Four-tier wedding cakes were one of the most common sizes that I made during the 20 years that I made custom wedding cakes.
Depending on the combination of tier sizes that you choose, you can generally get enough servings out of a 4-tier cake to serve the guests at an average wedding reception.
Four-tiered cakes are really versatile as far as style and design possibilities go, and these are some of the ones that I made.
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Four-tiered wedding cake with a gumpaste calla cascade.
This round, four-tier wedding cake was probably a 6-8-12-16-inch tier combination. It was covered in buttercream, and it had a white fondant drape coming down the side that was covered with white gumpaste calla lilies and blue gumpaste hydrangeas.
This combination of tier sizes gives you a more pyramid kind of a profile, as opposed to something that’s more upright. If you have a 4-in difference between the tier sizes, it does make the cake look more like a pyramid.
It’s important to remember this when you’re planning your cakes proportions, because if you want something that looks more upright you’re going to want cake tiers that are closer in size to each other, with maybe a 2-inch difference at the most.
Read an article about planning the cake’s silhouette here.
Painted stained glass wedding cake.
This four-tiered wedding cake was based on a popular design that was circulating on Pinterest for a while. It was covered in fondant and then I painted the stained glass effect on using food colorings and petal dust.
It’s not difficult to do a cake like this, but it does take time, because you have to go in and make sure that each section is done without smearing the previous work.
4 tier wedding cake design with piped buttercream.
This pretty wedding cake had piped buttercream designs on each tier and fondant pearls around the base of each tier.
This was probably a 6-8-10-12-in square stacked cake, because that was one of the most popular combinations that I made, and the tier sizes are about 1 inch difference around each ledge, meaning that each tier is about 2 in larger than the next one.
The designs that are piped on were based on vintage architectural designs that came from stamped metal work.
Red and silver square-tiered wedding cake.
This four-tiered wedding cake was probably a 4-6-8-10 combination. It had a silver bling wrap around the base of each tier and around the base of the cake board, red piped swirls on each tier, and red gumpaste roses on each tier and on the top.
Get bling wrap for cake decorating on Amazon here: Bling wrap
White gumpaste rose square-tiered wedding cake.
This buttercream wedding cake had square tiers, and it had what I referred to as an exploded gumpaste rose on it. The main rose is in the center of the cake, and then extra petals are just placed around it all the way up and down the side of the cake to make it look like the flower is expanded all over it.
I think that this was referred to as an expanded rose wedding cake, but I always talked about it as an exploded rose cake because I thought that was funny.
White and silver lace applique wedding cake.
This wedding cake was a 6-8-10-12 combination, and it had rows of pearls placed in a square and rectangular design all over the tiers. I painted the fondant silver in some places and the pearls silver in some places, then I added some lace fondant appliques in different places all over the tiers.
I like the combination of the angular look and the lace on this one, because it’s modern but it’s also a little soft because of the floral lace.
Rustic 4 tier wedding cake with flowers.
This cake had a rustic swirl icing pattern on it, and then I piped green vines on each tier.
The bride had provided fresh flowers, so when I got to the reception site and set the cake up I added those to the cake on the vines.
Rustic wedding cakes are fairly easy to do if you’re DIY-ing your own cake, because you don’t have to worry about getting a super-smooth surface.
Click here for an article with rustic icing wedding cakes.
Gray lace piping and pearls wedding cake.
This pretty cake had gray lace piped on it that mimicked the design on the bride’s dress. It had a pink monogram on the second tier from the top, and pearls along the base of each tier that were made from fondant.
Click here for an article about how to make round fondant pearls.
Vintage aesthetic pink lace wedding cake
This four-tiered wedding cake was covered in buttercream but had fondant decorations on it, including a pink lace wrap around two tiers, and white fondant “handkerchiefs” on the bottom tier.
It also had pink gumpaste peonies and white callas, plus a gold fondant cameo on the tiers.
Sugar bubbles, flowers, and leaves wedding cake.
