Memorable wedding cake toppers?

Two weeks ago, my sister attended our cousin's wedding. I'm just now looking through the pictures she took and, of course, the most interesting one in the bunch is the sole picture she shot of food:



I guess this cake might seem unexceptional to most, but it made me chuckle. One of the clearest memories I have of my uncle's (father of the groom's) house in Virginia Beach--I remember from visiting as a kid--was the wall of the living room lined with floor-to-ceiling glass cases filled with Lladro figurines. Needless to say, my uncle developed a hobby of collecting these statuettes, I think starting when he traveled to Europe as a young man in the US Navy. I laughed when my sister told me about the wedding cake, but it made complete sense. The Lladros are among my uncle's most prized possessions; of course one would crown his son's wedding cake.

Given that the majority of my friends and family to which I'm closest tend toward more untraditional and less formal weddings (i.e. an occasional cake and definitely no bride-groom or otherwise PC cake toppers), my cousin's cake got me thinking about what marrying folks with more or less Western-traditional ceremonies and receptions put on their cakes these days. Are toppers still common? What are some of the more memorable ones LTHers have seen?

I did a quick Google search for unusual cake toppers. Based on what I saw, there's definitely room for originality. The funniest one I came across was from the PA-based Jayne Williams Co. Should I have been surprised that the Asian "Forever We Do" couple displays less affection than any of the other "ethnic" cake toppers? The couple immediately brought to mind the famous sculpture in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' collection of Egypt's King Mycerinus and his bride, who, carved out of greywacke, seem more liberated and fond of each other than the "Asians" sold by Jayne Williams.

So what kind of cake topper would satisfy me? Not being the marrying type, I'll have to think about this some more, but the central panel of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights might be a start. There are at least a dozen tableaus there that would easily (at least in spatial terms) transfer to the landscape of a three-tiered cake. Naked people standing on their heads, why not? Coming from me, my family wouldn't be surprised (you've gotta know me), but a few of my imaginary guests might be made uncomfortable. I don't know...I think I may have a new project on my hands...cake topper for my sister's wedding. She'd never forgive me.

Hi,

My best friend growing up, the other Cathy, had a coworker whose cake topper was a geodesic dome.

Regards,

I was irritated when I was getting married and looking at cake toppers. It appears that no cake toppers are inter-ethnic. Seems like they haven't caught on to the fact that there are many mixed couples.

We folded 1000 origami cranes of various sizes and some of them were put on our cake.

-gtgirl

Right now I'm in the "engaged-to-be-engaged" stage (or the "married by mortgage stage" as my cousin calls it) and the only wedding item I've ventured to buy was from the gift shop at the National Museum of Mexican Art, a Dia de los Muertos bride and groom, similar to this one, that I plan on using for a cake topper.

My boyfriend and I are really into Mexican art and have a dark sense of humor. Now I just have to figure out what kind of cake (appearance-wise) will go with that!

This was my wedding cake topper



It was custom made by Tobias at www.imatoy.com. My superhero figure (Savour and Slash) is on page 12 of the gallery.

abe_froeman wrote:Right now I'm in the "engaged-to-be-engaged" stage (or the "married by mortgage stage" as my cousin calls it) and the only wedding item I've ventured to buy was from the gift shop at the National Museum of Mexican Art, a Dia de los Muertos bride and groom, similar to this one, that I plan on using for a cake topper.

My boyfriend and I are really into Mexican art and have a dark sense of humor. Now I just have to figure out what kind of cake (appearance-wise) will go with that!

You may want to begin with one of the best bakeries in Chicago: BonBom Bakery owned by two Mexican pastry chefs who once worked for Rick Bayless.

Regards,

Yeah, I figured I'd go with a Mexican bakery- thanks for reminding me of BomBon! I had a tres leche cake from there that was to die for and it was really pretty. I doubt that would be a good wedding cake choice, though- not exactly load-bearing.

gtgirl wrote:I was irritated when I was getting married and looking at cake toppers. It appears that no cake toppers are inter-ethnic. Seems like they haven't caught on to the fact that there are many mixed couples.
-gtgirl

I don't know when you got married, but by now the wedding industry has jumped on the mixed couple bandwagon.

A wide assortment here.

And at quite a different price point (you know it's bad news when a website tells you to call for pricing--but I see from another site that the cost is about $70 per figure!), check here.

And if that's still not enough, you can have your topper custom made
by these people.

I'm with you, happy_stomach (although I guess I am the marrying kind) but I found the whole wedding cake thing silly as well - nothing destroys the flavor of cake like converting it to a structural engineering project. We went with three different cakes that I placed on pedestals of three different heights - no topper, minimal frosting (it was an August wedding) Nobody really cares as long as you have something to shove in each other's faces!

