Looking to cut costs? The wedding cake is a good place to start
Updated 5 days ago
Katherine RobinsonSenior Lifestyle Editor
Shopping for a wedding cake for your upcoming nuptials can be an expensive part of your big day - just like everything else. But supermarket wedding cakes have become some brides' best kept secrets on saving costs on their big day without scrimping on style, or taste. Savvy brides and grooms are eschewing pricier bespoke wedding cakes and turning to their favourite supermarkets for shop-bought, ready-made wedding cakes, from stores like Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. And if you needed proof how popular these supermarket wedding cakes are, M&S even created a Colin the Caterpillar wedding cake!
We spoke to Lauren Goodman, wedding expert and founder of Bluebird Creative, to get her opinion. She said: “I'm totally on board with supermarket cake if it's not a priority to a couple. Having a bespoke handmade cake created can be amazing and the taste, texture and design are unparalleled. But for some couples cake design isn't something they want to allocate budget to and I am seeing more and more couples not go for cake at all.
Best supermarket wedding cakes at a glance
- Best budget floral-themed wedding cake: Marks & Spencer Flower Festival Tulip Cake, £45
- Great for pink-themed weddings: Waitrose Lemon, Raspberry & Rose Triple Layer Cake, £26
- The cute and quirky wedding cake: M&S Personalised Connie and Colin the Giant Caterpillar cakes, £45
- Best chocolate wedding cake: Patisserie Valerie Five layer Chocolate Wedding Cake, £102.45
- Best 2-tier wedding cake: Marks & Spencer Vanilla Two Tier Naked Cake, £45
- Best cheese wedding cake: Paxton & Whitfield Wedding Cheese Cake for 100, £295
“It's all personal preference. For those considering buying a supermarket cake both Marks and Spencer and Costco both have great options for those wanting to have something to cut. Cutter and Squidge are also great mid-range options for couples.”
Supermarket-bought wedding cakes start from as little as £45. So how does this measure up to a specially-designed cake? “Typically something bespoke starts at an absolute minimum of £350, with extremely skilled artisan bakers starting from at least £550,” says Lauren.
HELLO! Magazine’s own Ecommerce Project Lead Rob Kerr chose a Marks and Spencer wedding cake for his own big day, and it was a massve thumbs up all round. He says: “We had an M&S wedding cake for our 150-odd guests. After some exhaustive research and various tastings, M&S was a great choice and well received by our 100+ wedding guests.”
What to consider when choosing a supermarket wedding cake?
Lauren says: “When purchasing a cake from the supermarket, I would always recommend doing your research first - checking how long the cake is going to stay fresh and allocating the right amount of time between purchasing and your wedding day. In addition, check through the ingredients for those guests who may have dietary requirements.
“In terms of transporting the cake, ensure you have a way of getting the cake to the venue which is flat and secure. You won’t have the luxury of a baker packing, transporting and setting up your cake. Finally, I would recommend scoping out where the cake is going to go with your planner, this helps ensure the cake is going to be the right shape and size.”
How we chose the best supermarket wedding cakes
- Trusted brands: We only included the brands our HELLO! Shopping team know and love - and the wedding cakes they tried and loved
- Reviews: Where it was wasn’t possible to test the cakes ourselves, we only included wedding cakes with a high volume of positive reviews from verified shoppers
- Portion size: We tried to find the cakes with the largest number of portion sizes, considering an average wedding has around a hundred guests, maybe even more.
- Aesthetic:The cakes in our edit would suit a variety of different wedding schemes - we tried to find pastel shades and delicate touches lend themselves perfectly to weddings.
Marks & Spencer Flower Festival Tulip Cake
Best budget floral-themed wedding cake
- Serves: 24
- Notice required: 5 days
- Cake type: Sponge and vanilla buttercream
- Size: 20cm x 12.5cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
This Marks & Spencer wedding cake - which consists of four layers of sponge, filled and covered with vanilla buttercream - is one of their most popular on-site, with 1729 positive reviews and counting.
Customers give it the thumbs up for being great quality, value for money and tasting great. The decoration - beautiful hand-piped buttercream flowers - is perfect for a wedding. You do need to pick it up in-store and M&S recommend collecting it 24 hours before your wedding.
Waitrose Lemon, Raspberry & Rose Triple Layer Cake
Great for pink-themed weddings
- Serves: 18-20
- Notice required: 8 days
- Cake type: Sponge and rose buttercream
- Size: 20cm x 10cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
For the price, this Waitrose option makes a great wedding cake. Designed by the renowned Fiona Cairns bakery, it features three layers of lemon sponge, which are filled with rose flavour buttercream and raspberry jam, and topped with more rose buttercream and freeze-dried raspberry pieces. Reviewers say it’s sweet and moreish and a good crowd-pleaser.
M&S personalised Connie and Colin the Giant Caterpillar cakes
The cute and quirky wedding cake
(Per Caterpillar)
- Serves: 40
- Notice required: 7 days
- Cake type: Chocolate sponge roll and chocolate buttercream
- Size: 9cm x 10cm x 43 cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
Possibly the cutest wedding cake in in existence - Marks & Spencer’s Giant Colin the Caterpillar wedding cake is a popular choice with brides and grooms ordering one of each (Colin and Connie) for their wedding reception. It’s a giant chocolate sponge roll filled with chocolate buttercream, covered in milk chocolate with a decorated white chocolate face and sugar-coated milk chocolate beans finished with a personalised leaf decoration.
Choose your message (up to 40 characters) which M&S will write out in icing. This cake must be collected in store and M&S recommend picking it up 24 hours before your wedding.
Patisserie Valerie Five layer Chocolate Wedding Cake
Best chocolate wedding cake
- Notice required: 2 days (but you can order up to 90 days in advance)
- Cake type: Chocolate sponge and chocolate swiss meringue buttercream
- Size: 20cm x 10cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
Patisserie Valerie’s cakes are real show stoppers, and their Five-layer Chocolate Wedding Cake is perfect for choccy fans. It features five layers of light chocolate sponge cake, decorated with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and a lovely hand-piped floral icing waterfall. At the time of publishing, they were accepting orders with two days notice, but it’s worth checking as the next available delivery slots can vary depending on your location.
The cake arrives (with free delivery) frozen and Patisserie Valerie recommends you schedule your order for two days before your wedding, storing it in the freezer. On the morning of the wedding, it needs to be taken out of the freezer and left to defrost at room temperature for at least four hours before serving.
Paxton & Whitfield Wedding Cheese Cake for 100
Best cheese wedding cake
Notice required:7 days
Cake type: 4 types of artisan cheeses
Size:Not specified, although it’s 3.8kg in total of cheese
Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
A cheese wedding cake might sound like a novel idea, but they are becoming increasingly popular. Paxton & Whitfield’s offering consists of four different types of artisan cheeses, which you can stack to display. The base is the award-winning Gorwydd Caerphilly (often described as a three-in-one cheese as it’s texture varies from rind to centre), the next layer is a deliciously creamy Colston Basset Stilton, the third layer is tasty sheep’s milk cheese Wigmore, and the cake is topped with rich and tangy Langres.
If you’re tempted but not 100% sure about getting a cheese wedding cake, you can order a tasting kit which comes with a promo code to redeem the cost of the sample box from your wedding cheese cake purchase.
Patisserie Valerie Five Layer Floral Wedding Cake (Vanilla Sponge)
Best luxury sponge wedding cake
- Serves: 24
- Notice required: 2 days (but you can order up to 90 days in advance)
- Cake type: Vanilla sponge cake with strawberry compote and buttercream
- Size: 20cm x 10cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
If you’re looking for a luxury vanilla sponge wedding cake, this is a great option. It features five layers of vanilla sponge cake sandwiched with strawberry compote and buttercream, topped off with Swiss meringue buttercream swirls and an intricate hand-piped floral waterfall.
As noted above, Patisserie Valerie cakes are delivered free to UK mainland addresses, and they’re frozen to ensure they arrive in perfect condition. Defrost it on the morning of your big day. You can also add a personalised message and cake topper for an extra cost - plus you get a gift box of 6 macaroons free.
Marks & Spencer Vanilla Two Tier Naked Cake
Best 2 tier wedding cake
- Notice required: 7 days
- Cake type: Madeira sponge cake with vanilla buttercream
- Size: 19.3cm x 10.4cm and 15.3cm x 10.4cm
- Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No
- Suitable for vegetarians? Yes
This hand-finished two-tier cake is perfect for adding your own decorations. It’s made of light and fluffy Madeira sponge, filled and lightly masked with vanilla buttercream. The two cakes are delivered separated - you need to assemble the top tier on top of the bottom tier - but multiple reviews say it was easy to put together. It scores top marks for taste, style and value for money.
Meet the expert
Lauren Goodman is the founder and creative director of Bluebird Creative and Bluebird Bride Academy. With a wealth of experience in her field, Lauren is well-versed in all things wedding planning, from table styling and creating the perfect mood board to tips on calming nerves and coordinating the logistics for the big day.
The mission of Bluebird Bride Academy is to make wedding planning accessible to couples across the world via Youtube and digital downloads. Bluebird Creative is the full, luxury wedding planning/coordination arm of the business in which Lauren and the team work hands-on with couples through the process of planning/executing their special day!
Through both tailor-made wedding planning services as well as the library of downloadable resources, Lauren’s goal is to make the wedding planning process enjoyable so that couples can enjoy their big day from start to finish.
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