The cake - fondant or buttercream???

If you like the look of the fondant one then you could always have that as your main cake and have a buttercream cake in the kitchen to be served later?

Its a difficult one as i l.o.v.e buttercream but the first one looks better. Perhaps if you found a good cake maker they should be able to get you a good finish on buttercream?

I think Fondant looks better. That's just me, I like smooth and plain!

Personally I prefer the look of the buttercream one and if thats what you'd prefer to eat I'd stick with that. But maybe take a pic of the other along they may be able to do something similar but using buttercream. I'm no baker but you never know ? x

Hi there. As a pastry chef I completely agree that the flavour of buttercream is far, far superior to that of fondant. I'm not a fan of fondant myself and the only use for it IMHO is decorative. You can't really get the smooth polished look that you want with a buttercream though, it always look that bit more rustic (I like it though).

If you only want one cake you have to decide whether you want the traditional, neat, sugarpaste/fondant or whether to go for flavour. You'll also need to bear in mind that buttercream will not sit out well at warm room temperature all day through the WB and speeches, party etc but a fondant one will.

If you're willing to have both you could have a tower of buttercream iced cupcakes with a traditionally iced top tier for cutting. Or you could go the whole hog and have two cakes, a pretty fondant one for decoration, cutting and to send home with the guests perhaps AND a large tiered buttercream cake to be served as the dessert for the WB...

That's a really good point and something to keep in mind. We're having individual cakes brought out to each table that are quite rustic - 4 different flavours - and each table will cut their own while we are cutting ours. As a result, we wanted to do just a small, more traditional cake for the top table. So there will be lots of cake!

I quite like the look of the buttercream too and I'm sure the venue can keep it in the fridge right up until the WB and then during the speeches take it away to refridgerate it and bring it out again for the evening buffet.

I think I might go for the buttercream - it's more me and for my family and friends - good food and flavour are key!

Sounds fab! I'm pretty certain your venue will keep it in the fridge for you until you need it. Are you putting all the leftover cake from the WB out duing the buffet? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Umm.. I'm not an expert or anything, but cakes iced with fondant should have a layer of butter cream between the cake and fondant anyway, so if you like the buttercream for flavour and texture it will be underneath! Otherwise the fondant wouldn't stick to the cake... right?

Sometimes it's stuck on with apricot jam, sometimes with buttercream but the OP said once you peel the icing off it takes most of icing (meaning the buttercream underneath) with it and you don't get nearly enough buttercream that way too!!

Hmm, ok, I see what you mean. Personally, I'd go with swiss buttercream. Apparently it holds up well throughout the long day:

This is true Venart but it's quite a thin layer as it's basically an adhesive for the sugarpaste. Really the sugarpaste will dominate in terms of taste. I think the earlier post about having the cake you want for display purposes but a small buttercreamed one in the kitchen for yourselves is a great solution. This is what I'm doing I think.

Fondant looks good for complicated designs and the cake will stay fresh well if kept in advance.

But we are having just buttercream because it's soooooooo much more yummy, and can look truely stunning on a simple cake.

I much prefer the look of fondant but I usually peel it off and just eat the cake as I'm not keen on it. I have a very sweet tooth but I find fondant too sickly sweet. But the cake will have buttercream in between the layers of sponge will it not? Mine will have at least 2 layers of buttercream so that is enough for me. But like other have said maybe have one of each?

I actually think the buttercream one looks nicer (I'm not overly elegant) but I don't actually like how it tastes. Maybe I've only had bad buttercream experiences as I seem to be the only one...

I love the way the buttercream cake looks in the OP! If you like the look and love the taste, I think it's an easy decision! It will also be cheaper materials and less skill involved, so should be a fair bit cheaper than the fondant cake. I personally think the cake you've shown is still elegant.

I love both so no help whatsoever. I do like the look of the fondant ones best though

I'd go with buTtercream much tastier and I prefer the second cake too!

Thanks everyone! I think buttercream it will be. I'll talk to the baker more about details tomorrow but over email she said she can make it look quite smooth and finished.

I'll let you know how it goes!

I LOVE the second one! Where is it from?? SO much nicer than the first IMHO

LEMBS8 the buttercream cake is the same design I am considering - I love it! It's so pretty and not too 'fussy'. We are going to have it decorated with fresh fruit (figs, cranberries and blue berries). I love the undone look of it. So my vote is for buttercream all the way!

You can get it looking smoother that this though - here's another picture from my cake folder (yes yes, I am a complete planning loser, I know...)

You are not a loser! haha! We all have folders I'm sure This photo is the kind of look I'd like... peonies are just what we're having. Met with the baker and tried two flavours - victoria sponge with raspberry jam and carrot cake. Happily, my H2B liked the buttercream with the carrot cake (his favourite) so we're having one tier of carrot cake with buttercream and the other tier victoria sponge. Yum! Luckily, she sent some samples home with us so we can enjoy it all again tonight!

We're also having shamrock shaped biscuits with green icing and our initials in white icing for favours... they taste almost as nice as my grandma's... very pleased!