For the years between
Anniversary Cakes
An anniversary cake is often a deliberate echo of the original wedding cake, made decades later for a room that has grown. It is one of the few cakes where the brief usually starts with a photograph of another cake.
Where to begin
Briefing an anniversary cake
Anniversaries divide into two very different jobs, and knowing which one you are planning changes everything about the brief.
- Recreating, or marking?A recreation of the wedding cake needs a photograph and patience. Marking the year is a free design brief. Say which you want.
- Find the original photograph.Even a poor one. Colour, tier count and the shape of the decoration are usually recoverable from a print from the seventies.
- The room has changed.A fiftieth is often more people than the wedding was. Work from today's guest count, not the original cake's size.
- The year has a colour.Silver for twenty five, gold for fifty, and it is the fastest way to make an anniversary cake read instantly.
Anniversary cake ideas
Ways to mark the year
From a first anniversary at home to a golden anniversary with four generations in the room.
First anniversary
Often small, often just the two of you, and traditionally the year the top tier of the wedding cake was kept for.
A recreation of the wedding cake
Built from a photograph, at today's guest count. The most emotionally loaded brief a maker gets.
Silver, twenty five years
Silver leaf, a metallic accent or a cool palette. Restrained usually reads better than literal.
Golden, fifty years
A 50th anniversary cake in gold leaf and ivory with a classic finish. Usually the largest anniversary gathering of them all.
A milestone in between
Ten, twenty, thirty. Free design briefs where the number itself is often the whole idea.
A company anniversary
A business marking years instead of a couple. Cleaner, branded and usually served to a standing room.
Recreations and years
What couples ask us
Frequently. It is one of the most rewarding briefs a maker gets. Send the clearest photograph you have, even if it is a faded print, and say what mattered most about it: the shape, the piping, the colour or the topper. Do not expect an exact copy, because techniques, ingredients and even tin sizes have changed, and the pillars and plastic columns of an older cake are rarely worth reproducing. What a good maker will do is recreate the feeling at a size that suits today's guest count.
Anchor it to the year. Silver for twenty five and gold for fifty are the two everybody recognises, and a metallic accent on an otherwise restrained cake reads better than a cake made entirely of the colour. Beyond that, the strongest anniversary cakes borrow one element from the wedding cake, whether that is the piping style, the flowers or the flavour, and let the rest be contemporary.
Usually larger than people plan for, because a golden anniversary tends to gather extended family and old friends. Count the room honestly and use dessert portions. A three tier cake of 20 cm, 25 cm and 30 cm reaches roughly 74 to 84 dessert servings, and a plain kitchen cake cut in the back is the standard way to stretch a smaller design.
Ready to ask
Send the year and the numbers
Send it once. Cake professionals who cover your suburb and are free on your date reply with what they would make and what it would cost. There is no obligation to book anybody.
Not sure on servings? Work it out with the cake size and serving guide first and every response gets easier to compare.
Ask about anniversary cakes
Send your date and guest count, and see who is available.
- 1Tell us about your eventtakes about 2 minutes
- 2We match you with local specialists
- 3Compare free quotesno obligation
Free, no obligation. Your details are only shared with matched specialists.
Practical detail
Top tiers, notice and surprises
Is it worth keeping the top tier of a wedding cake?
The tradition holds for a heavily fruited and iced cake, which was built to keep. It does not hold for the sponge cakes most Australian couples now choose. If keeping a tier matters to you, say so when you order the wedding cake rather than afterwards, because it changes what that tier should be made of.
How far ahead should we order an anniversary cake?
Two to four weeks for most, and longer for a recreation, because the maker may want time to work out how to rebuild something from a photograph. Golden anniversaries often fall on the original wedding date, which means a spring or autumn Saturday, so book earlier.
Can the cake be a surprise?
Yes. Makers handle surprises constantly. Give a delivery address and a contact who is not the person being surprised, and say clearly in the brief that it is a surprise so nobody phones the wrong number to confirm the order.
For the years, and the moments between
Brief an anniversary cake
Share the year, the date, the number of people and the original cake if you have it. Makers who cover your area respond.