I got off the phone with a very interesting bride earlier today. She wants a wedding cake to serve 180. OK, easy enough. She then proceeds to tell me that she likes topsy turvy designs. OK, whatever she wants. When I ask her the color scheme of her wedding she says black, red, sky blue, and gold. Is this some new fad I don't know about? I'm all for colorful, but a wedding cake? How am I suppose to put all this together? I've searched the galleries for ideas... This reception is being held at a beautiful down town art gallery in a very historic building. I do not want the cake to be the flashiest thing there. Any ideas or pictures would be appreciated. I am meeting with her friday and she is supposed to be bringing swatches and floral pics. Pray for me on this one ladies!!!

WOW!! I wouldn't freak out until you meet with her - maybe you can pull something from the swatches.

Maybe you can go to the gallery and get some inspiration from there as well.

those are definately interesting colors for a wedding!!

come on ladies... ideas please?

How about something like this, with a sky blue topper of some kind?

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo-48354.html

This cake instantly came to mind and low & behold, there it was on the home page!

I remember watching a decorating show years ago and one of the tips was 'don't forget the black'. They said that you should add some kind of black accent to every room because it brings out the other colors. So if you set black aside and use it only as an accent, then you have sky blue, red and gold, which you could do a lot of neat things with. Save the black for just a splash.

Does she have a theme?? I'm a mask person myself and love to incorporate masks into my cakes. You can make different colored masks on a black backgound and place the masks at different tiers. Swirls and scroll work will also work well with all the colors.

They are certainly unusual colors for a wedding, but I'm sure you can come up with something gorgeous!! How about just using the milder colors (blue and gold) for the main part of the cake so that you have a mostly blue cake with gold piping or diamonds around, then have red and black bead borders with a red and black floral topper?

That's just an initial idea, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I do my sketches when I meet with the bride, after I see her swatches and maybe a picture of the centerpieces and of course a picture of the dress. My DH is an artist, so I think the whole setting, including the color scheme sounds fabulous!

Thanks for all the tips guys. I think the initial shock muddled my creative juices. I'll post more info tomorrow!

I am doing a hot pink and black wedding cake in a couple months!!! And it is a beautiful beach wedding too..

I agree....Is she huffing?? What the heck color are her bridesmaid's dresses. Sounds more like a circus or wacked-out Mardi Gras.

Well, topsy-turvy cakes generally are very colorful. It is going to be one, bright cake, though! My personal tastes tend toward pastels for weddings, but I know that's not what every bride wants and brighter colors are very much in trend right now.

If you cover the cake all in black fondant, the other three colors will really pop.

She may want an all white cake with just accents of the 4 colors.

I'm guessing her BM dresses are black and the sky blue and red are the flower colors with accents of gold.

I can't wait to see what you come up with, I know it will be amazing!

Ooooh! I think those colors combined could be really cool and unique! I'm sure she has something that incorporates all three, but I agree with prterrel. I don't think you'll have an issue with those colors on a topsy cake.

Can't wait to see pics!

Here's a couple of ideas too.

3 tier cake:
cover 1 tier each with black, red, sky blue
use gold to create the unique accents on each tier

4 tier cake:
cover 1 tier in each color
make decorations on each tier the other 3 colors

I hope this makes sense. I'm not so sure now that I'm reading back to myself.

if you are looking for some inspiration with how to combine colors I would check out Colette Peter's cakes. She does amazing things with color - and of course wacky designs.

http://www.colettescakes.com/

Just wanted to say I got a call from a bride just like that about a yr. ago except she rattled off more than 4 colors that were "her colors" and "had to be on the cake!" it consisted of bright blue, lime "almost neon" green, yellow, purple, black, hot pink!! I thought she was nuts......then we sat down and designed the cake and it still remains one of my most popular cakes to this day! You never know.......might turn into something you like!

KHalstead - That cake is super cute!!!! If I ever get the chance to make a topsy turvy cake (kind of a nerve-wracking thought), I'm definitely going to look at this cake for inspiration.

What if you use sky blue and the main color of the cake, with black and gold piping accents and then red roses (or whatever red flower the bride likes)??

Sounds fun to me! I've got one going right now, dark blood red, green, with all metallic shades as accents. Pretty unusual.

I guess that goes to show that we're our own worst critics. I thought I was the only one like that until I joined CC.

BTW - My coworker just came by as I was reading through this and loved the cake. She now wants something similar for her birthday this summer, but with more pink on it. I guess I'll get to try my hand at one of these after all.

Is it possible what your bride is calling 'sky blue' might actually be a light turquoise? Because turquoise and red look awesome together. If you look in my photos I actually have a (darker though) turquoise cake with black accents and red roses.

I also just uploaded a cake I just did that combined the CArolina Panthers (turquoise-y blue and black) and musical theme; I did the the musical theme with accents of black and gold and dark red roses. Obviously it's not what you're looking for, but it can give you an idea of what those colors look like together.

I think it sounds like fun! (well, unless the blue is actually baby blue.....but even then I think it MAY be able to work!) Good luck!

What if you made a cake similar to this only each layer could have a different color (black, red, blue, gold- instead of the black) the white would balance it out and keep it elegant.


http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1310245.html

Good luck with your bride!!!!

OK. Met with the bride. She gave me a fabric swatch which is in the teal-turqoise family. She wants 4 tiers. 16 in. round 14 in. square 8in round and 5 in. round She wants every tier the color of her swatch. She then wants black fondant pearls on the bottom border of each layer. She also wants fresh undipped strawberries and fresh sunflowers in arrangements at different spots on the cake. Someone please give me words of wisdom cause I'm not putting it all together.

Well, apart from what she wants sounding hideous, I just checked with my pans and a 14in square will NOT fit on to a 16in round, there is a good couple of inches overhanging on each corner. To get a square to fit on to a round it must be 3 - 4ins smaller than the round cake in size.

Well I liked what you were explaining until I got to the sunflowers. Where did the yellow come from? Unless she considers this as the "gold". Is she talking full size sunflowers?

I didn't have any pans with me. I guess I'm going to go with an 18"