The Return of the Intricately Detailed, Vintage-Style Wedding Cake
Grandma was right on trend.
Remember those sepia-toned pictures from your grandparents’ wedding day? The ones with a close-up on an elaborate, white, tiered cake topped with intricate swoops and swirls of icing?
If you thought that cake style was hopelessly old-fashioned — wrong! As it turns out, granny was right on trend.
In contrast to the elegant, minimalist styles (remember “naked cakes?”) and fondant cakes popular just a few years ago, intricately detailed, vintage-style wedding cakes that draw inspiration from past eras are now all the rage.
“I think it might have started ironically at first, but now it’s a full-blown trend,” says pastry chef Casey Renee, owner of Pittsburgh-based Confections by Casey Renee.
Renee, who has been featured on Food Network’s “Best Baker in America,” notes vintage-style cakes are one of her most popular requests.
“I think people realized that they’re awesome — and really cute,” she says.
To incorporate the ornate icing of a vintage-style cake, cake decorators often employ the Lambeth method, which involves “overpiping” to create ruffled texture, dots and other lavish 3D patterns to make a stylish statement. Renee also likes to embellish the tops of her cakes with retro, candy-red cherries.
Perhaps popularized by the glitter-dusted, frilled cake footballer Travis Kelce gifted his famous girlfriend Taylor Swift for her 35th birthday, vintage-style cakes often are heart-shaped.
The unapologetically lavish, heart-shaped desserts have become so requested that Renee has made them a permanent part of her menu. She adds that she doesn’t see the vintage cake trend, which she calls a classic, going away anytime soon.
“I do tons of them, and it keeps evolving,” she says. “I think it has some staying power.” — JS