Wine country Wedding Groom’s Cake

Groom's cake for an evening reception in a barn

Late in 2017, the Tubbs fire in northern California burned through vineyards, tasting rooms and left devastation in its wake.

Wedding venues were torched and burned to the ground, and we were tasked with creating an entire dessert and wedding cake ensemble with only three weeks before the wedding was to take place.

The bride was a dream to work with. She knew what she wanted, but left the entire design to us: it was to be golden and romantic, yet rustic, with the reception being held in one of the last venues in the wine country: a barn that could hold her entire wedding party.

We went to work immediately.

We settled on 3 distinct cakes, as the bride and groom liked different flavors. This post is all about the black and gold groom’s cake, with gold details to match the men’s tuxedos.

We used black fondant and gold sugar “paper” for the top of the cake, sealing the carrot cake inside keeping it moist. We rolled the fondant in a way to create a “leather” look, and embossed the pattern on the sides, adding black sugar beads.

Each groomsman got their own cupcake. These were topped with fondant tuxedos handmade a few days in advance and allowed to dry completely. This made the cupcake tux into a cap for the cupcake, with was also carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We’d baked the cupcakes in black cupcake papers and added laser cut gold filigree wrappers onsite.

They were a hit!