choose A Wedding Cake Design
Choosing a wedding cake design is never an easy task because various designs could look equally attractive. Therefore, bridal couples are encouraged to first decide their wedding themes before started to plan their wedding cakes. A clear mind on wedding theme that is in favour limits the scope of wedding cake design. For example, an beach wedding will best compliment with seashell wedding cakes, or wedding cakes with dolphin cake topper.
Following factors determine the design of wedding cakes:
Colour - The use of colour is essential to set the mood of a reception, hence, bridal couples need to inform their decorators the theme colour of their wedding. To avoid your dream cake ends up in wrong colour, it will be helpful to provide fabrics, ribbons, or craft papers that display the intended colour.
Decorations - The choice of decorations on wedding cakes is endless. Such as gum paste flowers, edible sugar bows, dragees and piping work.
Cake topper - Figurine cake topper is no longer a must. Wedding cake without cake topper is getting common.
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6. How To Save Top Tier For Anniversary
It is common to saving top tiers for first anniversaries. Brides who wish to practise this tradition, are advised to use rich fruit cake for top tier. Rich fruit cakes are treated with liquor, marzipanned, and wrapped with fondant. It is important to save and to thaw a top tier properly in order to maintain the flavour and texture of cakes.
HOW TO FREEZE:
- Removed decorative items from top tier, for example, figurine topper and sugar flowers.
- Wrapped the top tier with cling film, at least three layers. Make sure there is no air pocket trapped underneath the cling wraps.
- Wrapped again with aluminum foil.
- Put the well wrapped top tier into a dark colour plastic bag, squeeze all air out.
- Repeat step 4 to add another layer of plastic bag.
- Keep the top tier into freezer.
HOW TO THAW:
- About 24 hours before you need the top tier, take it out from freezer, put into the refrigerator to thaw slowly.
- After 12 hours in the refrigerator, take the top tier out to thaw in room temperature without removing any wrappings.
- After thawing 12 hours in room temperature, unwrap your top tier to enjoy!
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