I'd always toyed with the idea of an edible cake-topper ; maybe sculpting something out of marzipan myself, but ran out of time - although I like abe_froeman's idea of the dia de los muertos figures - maybe calaveras de azucarwould be fun. Maybe Sparky will have the same nonconformist attitude and I'll get a whack at it in 15 years or so!

I wanted one of those Lladro-esque ones of a couple smashing the wedding glass, but was told by bunches of people not to put anything of actual value on the cake, as it would be stolen or get broken!

So we had a spray of white chocolate shavings.

Our cake topper looked pretty much like this:



or at least it would have, if La Baguette hadn't forgotten about it. Oh well. The tres leches cake was good, and a bargain.

My cousin and brother built a little white chapel out of Lego (as an AFOL, www.lugnet.com, I can nerdily point out that the preferred plural of Lego is Lego), including bride and groom figures, and my wife was even in on it, so the surprise was on me. I'll scan the picture this week if I can find it.

Here's my favorite.

SteveZ,

My cousin's wedding cake two years ago had a variant on your favorite theme:



Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:SteveZ,

My cousin's wedding cake two years ago had a variant on your favorite theme:

House of Fine Chocolate?

The cake was a centerpiece at the reception and at room temperature when it was served. This chocolate cake had chocolate mouse and whipping cream as the filling. The frost appeared to be chocolate ganache. The look and the taste were reasonably well matched. The bridal couple and their guests were not disapointed by this cake.

Upper Crust
Upper Crust Inc
1045 Burlington Avenue Suite 3
Lisle, IL 60532
http://www.uppercrustpastry.com
630-322-8282

Cathy2 wrote:SteveZ,

My cousin's wedding cake two years ago had a variant on your favorite theme:



Regards,

Cathy,

The topper resting on the first layer is, I assume, the one you are referring to and it is also the one which Wendy and I picked out for our wedding next week. Although, as your cousin did it will not be on the top of the cake. For that we have decided on a sugar bow, with the ribbons draped over each layer.

Flip

Cathy2 wrote:The bridal couple and their guests were not disapointed by this cake.

Upper Crust
Upper Crust Inc
1045 Burlington Avenue Suite 3
Lisle, IL 60532
http://www.uppercrustpastry.com
630-322-8282

just wanted to pipe in and say that our office gets the monthly birthday sheet cake from this bakery - we have never been disappointed either. granted, i don't have that much experience tasting sheet cakes, but theirs are the best (and tallest) i've ever had.

We had the best cake topper ever...if you like the Simpsons. H and I are big fans and way before we were even engaged, I found these custom toppers. I was so excited...when I told him, I said "OMG...I found somethng perfect for when we get married" and his response was "What, a Marge and Homer cake topper?" totally joking. He almost fell over when I told him they actually did make them. Obviously it was meant to be.

Anyway, here's my topper at the bakery:


GAH...that pic didn't work. Anyway... http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1392/1473769652_00d44eb1db.jpg?v=0

TriGirl, my cousin did something similar- she had the Homer & Marge in their prom clothes on top of her cake.

Do they sell them in the bridal wear, or did you have those made?

Very cute!

We had Pez dispensers as our cake toppers (Lucy van Pelt and Charlie Brown) and also gave them away as favors. My then 4-year old nephew was so tantalized by the toys and amazed by the tall cake that--not believing it was real--looked behind him to one side, then behind him to the other, and when the coast was clear, put his entire hand through the middle layer.

Unfortunately, I only heard this story after the fact. My sister went running for our best man, who'd also baked the cake, and asked him to smooth away the evidence. Nothing would have given me more joy than seeing Max's sweet hand-print in our cake -- a cake topper of a different sort.

TriGirl, my cousin did something similar- she had the Homer & Marge in their prom clothes on top of her cake.

Do they sell them in the bridal wear, or did you have those made?

Very cute!

Thank you! Mine were custom but he has a standard set too. He had them match our wedding attire...the guy does great work. It looks like he makes South Park ones now.

http://www.actionfigurefactory.com/categorypages/happycouplepage.htm

Our cake was made by a very close friend who is a retired pastry chef - man, was that cake amazing - but she used edible wildflowers from her garden (I forget what they are?), and a figurine I gave my wife when we had been dating for about 5 months (we weren't engaged until 3.5 years in):



Cheers,

-Andrew

astanley wrote:

It may just be the angle of the picture, but those are some BIG mice! I like the wildflowers, but given my fear of rodents, I don't think I would have been able to have any of that cake.