Looking through all of our images from the past few years, I realised that Jen and I have shot over 70 weddings together now and in that time we have seen some absolutely amazing things. From ridiculously stylish outfits to mind blowing room decor with quite a few genius little touches that kept guests entertained and ensured a lovely, laid back feel to the day. As such, I decided to re-start a regular feature I used to do here on the blog sharing some of my favourite wedding planning inspiration – tried and tested at real weddings and photographed by us (so we know it works). Huzzah! I’m starting off today with a look at one of my favourite things in the world, not just at weddings. CAKE. You can see my previous post all about wedding cakes here too. But today I’m not talking about just any cake. I’m talking specifically about naked wedding cake. I flippin’ love me some naked cake action. Ooooh yes indeedy. Layers of delicious sponge, lovely jam, fresh whipped cream or buttercream (or even ganache) in between. Decorated with fruit or flowers or ribbon or whatever else you fancy. Throw on a fab bespoke wedding topper. BOOM! Cake just doesn’t get any better. Well, except maybe that one time a friend of mine told be about an epic gin & tonic cake with gin drizzle and gin soaked lemon garnish. Uh-huh! Amazing, right? But I digress….

Naked wedding cakes. Creations of immense flavour and beauty. Why do I love them so much, you may ask? Well, I shall tell you. It’s because they’re all about the blummin’ cake. The yummie bit. I’ve seen some amazing extravagantly decorated cakes in my time and, don’t get me wrong, I think they’re pretty darned incredible. And I’ll be blogging about them later in the year for sure. Painted cakes, cakes iced in chocolate, cakes that look like real life other things, cakes filled with smarties, cakes that make you catch your breath in wonderment. The art of creating beautiful cakes and sugar craft in particular is a mystery to me and regularly leaves me gob smacked, and sometimes a little sad that the artwork has to be cut into and eaten. Not so with a naked cake, though. No, no, no. For the naked cake is clearly there to be eaten. You can see the cakey goodness. You can usually SMELL the cakey goodness. It’s all about the wonderful foodstuff that is CAKE. And that, my friends, is the number one reason why I love a naked cake. It’s because my favourite thing about cake is eating it!

Back in the day, wedding cakes were generally fruit cake. Fruit cake can last ages. It could be made well in advanced, fed with booze to keep it from drying out, and decorated over multiple days, no problem. It could even be kept after the wedding day, saving the top layer to celebrate the birth of the couples first child for example. But I’m one of those funny buggers that doesn’t really like fruit cake. By which I mean I actually dislike fruit cake. It’s just not my thing. I can eat it, I just dont see the point usually. And whilst a lovely sponge can be decorated extravagantly in much the same way as a fruit cake, I prefer my cakey cake unadulterated. The fresher the better. Straight from cooling rack into my waiting mouth with a dollop of jam and lashings of cream ideally. Hehe. And naked cakes remind me of just that. Home baked cakes, only baked by someone with considerably better baking skills than my own. Because, sadly, I can’t bake for shit.

Oh course, naked cakes aren’t just about being yummy. I happen to think they can (and indeed more often than not DO) look pretty bloody fantastic. Here are some of my favourites from the past couple of years, many of which were baked and indeed decorated by the couple or one of their family/friends, sometimes with the help of a talented florist to make it look extra fabulous. See end of post for credits/links to suppliers where available (most of these cakes were homemade though as I mentioned) for these edible masterpieces – and also a rather spectacular one off Italian naked cake that requires more info….

Ok – ready for that one of a kind, truly spectacular naked cake extravaganza that I promised? Well just feast your eyes on THIS beauty, built in front of all the wedding guests after their five course meal at Castello di Vincigliata overlooking Florence. The head chef quietly slipped into the room and started to construct this amazing cake-gasm using layers of heavenly tasting wonder-foods including waffle, chantilly cream, dark chocolate chips, meringue, fresh fruit and, I don’t know, unicorn tears and stardust probably. It was exquisite. And quickly drew a crowd as guests cottoned on to the what was happening. The entire experience was just so much fun and the cake itself a taste sensation. I would be a very happy photographer if I saw something like this again, I can tell you!

Credits: Eat Cake Love Life / JennyFleur / Wild & Co Flowers /