This four-tiered wedding cake was plain white buttercream with blown sugar balls, pulled sugar flowers, and sugar leaves.
This kind of cake is pretty difficult to do because of the sugarwork on it. I did this using isomalt, and I had to blow the bubbles and make the flowers by hand ahead of time.
Isomalt is tricky to work with because of how it works with humidity, and how it can be affected by being refrigerated. I always had to do a lot of the assembly of these at the reception site, so it required more equipment than the usual cake.
Read about refrigerating isomalt here.
Ruffles and flowers wedding cake.
This four-tiered wedding cake had fondant ruffles on the two lower tiers, and yellow gumpaste blossoms on the top two.
It was a 6-8-10-12 combination, but the bottom tier looks smaller because of how the ruffles cover the ledge of the tier.
Click here for more wedding cakes with ruffles.
Pearls and pink rosettes wedding cake.
This wedding cake was buttercream with fondant pearls set into a diamond pattern on two tiers, and pink buttercream rosettes on the other two.
This one didn’t have a cake topper, which was a little unusual, but it worked well with this specific design.
Gumpaste flowers cascade and piped borders.
This pretty wedding cake had a ruffled buttercream piped border on each tier, and a cascade of gumpaste flowers in white and blue.
I did a lot of cakes with this kind of twining buttercream vine around the center of the cake tier. It’s a pretty effect and it’s easy to do because it’s a simple pattern that doesn’t have to be super precise.
Square tiers with gumpaste raspberries.
This wedding cake was based on one from a wedding magazine. It had orange gumpaste raspberries and leaves, with a diamond pattern embossed into the buttercream.
The bottom tier had a little gold band around the base of the tiers.
Vintage topper and 4 tier wedding cake with fresh flowers.
This cake had simple piped patterns on each tier, fresh flowers, and a bride and groom vintage topper.
This kind of cake can be more difficult to make than you think, because the base icing needs to be pretty smooth before you pipe on the designs.
You also have to be careful when you’re using fresh flowers on a wedding cake, because a lot of them are toxic or have pesticides all over them. Taking specific precautions when putting them on the cake is important.
To see more wedding cakes with fresh flowers, click here.
Gumpaste succulents wedding cake.
This cake featured molded gumpaste succulents on rustic-iced buttercream.
Using different shades of green and some dusty shades of purple and orange added a soft botanical feel to the cake, and it was easy to decorate since molding the succulents was the main part of creating the flowers.
Pink and orange four-tiered wedding cake.
This pretty wedding cake had tiny blossoms on two tiers and pink and orange candy clay ribbons on the others.
Candy clay is made from chocolate or candy melts and corn syrup, so it has a texture like a tootsie roll and tastes like chocolate. A lot of people like it better than fondant, and using it on wedding cakes is a good choice!
Classic gumpaste ribbons wedding cake.
This is an example of the “pearls and swirls” style of cake that I had constant requests for. It’s classic, elegant, feminine, and you can decorate the tiers so many ways…
This square wedding cake had pink gumpaste ribbons and bows, and the piped swirled buttercream icing with fondant pearls in the scrollwork. There were also fondant pearls at the base of the tiers.
For more wedding cakes with bows and ribbons, click here.
Gumpaste ranunculus wedding cake.
I would call this another pearls and swirls cake, but it’s very different from the one above this. This one had a cascade of gumpaste flowers, including white ranunculus and blue delphinium and hydrangeas.
The tiers had piped swirls and pearls on alternating tiers.
Piped lace buttercream wedding cake.
This pretty four-tier wedding cake had buttercream lace piped all over it, and two gumpaste peonies, one on the top and one on the side of the tiers.
This was a 5-7-9-11″ combination, so it was a little narrower than a 6-8-10-12″.
For more wedding cakes with lace, click here.
Piped eyelet wedding cake.
This piped eyelet cake had fresh flowers on the top and scattered around the base of the cake.
