Marks & Spencer Wedding Cakes

I was planning on buying a plain M&S cake & getting my boss' wife to hand paint it, but I've been put off a bit lately as my friend bought one from there & when she got it home she realised the best before date was the date of her wedding, so she didn't get to keep any of it for eating after the wedding, it just seemed a bit off!

We went to a wedding fair a few weeks ago & spoke to a cake maker there & was actually pleasantly surprised as she said that she would do us a plainish cake with three much thicker tiers for £175 when the M&S cake I was planning on buying was £185, so it might be worth ringing around some local cake makers if you're not looking for anything too fancy, as the prices may be more comparable than you think (& should be a lot fresher too).

We were considering buying our tiers from Marks and spencer and assembling ourselves. We ordered the tasters in chocolate, fruit and sponge. Sponge wasn't anything special, the fruit cake was okay - and thats me saying that when I hate fruit cake, the chocolate was nice. Unfortunately my parents hated all three so now we're not so sure

We are having M&S cake, 2 sponge and 1 chocolate. I was actually surprised at how nice it was and have been to a couple of weddings where they've had it and not heard any complaints.

We just can't justify one being made either

I remember someone saying that they're not true to their cake color. I believe the couple wanted a white cake but the "M&S white" turned out to be ivory or champagne or something like that. Sorry I am not much of a help, I just remember the cake was way too dark for the color they picked. But other than that I haven't heard anything negative so far.

I'm getting an M&S cake & getting a friend to decorate it.

I'd rather spend the money on more wine & fizz. No one ever really remembers the cake anyway so it's not a big deal for us.

How much do the m&s cakes work out? I found a lady who bakes from home, her cake tastes amazing she brought us samples and am getting a 3 tier (10" 8" and 6") cake all fully decorated how I want for £230 which I think is really good, can't you look around for home bakers?

Pretty sure that depends on the cake. The cake is kind of a big deal to us, so at the very least WE will remember it, which is probably the most important thing. Our baker is incredible and I am confident that our cake will look and taste amazing. We've picked unique flavours too and I doubt any of our guests will have had anything like it before - definitely a talking point. Of course not everyone is as cake mad as us, so a simpler design and sponge suits them just fine, and in that case you're probably right in that no one will remember it but it's not the end of the world for most people so long as they have something to cut and tastes like cake!

This is what we are thinking too. We aren't going to have any of the traditional cutting of the cake pictures so it's just there to be part of the food really.

Our 3 tier cake is coming in at around £90 from M&S. I have spoken to a few people I know about baking one but it's so much work that we decided to just take the easy and cheap route and order from them instead.

We're not getting the wedding cakes from M&S but their other delicious looking celebration cakes- they have loads.

Going to construct them on a table all fancy, then just get one small tier of fruit cake in white icing with a bride and groom figure for the classic cake cutting pic

Thanks for the responses, always nice to hear peoples opinions, thoughts and ideas.

I have just emailed a few local cake makers, one woman said £500 and the other two were near the £300 - £350 mark - which I am presuming is around average.

I have briefly done the m and s cake, but got a value of around £60 - I am pretty sure I am not selecting correctly.

For the people who have done or are doing theirs through M&S, what size tiers did you go for?

tbh, cake is cake and I haven't heard anything majorly negative about the taste, so I am sure its more than adequate.

As someone said above, I would rather have more money for the drink ;-)

That's a shame they didn't like it, lets hope they cough up some money for a professionally made cake then ;-)

Don't suppose she is in the area of Somerset is she? lol.

Pretty much what I am thinking as well :-)

Luckily for us (or perhaps not as we planned it), our DIY venue has no corkage so we can supply all of the wine/fizz for the tables. Best of both worlds for us ? But I'm still looking forward to the cake more than the drink, it's just how I roll!

I wish we didn't have a corkage charge :-( I wont even disclose the price, as you will think I am mad, but I am just re-naming it 'staff costs' lol

Corkage is insane! One place even wanted to charge "Corkage" for NOT using their florist (around £200) and it was around about that time we just went f*$k it, we're going to do it ourselves!

We have gone for the medium, large and extra tiers (feeds approximately 124)

My friend had a M&S wedding cake and it was delicious. That was nearly four years ago and I still remember it! Cake is a big deal to me. I remember horrible wedding cakes too!

We are having our friend who is also a professional cake maker make ours. I am having three tiers; white chocolate with vanilla buttercream and fresh raspberries, chocolate orange and lemon drizzle. The cake is going to be semi naked and the top tier of lemon drizzle is going to have the icing dripping down the top. We're having a 6", 8" and 10" which is £285. I'm very excited about it! OH's aunt and uncle are also making us a single tier fruit cake as I love fruit cake too. X

I had their chocolate and gold hoop cake and it was amazing. Everyone said it was tasty. I also got some cutting bars from them too, a lemon sponge, plain sponge and fruit cake. There wasn't much left at the end of the night!

I had their chocolate and gold hoop cake and it was amazing. Everyone said it was tasty. I also got some cutting bars from them too, a lemon sponge, plain sponge and fruit cake. There wasn't much left at the end of the night!

Oh wow that cake looks amazing :-)

I think we will go down the marks and spencer route, as it really is a lot cheaper than having someone make one up.

I think I just need to get on the phone and speak to someone at marks and spencers and found out how it works etc - good luck with that one Vicky! lol

Thanks for all your input xx

Ha! That's on my to do list this week, I am hoping it won't be too bad!

We had a m&s cake for our wedding top tier was a small fruit the medium and large were sponge for the 3 tiers it was £56. I wish we had got a medium,large and extra large as the small one was tiny. But other than that it was perfect,we ordered white and it was a crisp white. as for dates they say it has a shelf life of 5 days from collection, mine actually had 6