Has anyone had a 'fake cake' ?

Why don't you just buy a supermarket celebration cake to cut?

Great idea MrsShep, you get M & S ones which are reasonably priced x

I would if I could find one in the shape of a bee! Failing that, small cakes and a fake would work as I can put the bees on the fake.

Have you thought about alternatives? My friend had a croquembouche cake, just profiteroles, so no cutting involved, but looked sweet!

Or, indeed, just buy a supermarket cake if you have to have a cake cutting photo! x

Lol, or just get a plain one and decorate that? Or make one, check this out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hive_cake_03837

Unfortunately that would be a waste of cake! We're a catered venue so bringing actual food in is tricky - I'd argue for a week non-stop if I find a bee cake.

We'd 'like' a cake shot but its not essential. I'm a competent baker/icer so could decorate layers to a standard I'm happy with myself.

A croquembouche is lovely and remarkably easy to make. I LOVE profiteroles ... think I shall have a word with my venue.

The top 2 tiers of my cake were 'fake'. Luckily mum studied cake decorating so iced the polystyrene the the same as the 'real' bottom tier cake. I too only had a smallish wedding (60) so having 3 full tiers was just a waste.

As others have said, you could just get a supermarket cake, jazz it up with a nice stand, ribbon/flowers and toppers in bee shapes.

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/celebration-cakes/sainsburys-decorate-your-own-cake-%28-serves-8-%29

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=251414374

You could also get a bee cake topper rather than having the whole cake be bee shaped. You might be able to find one on Etsy.

If you're willing to go with a completely fake cake I have an idea! You know when you go to a wedding fayre and the cake makers have loads of cakes on their stands? They are all fake! They decorate them just for fayres and keep them safe at the shop. It may be possible to borrow/rent a fake cake from a cake maker.

Paula, That is exactly what I'm suggesting, a totally fake cake to get a photo with. Renting one is a good idea, although I can;t imagine it would be any cheaper than buying and dressing it myself.

Could you not have an alternative cake? I've seen pie cakes and cheese cakes. It's doesn't have to be sponge.

I still think it'd be cheaper to buy a plain cake (or even make one) but polystyrene would work, and you could go bigger with it.

I think I'm going for polystyrene (heck, I work in the plastic industry!) dressed by me.

Thanks all for your input. If proper cake makers are using them to display their decorative talents then I can't go wrong if I make it known that I did the decoration.

I had a friend who had a load of cupcakes in stand and they did the cake cutting thing with the cupcakes. It was cute and if you're having the smaller cakes anyway this would be a way to get your picture without any extra fuss?

Did you know that during WW2 because of the lack of vital ingredients for a wedding cake they used to have fake cakes which was a big box with fake icing making it look like a cake that covered a much much smaller cake underneath that was made with the scarce ingredients. The photo was done with the fake box cake.

Like Teal, I had a four tier cake and the top two tiers were polystyrene. No one knew and we cut the bottom tier which was fruit cake. If you want to do it, go for it. They can be really effective.

Alternative wedding cakes have also been suggested. We had a pork pie wedding cake as well for the evening buffet. That went down really well. Bottom tier was pork, middle was ploughmans and top tier chicken and ham.

My friend is coeliac and didn't really want a gluten free cake so she and her husband had the cheese cake someone else suggested. It was really lovely but I got from your earlier posts that you can't take food with you?

That description of the pie cake just made me really hungry!!!!!

I have seen a half fake half real wedding cake. I think it was 4 tiers and the top 2 were fake but you would have never noticed. It was just polystyrene and just iced and decorated like a normal cake. Brilliant idea if you don't like cake or if it's going to go to waste

Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions.

I'm going to look into this - R's family are a lot more traditional/religious than mine and there is zero tradition/religion around our wedding so it might be a nice little nod to them to do something like this. We'll be back at the venue in a month or so and will ask them what they can do to accommodate.

A little bit late, but my friend had a completely fake cake due to the travel involved from home, a real cake wouldn't have survived. I couldn't tell at all and was actually shocked when she told me what they had done. She had a small cake in the kitchen which was cut for everyone after the official cake cutting of the fake cake, which was then removed. Xxx

This is brilliant. I had no idea this existed.

Fake cakes.

Seriously. Is a photo of you cutting a cake really that important?! I'm genuinely amazed

I am having 3 teirs. The top 2 will be fake. Just don't need 3 teirs worth of cake for the number of guests we will be serving

I'm making my own cake and planning on a couple if fake tiers

I find the idea of a fake cake totally bizarre to be honest! But then I don't really get the whole things about 'you should have something because its tradition or because you need a photo of it'. Photos should be about the parts of the day that mean something to you, not a tick list!

If there are a handful of people who would like cake there then get a small one and do the shot. Doing it with a fake one would just be really weird I think. If you are worried about waste then just wrap it and get people to take it home, or follow the tradition of giving some to those who were not invited/could not attend.

Generally catered venues who are precious about bringing your own food or drinks would still make a concession for the cake.

^ so relieved that someone agrees with me ?

I'm going for some fake tiers because I really want to make my own, as I make cakes as a job. However I don't want to be baking lots of tiers on the run up to the wedding, but I still want the height!