The wedding cake picture is real. It is the biggest vanilla wedding cake, or any flavor of wedding cake, in the world since 2004. It has 7 tiers rising to 17 feet. It took 10,000 pounds of pound cake batter and 4,810 pounds of creamy frosting to make and can feed 59,000 guests.

So how much does the largest wedding cake weigh? A massive 15,032 pounds. Yeah, 2 forklifts helped raise each tier. Totally awesome!

Note: This wedding cake was created by Chef Mendy of CakesByThePound.com.

Gabriel Vidauri (CakesbythePound’s Operations Manager) wrote that the wedding dress cake featured below was inspired by 3 wedding dress designs. The bottom layer takes the ruffles from a wedding dress skirt (each ruffle Chef Mendy meticulously made herself), the second level is ribbons from a wedding dress top, while the top has the design of a sheer overlay, the cake is topped with sugar magnolia flowers. All of the designs are made of sugar.

The ruffles does indeed look amazingly real. We can only imagine the number of hours spent in creating this 3-tier wonder.

Photo used with permission from CakesByThePound.com

Here’s a YouTube video on wedding cake decorating. Watch carefully the part where a layer was put on top of another. The decorator piped frosting/icing in the shape of a heart. Nobody at the reception will notice this but it’s nice to know the layers were glued together with love.

Click here for the video as embedding has been disabled by request of the owner.

Last year, WeddingCakeHints featured a really sinfull chocolate wedding cake created by Shara. We thought we’d never see another one like it. We are glad to be proven wrong.

Sarah of LittleBakeHouse.co.uk whipped up… or rolled out this chocolate monster of a wedding cake she aptly named the Big Ol’ Pile of Chocolate. Three round tiers of cake wrapped in chocolate cigars and decorated with chocolate pebbles and chocolate-dipped strawberries. This cake won’t fail to lit up the eyes of chocoholic guests.

Photo used with permission by Sarah. See it in her FLickr account.

This classic rendition of a white wedding cake with orchid toppers is by Sarah of LittleBakeHouse.co.uk. Stunning, elegant, exquisite… no single word can describe this amazing 3-tier cake perfectly. The purple trim was hand-beaded.

Photo used with permission from Sarah. See it in her Flicker account.

Cutting a wedding cake can be daunting but with a little research ahead, including a talk with the baker to determine the shape, size, consistency, and firmness, this task should be a piece of … cake.

A diagram on how to cut a wedding cake is a great help too. Fortunately, Wilton has graciously provided cutting guides for cakes of all shapes and sizes here. There are guides for square, round, heart, petal, oval, hexagonal, and paisley shapes.

Check out this YouTube video of a pro cutting a square tier. Specially note the way the knife is held, the angle of the cut, and how crumbs were constantly wiped off the blade.

Check out this YouTube video on stacking 4 round layers. They make it look easy.

Note: The featured groom’s cake was made by Chef Mendy of CakesbythePound.com.

Crabs cooked in garlic and butter..mmmnnnnn. This cake is edible but it’s not made of crabs. Chef Mendy said the groom was from Maryland and his wife wanted to get him something that reminded him of home. So she created a crab pot cake.

Everything we see are edible, except the board. The crab pot cake is made of layered vanilla butter cake and chocolate buttermilk cake with Godiva white chocolate, French buttercream, chocolate ganache, and VanGogh espresso vodka.

Photo with permission from CakesbythePound.

When it comes to wedding cakes, we often hear about chocolate ganache. It is used for frosting and filling. Ganache is French for a mixture of cream and chocolate. The usual method of making it is pouring hot cream into chopped chocolate and stirring until the mixture is velvety smooth.

Basic chocolate ganache is used to enhance a number of recipes, from truffles to frosting. It is truly a versatile baker’s help. Here’s a basic ganache from Joy of Baking:

8 ounces (227 grams)  semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon cognac or brandy (optional)

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil.  Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. If desired, add the liqueur.

Makes enough ganache to cover a 9 inch (23 cm) cake or torte.

Finally, a YouTube video on making it.

Note: This groom’s cake was made by Chef Mendy of  CakesbythePound.com.

This cake was done by Chef Mendy for an Atari video game fanatic. Anybody following Atari will immediately identify it as the classic Atari 2600 game console that was released in 1977. It was packed with 1 cartridge game, usually the PacMan, thus the familiar happy chomper decorates the board.

The console is made of chocolate blackout cake with milk chocolate coffee mousse, Espresso VanGogh ganache and Valrhona chocolate crunchy pearls.

Photo with permission from CakesbythePound.

For comparison, here’s a picture of the unedible one…