Naked Cake

Soft and subtle the naked cake makes it's debut. I LOVE the look of these soft romantic naked cakes.  This trend is here to stay it seems. I've made many of these for wedding cakes. Brides love the natural look. 


See How to Make A Scantily Clad Naked Cake

Want to see the naked cake in action ;-) 

Chocolate or Vanilla Cake?

semi naked cakes with fresh flowersRomantic

Although these are fairly simple designs there are some tricks to filling and frosting them. Basically you start with untrimmed layers of cake. The crust is important as it looks prettiest when it peeks through the icing like the vanilla cake on the left.

The chocolate buttermilk cake on the right needed trimming however. It was a 6 inch cake trimmed to a 5 inch size. This posed a problem. Lots of crumbs and no crusted edges.

The solution:

  1. Fill the layers with a colorful frosting
  2. Crumb coat the outer edges with a thin layer of chocolate ganache
  3.  Frost with a layer of buttercream 
  4. Carefully scrape the outer frosting until satisfied :-) 

TIP: Don't go overboard scraping or the ganache icing and cake crumbs will start to meld into one another. I would recommend my chocolate stout cake recipe for this style as it makes a firmer crust.


A Close Up Of The Vanilla Cake with Fresh Roses

I used my white wedding cake recipe and easy buttercream frosting for the cake pictured below. Recipe links are at the bottom of the page for you.

Close up of a naked cake with fresh flowersNaturally Beautiful

It's important to have a nice golden crust so bake your cakes until they are firm to the touch and use a simple syrup on the layers to maintain moisture. Naked cakes tend to dry out quickly as they are more exposed.

NOTE: These are semi naked. Totally bare cakes with no icing whatsoever are very susceptible to drying out. I much prefer the look of minimally frosted versus totally nude without icing. Keep the layers well wrapped right up until you set it up at the venue.

Inspiration For The Naked Cakes

Close up of a rustic cake standInspiration For A Naked Cake

The process I use to get my creative juices flowing begins with finding something new  and exciting to work with. Often times it is a pretty plate or cake stand. Thrift shops, flea markets and stores like Home Goods or T.J. Maxx are great for finding unique treasures. Here is the one I found....

Fresh Flowers or Fruit Decorations

Blushing Pink RosesPretty Soft Pink Roses

These cakes often have ample amounts of fresh flowers and or fruit decorating them. Simple Roses and some flowers from your own garden can work beautifully. The Roses will last quite some time on a wedding cake without wilting, however the Phlox on the chocolate design will not. 

Close up of the chocolate naked cakeRustic Beauty

Simple Syrup
Always good to have on hand:
4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
Boil until mixture reaches 200F on a candy thermometer stirring until there are no more crystals left. Cool and store in a jar for future use. 

You can brush flavored simple syrup onto your cakes to add moistness and extra favor. 

semi naked cake on a green cake standElegance


The Recipes I Used

White wedding cakeWhite Wedding Cake
buttercream cakeEasy Buttercream
chocolate ganache recipeChocolate Ganache
Chocolate stout recipeChocolate Stout Cake

Enjoy :-) 

This article was printed from Wedding-Cakes-For-You.com

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