These simple one-tier wedding cakes are perfect for a small reception or for a wedding where the bride and groom serve cupcakes but still want a tier to cut for the photos. These are all cakes that I made when I was doing wedding cakes professionally.
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Minimalist rustic icing.
This simple cake had a rustic icing finish, which made it look swirly and soft, and a gumpaste peony and leaves. This is a cake that you could make yourself for a low-key family wedding reception.
Royal icing flowers.
This single-tier cake was covered with royal icing flowers, which can be made up ahead of time and placed on the cake when you’re ready to decorate the cake. That makes it easier to plan your schedule, too.
Gumpaste tulips.
This single tier had piped wisteria flowers with gumpaste tulips around the top of the tier. Buttercream piping has made a comeback recently, so it’s a good option as either part of the cake design of the whole thing.
Chocolate lace and ribbons.
This little chocolate cake was wrapped with chocolate fondant and covered with chocolate clay lace and bow loops. This is the kind of cake that brides say they want, but they don’t get because they feel like they should have a white wedding cake. Don’t do what you think you should do, just get the chocolate cake! For more lace wedding cakes, click here.
Overpiped fondant lace.
This little cake was part of a trio of cakes, and it had fondant lace details that had been overpiped with buttercream. There was a simgle pink peony on the top of the tier.
Lots of fondant flowers.
This chocolate cake was covered with fondant hydrangeas which had no centers, so they were totally edible. You could go back in and pipe centers on using buttercream to give them a little more dimension, but the look is still complete without that.
Sugar ruffles.
This single tier cake had isomalt sugar ruffles that were made using a silicone mold, then pulling them by hand. There was an edible butterfly added to the top. This is a really pretty and unexpected look, and if you can find a cake decorator who knows how to work with isomalt, you should take advantage of that and get some sugar details on your cake!
Homemade vibe.
If you have a single tier wedding cake that looks like it came straight from Grandma’s kitchen, I promise that your guests won’t complain. highly decorated cakes are pretty, but something like this is both pretty and delicious-looking, and people will look forward to the cake cutting.
Sugared pansies.
I sugared these pansies myself, because I grew the flowers myself, so I knew they were free from pesticides. That’s important if you’re using real flowers on a cake…The sugared flower look is a nice retro vibe, and the piped basketweave adds to that feeling.
Lush gumpaste roses.
These were some of the first gumpaste roses that I made, and they dressed up a plain white cake tier enough that they were perfect for a wedding reception. You don’t need a lot of heavy piping or other decorations on the cake if you have this many flowers on it. Click here for more wedding cakes with roses.
If you’re thinking about making your own wedding cake, click here for my FULL guide (it’s free) on how to do it!
Multiple single tiers.
Okay, this wasn’t exactly a single-tier cake, but having four individual tiers will let you make the cakes easily without having to stack them. It also gives you a lot of decorating options where you can do different things to each cake while keeping them in the same color scheme to coordinate them.
Chocolate transfer piping.
This was a wedding cake that had chocolate transfer piping on it, and it’s something that you don’t see very often. Piped chocolate transfer gives you a lot of options for drawing on cakes and being able to eat the drawing, so it’s something to look into if you want an unusual decoration on your cake.
Buttercream piping.
I mentioned that buttercream piping has made a comeback, and this style is straight out of recent cake designs and also straight out of 1965. The heavily-piped buttercream designs are being called “rococo,” “Lambeth” and “retro,” and “retro” is really the only accurate one. However you want to refer to them, they’re not that hard to pipe, and they do make a pretty little single tier for a wedding.
Here’s a video showing how I piped this cake, and you can read the article here:
