21 DIY Wedding Cake Ideas You Can Steal (Plus Baking Tips From Pros)

If you’re considering a homemade vibe to your wedding day, you’ll definitely want to try out some DIY wedding cakes. Making your own wedding cake can be a challenging yet rewarding process. It’ll not only save you money from ordering a cake from a baker, but it’ll also provide your reception with an intimate, homemade feel.

The most delicious aspect of planning a wedding would definitely be the tasting and baking of the wedding cake. Wedding cakes are the traditional wedding day treat to celebrate you and your partner’s union. From the cake cutting ceremony to saving the top layer for your first anniversary, cakes have quite the wedding day tradition. 

DIY wedding cakes are perfect for the couple looking for a DIY wedding. Take control of your decor and desserts by making everything yourself. If you’re unsure where to begin, we’ve got the top tips and top recipes to make your homemade wedding cake dreams come true.

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5 Tips To Know Before Making DIY Wedding Cakes

1. Keep It Simple

When it comes to making DIY wedding cakes, have fun with it, but there’s no need to get overly carried away. Find a recipe you think is feasible and keep in mind your own baking skills and experience. While making a homemade wedding cake can be a great time to learn new tips and tricks, you shouldn’t have to be a professional baker to accomplish the recipe.

If the recipe seems too complicated, simply find another. You’ll want to practice and feel confident that the wedding cake recipe you chose will turn out exactly as you had planned when the big day arrives. Another helpful tip is to ensure you bake all your layers separately if you’re opting for a tiered design.

2. Decide What Flavor You Want

The flavor of your wedding cake is, of course, another vital decision. You could choose to keep it simple with a delightful vanilla that’ll get the job done, or choose to indulge in a chocolate lover’s fantasy. Perhaps you’re feeling bold and want a marble or red velvet cake. The choice is completely up to you and your partner. Don’t feel compelled to be traditional, choose any wedding cake flavor you’d like.

Aside from the flavor of the cake itself, there’s also the delicious decision of picking the flavors of your filling and frosting. Common wedding cake filling flavors include raspberry, lemon, coconut, buttercream, or cream cheese. 

As you begin planning out the flavors of your DIY wedding cakes, remember to keep in mind that first tip. Don’t overcomplicate things and keep it all simple. Settle on your flavor combination and make every tier that same flavor.

3. Don’t Procrastinate

Another important tip to help you minimize your stress as you create your DIY wedding cakes is to not wait until the last minute. We all know it’s very easy to procrastinate, but do yourself a favor and make sure you plan ahead.

Get all the ingredients and baking supplies you’ll need far in advance. Remember that practice makes perfect and hardly anyone can pull something off perfectly in their first attempt. You’ll need to do a trail run or two before baking the real cake. Practice your techniques in terms of baking time and icing style. 

Once you feel as though you’ve mastered the desired taste and appearance of the wedding cake in practice, you can begin planning for how you wish to prepare the official cake. 

4. Make A Checklist

Be sure to stay organized throughout this process. After selecting your recipe and flavors, you’ll want to start making a checklist of everything you need as well as a timeline for how long you should give yourself to create the cake in time for the big day.

First, make sure you know everything you need to buy. Go to the store with a full list in hand to ensure you won’t miss a single ingredient or supply. Aside from the basic sugar, butter, eggs, flour, and other ingredients, making sure you buy the correct sized pans is equally important to the wedding cake recipe.

If you’re opting for a tiered cake, you’ll need to make sure you have multiple sized pans. Furthermore, you’ll need to figure out what shape you want your cake to be. Do you want your wedding cake to be round, square, or rectangular? Do you need Bundt pans, springform pans, or tube pans?

Cake pan sizes and types are very important as each pan is best equipped to handle a specific amount of cake batter. Thus, be sure to plan out which cake pans you’ll need and purchase any you don’t already own well in advance.

As this tip covers the wedding cake planning stage, you’ll also want to consider what you want your wedding cake topper to be. Common cake topper ideas include having a bride and groom on top, having your initials or last name included, or even having your wedding hashtag spelled out. Once you’ve decided what you and your fiancé want, add it to the checklist and be sure to order or create the topper with plenty of time to spare.

5. Be Sure To Have A Plan B

If everything fails, it’s always important to have a plan B. Did the cake fall apart? Did the icing not set? Did it just not come out how you envisioned it? It’s alright; don’t panic!

Prepare your backup plan in advance to avoid any stress from last minute disasters. Depending upon the situation and timeframe, your plan B could include quickly baking an easier cake, making a delicious cake from a box mix instead, or purchasing a cake from a bakery or even grocery store.

As long as you have patience and some creativity, any of these backup plans can work flawlessly. Yes, even buying a generic grocery store sheet cake or two can be a delicious dessert. If you’re looking to spruce up the generic cake, get creative by adding fruit, flowers, or other elegant decorations to make the last-minute wedding cake still look stunning.

21 DIY Wedding Cakes And Recipes That We Love

1. White Almond Buttercream With Strawberries Cake

Strawberry lovers are sure to enjoy this delicious homemade wedding cake as in between the layers of cake and white almond buttercream rests the sweet filling of freshly chopped strawberries.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Sweet Phi

2. Flourless Dark Chocolate Gold Leaf Cake

You can order this kit to make this cake that comes with the cake mix, chocolate pieces, edible 24K gold leaf, a non stick liner for your pan, and the instructions to bake! This cake is simple to make, yet delicious to eat. If you’re planning for a smaller guest list or even for a micro wedding, then this dark chocolate golf leaf cake will certainly do the trick.

Order The Kit Or Find The Recipe Here: The Caker

3. Semi-Naked Raspberry And Coconut Layer Cake

Semi-naked wedding cakes are definitely making their way to become one of the hottest wedding trends. The trick is to limit the spreading of icing on the outside of the cake for a unique, yet stunning style of its own. This semi-naked cake features the tasty combination of raspberry and coconut complete with sugar paste flowers as decoration.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Recipes Made Easy

4. Lemon-Raspberry Wedding Cake

If the flavor palette of lemon and raspberry piques your interest, you’ll definitely want to consider DIY wedding cakes like this one. This recipe requires three batches of cake mix to create six separate cakes for this layered, three-tiered marvel.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Epicurious

5. Gluten-Free Chocolate Wedding Cake

If you, your fiancé, or any of your guests are in need of a gluten-free option, this chocolate wedding cake is sure to delight. This gluten-free dessert features a naked appearance with chocolate frosting added as a filling between the layers along with the addition of fresh strawberries for an enhanced appeal and taste.

Find The Full Recipe Here: A Saucy Kitchen

6. Classic White Wedding Cake With Italian Meringue Buttercream

For the classic, bakery-style wedding cake, try creating this delicate white cake complete with buttercream frosting. This tall dessert creation features four layers of cake and beautifully piped frosting.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Veena Azmanov

7. Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Wedding Cake

If you’re looking for a wedding cake recipe that’s both vegan and gluten-free, then you’ve come to the right place. This gorgeous white cake includes a fondant finish for a smoother look and beautiful white roses to complete the presentation. 

Find The Full Recipe Here: The Vegan 8

8. Fluffy And Buttery Vanilla Wedding Cake

This semi-naked fluffy vanilla cake is all about thickness. You’ll need tall cake pans for this one to ensure the cake comes out nice and fluffy. Once you’ve baked and assembled your tiers, feel free to decorate the beautiful cake with flowers and fruit to truly make it pop.

Find The Full Recipe Here: The Bakeologie

9. White Wedding Cake With Raspberry Filling

The best part about this homemade wedding cake recipe is that it calls for easy box mixes, eight cake box mixes to be exact. Once you’ve baked your three rectangular tiers, you can give the white cake some flavor by filling the layers with delicious raspberry filling.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Betty Crocker

10. Naked Wedding Cake

This beautiful naked wedding cake features frosting between layers, yet leaves the sides of the cake completely exposed. Naked cakes are simple to decorate, gorgeous to look at, and perfect for the couple planning a rustic wedding.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Brit + Co

11. Rose Water Vanilla Wedding Cake

This simple vanilla recipe yields a fluffy, moist cake covered in rose water buttercream frosting. To copy the appearance of these gorgeous DIY wedding cakes, don’t forget to add pink piped frosting in the shape of a rose then top it all off with dazzling, edible glitter.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Life Love and Sugar

12. Lemon-Coconut Cake With Mascarpone Frosting

As you begin to plan out your wedding cake flavors, be sure to put the flavor palette of lemon, coconut, and mascarpone cheese in the running. This incredible cake is sure to stand out and the fondant daisy flower decorations further add to this cake’s appeal.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Country Living

13. Monogram Wedding Cake

Ditch the traditional circular or rectangular wedding cake shape and personalize your cake in this unique way. Creating your own monogram wedding cake is a great way to get creative while giving your dessert a personal touch. The delicious monogram display will definitely be a wedding cake to remember.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Hallmark Channel

14. White Wedding Cake With Caramel Icing

Give your white DIY wedding cakes a richer taste by making your own caramel icing to go along with it. 

Find The Full Recipe Here: Beth Bryan Designs

15. Two-Tier Stacked Wedding Cake

This two-tiered wedding cake is simple and effective. Plus, this recipe will provide you with the top tips for stacking your tiers to ensure they won’t collapse. 

Find The Full Recipe Here: Food Network

16. Three-Tier Sponge Wedding Cake

This three-tier sponge cake will be an absolute showstopper. This is what DIY wedding cakes are all about: creating your own gorgeous cake on your own without dealing with the professional bakery prices.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Baking Mad

17. Lemon-Raspberry And Chocolate Truffle Wedding Cakes

This recipe features both instructions for a fruity lemon-raspberry cake and a sweet chocolate truffle cake. Whether you’re in the mood for one of these flavors, or both, you’ll learn in no time just how simple these DIY wedding cakes can be with a little patience and practice.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Letty’s Kitchen

18. Mini Wedding Pound Cakes

Since you’re going through the effort of creating your own homemade wedding cake, you might as well get as creative and original as possible. Instead of opting for large sheet cakes, try making these adorable mini pound cakes. Sometimes good things do come in small packages, and these treats are sure to make your guests smile in delight. 

Find The Full Recipe Here: Pampered Chef

19. Black Forest Naked Wedding Cake

Chocolate and cherries have always been a powerful pairing. If this is you and your partner’s ideal flavor combination, then this stunning naked wedding cake is definitely what you need to try.

Find The Full Recipe Here: What Charlotte Baked

20. Triple Lemon Wedding Cake

Dazzle your senses with citrus with this triple lemon wedding cake. The triple lemon aspect includes the lemon cake, the lemon curd filling, and the lemon buttercream frosting for the ultimate lemon lover experience. 

Find The Full Recipe Here: Life Love and Sugar

21. Red Velvet Wedding Cake

Another beloved flavor for DIY wedding cakes would be red velvet. Red velvet is always a moist and delicious choice that wouldn’t be complete without classic cream cheese frosting.

Find The Full Recipe Here: Family Table Treasures

Time To Bake!

Now that you’ve had the chance to explore various DIY wedding cakes as inspiration, we hope you and your partner have narrowed down your wedding cake flavors and desired recipe. 

Make these DIY wedding cakes your own by incorporating your personal decor ideas into the final design. Don’t forget to spend time planning and practicing the cake recipe until you’re satisfied with your results. At the end of the day, you and your guests are sure to be impressed by the hard work and creativity that went into creating your very own homemade wedding cake. Now devour that delicious dessert with pride!