By Michelle Anderson
Cake Decorating Expert, about.com
The groom’s cake is a tradition
that can add a little fun to your wedding and a bit of extra flavor
beyond the traditional cake flavors. Some couples have a hard time
deciding if they want a groom’s cake at all but many modern weddings
have resurrected the tradition of this cake to showcase the groom's
hobbies, tastes and even their favorite sports teams. Groom's cakes are
usually chocolate to contrast the actual wedding cake although any
flavour is acceptable. One trend in groom’s cakes is having very unique
“manly” cake flavors that you would not perhaps combine in desserts on a
regular basis or ever! These cake flavor combinations use traditional
tastes mixed with ingredients that provide contrast and often texture.
If you want to try making one of these cakes experiment to see what
works best for your palate or that special man that could be the lucky
recipient.
Some of the more trendy groom’s cakes flavors you might find at the next wedding you attend could include:
Guinness Beer and Chocolate: Most men love beer so what could
be manlier than a cake that combines the dark velvet bitterness of
Guinness with tantalizing chocolate. You can’t really taste the beer in
this cake but it will be one of the moistest dark chocolate
cakes you have ever had in your life. This cake can be topped with a
Guinness chocolate butter cream as well to continue the theme. Another
version could be Porter beer, Pumpkin Stout and any other full flavored
dark brew. Lighter beers do not produce the depth of flavor that the
darker ones provide or that hint of toasty smoke so make sure you
purchase the best one to produce the finest cake.
French Toast and Bacon:
This flavor combination works best for cupcakes or a smaller cake
rather than a huge confection which would end up very rich and
overwhelming. This is not as strange as it might seem when you think
about how delicious it is when you dip your bacon in the maple syrup
when having pancakes or French toast. Making this cake is quite simple;
it is a combination of a delicious vanilla cinnamon cake topped with
maple butter cream studded with real crispy bacon bits. You can decorate these anyway you want to reflect the groom’s hobbies and personality.
Chocolate Chili Powder:
A hint of heat in chocolate is a very popular flavor and some high end
chocolate companies such as Lindt even have a chocolate bar with chili
pepper. The hint of warmth in the chocolate is incredibly pleasing and
you could even accent the cake with fondant chili peppers for fun. Many
chocolate chili recipes use coffee to accent and enhance the flavors so
don’t be surprised to taste a hint of that too! You can enhance the
flavor with a hint of cinnamon and add chili to the icing as well.
Dark Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes
This is the ultimate in many cake flavors especially if the groom is a
lover of good whiskey. There are so many cakes that are fashioned after
bubbly “girly” drinks and this confection is one the opposite end of the
cake spectrum. The most intense way to serve this type of cake is with a
good quality whiskey in the cake, ganache filling and buttercream
icing. Most of these recipes seldom turn out too sweet especially if you
use a good quality chocolate about 70% cocoa.
Other interesting Manly cake flavors are:
- Jack Daniels and Coke
- Salted Caramel
- Peanut Butter Cup
- Peanut Butter and Jam
- Sweet Potato Maple