I can tell from looking at this cake that is was covered with meringue buttercream, which has a shinier appearance than American buttercream. Meringue buttercream doesn’t have confectioner’s sugar in it, so it’s not as sweet, and the texture is more melt-in-your-mouth.
Since it’s pretty much all butter, it reflects the light differently and looks more reflective than confectioner’s sugar buttercream.
Ruffle cake with gumpaste flowers.
This pretty, feminine cake had ruffles all over it and gumpaste flowers in Spring colors to add a pop of color to the tiers.
This one also had green fondant berries, which is an interesting change from standard filler flowers.
These ruffles were made to look more uneven to give the cake a fluttery appearance.
Top tier on pillars and piped buttercream swirls.
This wedding cake had swirls piped all over it with tiny gumpaste blossoms all over the swirls.
The top tier was on pillars, and there were gumpaste roses between the top two tiers.
For more wedding cakes with pillars, click here.
Silver and white wedding cake.
This large wedding cake had silver accents on the cake tiers and the pillars that separated each tier.
Pillars are something that a lot of cake decorators don’t like, but brides like them because they make the cake taller and more impressive.
This cake also had fondant ropes made into bows and draped down the pillars and around each tier.
Piped and fondant details wedding cake.
This wedding cake had details piped on it that mimicked the patterns on the bride’s dress. There was also a cascade of gumpaste hydrangeas on each side of the cake and fondant pearls around the base of each tier.
This cake was a good example of how a white-on-white design can give you a lot of texture and a good variety of details, even without any color.
Gumpaste ruffled bows and isomalt jewels cake.
This cake had a profusion of gumpaste loopy ribbons with isomalt jewels at the base of each ribbon. There were more jewels on each tier.
This design came directly from the bride’s wedding dress, so it’s another example of using the dress as inspiration for the cake design. That was a pretty common way to design the cake, since using dress design elements will usually give you a pretty cake, and it’s a good way to really pull everything together at the reception.
Round expanded rose wedding cake.
This is a round version of the expanded/exploded rose wedding cake (there’s a square version above.)
This kind of a plain cake with no design on the side of the tiers is actually more difficult to make than something that has piping all over it. If you can’t hide small flaws by piping over them, it takes longer to make sure that everything is perfectly smooth.
Having the cascading gumpaste petals is a good way to cover a side of the cake that might have flaws or lap marks from the spatula.
Simple wavy piped design wedding cake.
This was a simple design with piped buttercream wavy lines on the sides of the tiers, and gumpaste hydrangeas on the top and the sides of the cake.
The bottom of each tier had a simple snail trail border.
Most of the customers who came to me didn’t want fondant at all, so I did a lot of piping. This was a simple one to do since there wasn’t a defined pattern that I needed to follow.
Purple roses and fondant ribbons.
This white wedding cake had purple gumpaste roses and matching purple ribbons around the base of each tier.
Purple is a really tricky color, so if you’re doing anything with purple in sugar, you might need to use petal dust instead of food coloring to make sure that it doesn’t fade.
For more purple wedding cakes, click here.
Gumpaste stargazer lilies wedding cake.
This was another “pearls and swirls” wedding cake that had gumpaste stargazer lilies on the tiers.
(I have an article about how to make wafer paper stargazers here.)
Stargazers and dayliles are nice on wedding cakes, but they do have a very specific shape, so you have to place them carefully. If the petals aren’t connected they can flop over on top of each other, but if they are connected to each other the flowers might not fit on the cake, so it’s tricky.
Swirly icing with a footed cake stand.
This feminine wedding cake was built so that the top tier was supported on a small footed cake stand. It had gumpaste roses and leaves scattered randomly on the tiers.
Using a little stand like this takes a bit of preparation to make sure that the tier will be securely attached and level.
To see how I set this cake up, click here: How to use a pedestal stand for a cake tier.
Gumpaste dogwoods wedding cake.
This cake was based on one in a cake decorating book, and it just about made me quit making gumpaste flowers.
