The best wedding cakes in Vogue

In need of wedding cake ideas? We’ve got a few. The ceremonious confection has, after all, been a tradition for millennia: its roots trace back to ancient Rome, where grooms would break a barley cake over their bride’s head to officialise their union. Thousands of years later, Queen Victoria served a royal icing cake to her bridal party for her marriage to Prince Albert – the earliest precedent of the all-white style that’s still commonplace today – whereas her son, Prince Leopold, is often credited with being the first person to serve a completely edible tiered cake on his wedding day in 1882. (A photograph of the historic cake, which is on display in Kensington Palace, shows it was decorated with putti figures holding bows and arrows.)

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Fast forward to the present day, and wedding cakes have become a highly personal matter of preference – and, as we’ve seen in Vogue’s wedding coverage – sometimes even an art form. Take Umber Ahmad s brutalist-inspired cake, or PJ Magerko-Liquorice and Jordan Millington-Liquorice’s 10-foot wedding cake that required sabers to cut. At the culmination of their three-day St. Tropez extravaganza, Sarah Staudinger and Ari Emanuel cut an enormous Tarte Tropézienne, while Babba Canales served a Swedish “princess cake” with a miniature 3D print of the couple on top.

Below, see some of the best (and most unusual) wedding cakes published in Vogue – and perhaps you’ll find inspiration for your own.

Shawn Lakin and Matthew Spector opted for a ‘table cake’ – or, a custom semi-circle table covered in a flat lemon-poppyseed cake – for their highly original wedding at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Alexandra Dorda, the C.M.O. of her family’s vodka brand Chopin, included a boozy surprise in her white chiffon wedding cake: the fresh strawberries were soaked in the liquor and accented with rice paper flowers.

Floral accents adorned the wedding cake of Lucrezia Bonaccorsi Beccaria and Giulio Rossi Prodi, who got married at the bride's family estate in Sicily.

“Even though we had a tiny wedding, we wanted a big, vintage-style tiered cake. It just felt proper,” Kat Dennings says of her wedding confection. “It was vanilla cake, filled with strawberry buttercream. Enough to feed 100 people.”

Meredith Rothman and Jamie Iovine’s ’80s-style wedding cake was made by Los Angeles-based cakemaker, ChariotLA.

The Butter End made a cake inspired by the tulle of Kristina Levitan’s dress for her and Steven Levitan’s Brentwood wedding.

Grace Soldatos and Devin Brow had a four-tier chocolate sponge cake adorned with pink sugar flowers.

“I was set on an almond cake, Will was set on lemon, and I really wanted a chocolate cake for my grandmother’s birthday that fell on the same week, so we decided that more was more and went with all three. We served each guest a slice of all three cakes,” Caroline Constas says of why they served multiple confections at her New York City wedding.

Butter Bali designed a simple white cake with tropical flowers inspired by Rei Kawano and Matthew Yoder's floral arrangements.

Melissa Jacobs and Austin Landow had a classic croquembouche wedding cake lined with baby’s breath for their South of France wedding at the Hotel du Cap.

“Cake is my most favorite thing in the world. So, for our wedding cake, I knew it had to be from my most frequented allergy-friendly bakery, By the Way Bakery,” Beanie Feldstein said of the cake she chose for her summer camp-themed wedding to Bonnie Chance Roberts. “It was a vanilla gluten-free, dairy-free cake with latte filling and it was absolute heaven – and gorgeous too!”

“The banana dulce de leche flavored cake did not disappoint,” Joey King said of her wedding cake.

Mario Rodriguez Graniel and Guy Rejwan couldn’t pick just one cake flavor for their wedding in Oaxaca—so instead, they offered seven different confections to guests, all made by local Mexican bakeries.

At their Miami wedding, Danielle Brooks and Dennis Gelin had a stunning seven-level vanilla and red velvet cake.

Chloë Sevigny’s wedding cake by Aimee France, aka Yungkombucha, took visual inspiration from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

At Tom Guinness and Tish Weinstock’s gothic wedding at Belvoir Castle, their dramatic cake matched the moody, romantic ambiance.

Sarah Hyland describes her wedding cake, adorned with lemons, as the “most delicious.”

A creation by Christoph Artisan Chocolatier. There were three flavours in each tier - lavender, espresso, and tres leches. The flowers were made with traditional French chocolate molds.

The couple worked on their architectural cake with Heather Anne Leavitt, of Sweet Heather Anne in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Khadija Fouchard of K&Kakes created two cake flavours for the couple; one with red velvet with cream cheese frosting and one vanilla cake with lemon cream. They saved the top layer, which was a combination of both flavours, to celebrate their one-year anniversary.

A berry-topped, tiered confection.

A traditional Swedish “princess cake” – a torte made up of sponge cake and pastry cream – decorated with roses and a miniature 3D print of the couple on top.

This giant St Honoré cake was the biggest the patissier ever made, at 80 centimetres in diameter.

The couple’s cake was made by Flour & Bloom.

This cake was cookies-and-milk-flavoured.

A gigantic Tarte Tropézienne, the one and only dessert of St. Tropez.

This cake was accented with floral garlands and icing made to look like lace.

A multilayered naked sponge cake filled with lemon curd and crème patisserie.

Layers of cake and flowers.

A carrot cake with layers of buttercream and all sorts of berries.

The cake complemented the greenery of the Napa vineyard where the wedding was held.

The newlyweds cutting their cake, which included one vegan tier for the groom.

The couple named their cake “Il Robbiano.” It was inspired by the Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia. “We loved the meringue, cream, and crown of fresh fruits on the flat cake,” Sabine says.

The cake flavor was Funfetti, which the couple served alongside old-fashioned peanut butter, chocolate chip, and sugar cookies.