Chocolate wedding cake is fun, contemporary and very popular with guests. Whether you prefer milk, dark, a little, or a lot, there are unlimited ways you can serve it up. Here are six irresistible suggestions as ways to serve chocolate wedding cake to your guests.
Serve it as dessert
Chocolate wedding cake is a decadent way to finish off a meal, and it’s one that offers plenty of advantages, especially if you serve it instead of a dessert course. For starters, you will ensure that people aren’t already too full to enjoy a piece of cake. And secondly, it lets you save on your catering costs by cutting back on a course. However, if you do decide that you want a double helping of sweetness, then aim to make your dessert course something light and fruity for contrast.
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Serve a variety of chocolates
If you are having a traditional tiered wedding cake, aim to use a different variety of chocolate flavouring for each layer. Most of your guests will enjoy milk chocolate, so use that for the bottom tier. Then use white chocolate for the next layer and then go for the more acquired taste of dark chocolate on top. Another idea might to be have a cupcake tower, in which case it will be very easy to mix and match the chocolatey tastes.
Include a fruity element
Whether you use actual fresh fruit, a fruit sauce or syrup, or some simple fruit flavouring, an element of fruit in your chocolate wedding cake is an easy way to lighten it up. In summer you can try white chocolate with lemon or raspberry, while winter lends itself perfectly to dark chocolate paired with black cherries. Spring and autumn, meanwhile, are the perfect opportunity to showcase milk chocolate with strawberry or orange.
Make it your groom’s cake
If you’re really feeling traditional about the main cake itself, you could do a groom’s cake in chocolate to still indulge the whim. Better yet, you could have a little bit of fun with the design, whether you shape it like a Tardis or even a tennis racquet.
Use chocolate accessories
A chocolate wedding cake with a rich chocolate sponge, chocolate butter cream, and a chocolate fudge-style topping is probably going to be too much for some of your guests. So one option is to keep the cake itself lighter, perhaps with a toffee or vanilla sponge and a thin layer of chocolate icing, and then use chocolate truffles, curls or sticks to accessorise it. One very popular style of chocolate wedding cake includes circular sponge or ice cream tiers completely encircled in chocolate sticks or lattice work.
Serve it with cream
Wedding cake is traditionally served on its own, but chocolate wedding cake may need something extra, such as chantilly cream, to lighten the indulgence. Another great idea is to talk to your cake designer about what might work, and consider using interestingly flavoured creams or ice creams as an accompaniment. If you’re having a winter wedding, meanwhile, check whether slices of your cake could be easily heated up to serve alongside your favourite flavour of sorbet.
And finally…
Here are some top tips to get the most out of your chocolate cake.
1. Check with your supplier to find out whether your cake needs to be stored at a certain temperature, and how long you can display it before there’s any risk of melting. You shouldn’t have any problems in an air-conditioned function space, but if you’re celebrating outdoors, you need to prepare.
2. As an accompaniment to your cake, sweet liqueurs will probably be too overpowering, so make sure there’s options such as espresso, brandy, whiskey, grappa or port available for your guests to balance out the sugary taste.
3. Make sure someone with a camera is looking at young guests and attendants when they’re served a piece. Kids adore chocolate cake and a cute photo of angelic flower girls tucking into a massive taste of awesome can make a great addition to your wedding album.