Gumpaste dogwoods are really fragile because the center where the petals are attached is very narrow, so they break easily. They were one of the few gumpaste flowers that I wouldn’t ship when I was selling them, because I knew they wouldn’t make it through the mail in one piece!
They’re pretty, though, and the top had a little sugar vase with more flowers in it.
Pearls and petals wedding cake.
This square wedding cake had slightly offset tiers, meaning that they weren’t lined up square, they were turned slightly.
There were real roses on the top tier, with rose petals cascading down one of the corners of the cake and onto the cake table.
Fondant pearls decorated the sides of each tier.
Petal-shaped wedding cake with draping.
This wedding cake had petal-shaped tiers. I looked for these pans online and I think they might be discontinued, but you can carve round tiers into this shape if you use a template.
The cake was covered in buttercream, then the fondant drapes were added and the loops that were made from royal icing were added.
I did a few cakes like this over the years and some of them had individual strings that made up the drapes, but I think that this one was strips of fondant that were made to look like pleated drapes. It’s faster that way and gives you a more fabric-like appearance.
You can see how to do that here: How to drape fondant like fabric.
Kissing fish wedding cake topper.
This cake had blue and white ombre tiers, piped dots to look like bubbles in the water, and beta fish painted on using colored buttercream.
I made a topper out of gumpaste for this one that was a pair of kissing fish dressed in a tux and wedding dress.
I don’t remember why the fish was a theme, but the couple probably had a fish tank as their shared hobby, and it grew out of that.
White chocolate roses wedding cake.
This wedding cake had white chocolate roses and bands around the tiers in a shade of ivory.
White chocolate isn’t really 100% white, it usually has a creamy tint to it, so it’s easy to use candy food coloring to make it ivory.
The benefit to using candy clay or modeling chocolate for cake flowers is that it tastes a lot better than fondant or gumpaste. The downside is that it will melt if the weather is hot, so it needs to be in a cool environment. Don’t use chocolate flowers for an outdoor reception in the summer!
Bamboo and orchids wedding cake.
This wedding cake had buttercream vines piped around the center of each tier, and gumpaste bamboo and orchids on the tiers.
This was what I would call a non-traditional design because of the bamboo, even though it was a white wedding cake. There are a lot of ways to personalize your wedding cake, and using an unexpected design element is one of them.
Draping and gumpaste callas wedding cake.
This wedding cake design looks dramatic, but it’s basically made up of draped fondant and gumpaste calla lilies.
The tiers are plain white buttercream with a simple snail trail piped at the base, and the drapes were added to the tiers, then the gumpaste callas were stuck into them.
I probably assembled this cake on site at the reception, since working with fondant draping is difficult because the sheets will start to dry out. I would have stacked the bottom three tiers to transport decorated, then added the top tier and finished it off at the reception site.
Octagonal wedding cake with pink and brown details.
This octagonal wedding cake started out as square tiers, and I cut the corners off to make the octagon shapes.
They were covered in pale pink fondant, and then they were decorated with white piped decorations and white and chocolate pearls.
Gumpaste butterflies were added at the base of the tiers, so I must have made this one before I started making wafer paper butterflies (You can see those here.)
Pillared wedding cake with red roses between the tiers.
This tall wedding cake had about 12 dozen roses between the tiers. If you’re going to do a design like this, you’re going to need a lot of roses that are fairly open to fill in gaps between the flowers.
Fresh flowers are best for this because gumpaste doesn’t move, and you’ll need a lot of filler flowers to fill in those gaps. Rosebuds won’t work as well, they need to be pretty open so that they take up more space.
Depending on the flowers, though, you’ll need to arrange a water supply made from oasis and a dish with water between the tiers…It takes a little setup and planning, but it’s a beautiful effect.
I hope that these four-tiered cakes gave you some ideas for your own wedding reception. There are a lot of different tier shapes and configurations that you can do using four cake tiers, so you should be able to find a design that you like by combining different tier sizes and shapes.
