It’s unfortunate that most guests — and brides — assume that while a wedding cake may look beautiful it will not taste good. Over the past few years amazingly talented bakers have been creating wedding cake masterpieces, that not only look gorgeous, but taste delicious too.

So here’s some wedding wisdom that will help ensure that you and your guests are pleasantly surprised at your wedding:

1. Attend wedding shows in your area, so you can taste a variety of cake flavors and fillings from different bakers, helping you narrow down the choice of bakers you want to schedule formal appointments with.
2. Realize that you can’t please everyone’s taste buds. As long as you, your groom and your parents — siblings, grandparents and best friends can have a say too (but you know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen) — think the cake is delicious don’t worry about every single guest. There is no way you will be able to please the palette of over 100 people — that goes for the wedding menu too.
3. Find out what the baker is known for. He or she may be famous for their chocolate or carrot cake recipe. It’s important to work with his or her strengths.
4. Once you’ve settled on a cake flavor, try the different fillings they offer to find the perfect combination.

The Seven-Tier Coconut Cake featured above is one of the 100+ cakes featured in Martha Stewart’s new book, Wedding Cakes. The recipe for this cake is on page 59, so if you are a fan of coconut, bring both the picture of this cake and the recipe to your baker.

Photo Credit: Gentl & Hyers