Janice Kleinschmidt

When it comes to trends, today’s brides take the cake.

Wedding cake experts agree: Pillars are passé. These days, brides want tiers between their tiers. That is to say, they’re opting for “stacked” cakes without plastic poles and air. “Not too many people like those separations,” says Jeannette Hardin of The Pastry Swan Bakery in Cathedral City. “Ninety percent or more of our cakes are stacked.”

Not only that, but “they want them square for some reason,” adds Ruth Dearden of A Touch of Taste in Indio.

Hardin adds hexagons and heartshaped cakes to the popularity list “and lots and lots of color.”

Color? Is nothing sacred like the pure white fondant on the pure white cake?

Apparently not. Hardin has been responding to requests for celadon (celery green), bright pinks, and sometimes tropical colors with oranges and reds. “As colorful and bright as you can get with squiggles and circles and different shapes on the cake,” she notes. “We are getting people who have three or four different colors that they are trying to incorporate.”

Samantha Ward of Exquisite Desserts in Palm Desert refers to one wedding cake she decorated as “the Barbie cake” for its “Barbie pink,” bright orange, bright green, striped icing with two toy robots on top. Dearden describes a Western-themed cake she made for an outdoor wedding that featured tan icing with a mountain range design, fondant cactus and fringe, and a rope swag made from rolled butter cream.

“The only way you can tell it’s a wedding cake is it’s stacked,” she says.

“It seems like you have two types of weddings: ultra elegant, all white, very pristine with fondant roses or the exact opposite — whimsical, fun weddings, more of a party celebration, very bright and colorful,” Hardin says.

The decorative touches themselves may be personalized. Sometimes brides want a china pattern or wedding-gown lace copied in the cake icing, Ward says.

According to Dearden, fresh flowers are “a biggie” in terms of decorating trends.

“If a bride has a florist, I recommend she get the flowers from them so they match,” she says. “But I prefer to place them on the cake.” She notes that roses and calla lilies are popular.

In addition to those, Ward says orchids, tropical greenery, and hydrangeas on occasion make the cut. A small border with scrollwork, placed just on top or cascading down the front, may accompany flowers.

“We specialize in our own handmade flowers, so a higher percentage of customers don’t go with fresh flowers when they’re using us,” Hardin says, though she agrees fresh flowers are generally popular.

While flowers are replacing many a cake topper, Tina’s Toppers in Palm Springs offers options for those who eschew tradition, including toppers with cats, dogs, frogs, cows, and pigs. And if you think brides — however unconventional — would steer clear of cows and pigs on their wedding day, you’d be wrong.

Oh, yeah, they’ve done it,” says owner Tina Burman, referring to farm animals on a cake. “If they have a country kind of theme, it can be cute.” And cute may be just what today’s bride ordered.

“The tradition was always white cake, white icing, white filling,” Hardin says. “That’s definitely gone by the wayside. Ninety percent [of brides] want something more interesting, more fun. They figure they’re paying, it should be fun on the inside as well.” Some of the flavors Hardin has used are mango and strawberry or chocolate fudge and ganache (a velvety poured chocolate).

“When they are doing a variety of flavors, I always encourage them to put white in their bottom tier, because that’s the one they are going to cut into and feed each other. If I’m having my picture taken, the last thing I want is chocolate on my teeth,” Hardin wisely notes.

“Fifty percent of the wedding cakes I do are chocolate cakes,” Ward says, adding that while chocolate on the inside has been popular for years, chocolate on the outside has seen a boost in just the past two years. Often, brides want the cake half white and half chocolate to satisfy the most guests. Tropical flavors — coconut, pineapple, mango, and the ever-so-aptly named passion fruit — also are trendy, Ward adds. Dearden even made a cake with ice cream in it for a wedding this past spring.

“Cupcake trees are very popular now, thanks to Martha [Stewart],” Dearden says, referring to a suggestion the domestic diva made in one of her books.

While individual wedding cakes are slightly less popular because of their higher cost (you’re paying for a lot of decorating), Hardin says another option is a two-tiered cake for the bride-groom cutting and a small cake for each table at the reception.

“That’s a fun idea as a centerpiece,” she says. The question becomes whether the guests will do the cutting. “If it’s a very formal affair, that might not be the way to go, because guests want to be served. But, then again, some people might want to cut themselves a little bigger piece.”

No matter the color, flavor, shape, or size, there’s only one rule by which a bride should abide: Let them eat cake!