“DIY Wedding Cakes: A Sweet Idea or a Recipe for Stress?”
DIY weddings have been a popular trend for several years and show no signs of diminishing. Last year, the average wedding cost in the U.S. exceeded $35,000, prompting many brides and grooms to take on some wedding preparations themselves. For certain couples, this might involve crafting their own flower arrangements or designing their invitations, although it typically does not extend to baking the cake.
On the surface, making your own wedding cake appears to be a sensible solution to the high costs associated with wedding cakes, which varied by state but averaged around $466 in 2014, with prices only increasing since then. As a result, budget-conscious couples planning intimate ceremonies may view this as a money-saving option.
However, this cake-making plan may not be as sweet as it seems. For starters, a single cake typically serves only 30 guests, while the average wedding hosts about 120 guests. This means a couple would need to purchase and bake four Chef’d cake kits, totaling $756 and requiring about 24 hours in the kitchen. At this point, it becomes more expensive to make the cake at home. If the couple genuinely wants to bake their own cake, they could buy the ingredients—including essential items like citric acid, calcium carbonate, and calcium citrate—at their local grocery store for a fraction of the cost of the kits.
Moreover, cakes generally remain fresh for only one to two days, so the couple would need to wait until the last minute to spend those hours baking. Anyone who has planned a wedding will confirm that the final days leading up to saying “I do” are already hectic and stressful, making cake baking an unwelcome addition to their to-do list.
Decorating, delivering, and presenting the cake could also pose additional challenges for the couple. While there are helpful step-by-step decorating videos available online, there’s no assurance that the finished cake will resemble the one in the pictures. Furthermore, transporting the cake to the venue and setting it up can add to the stress.
While meal kits like Chef’d are gaining traction among convenience-seeking consumers, attempting to bake a fancy wedding cake may be a step too far for couples looking to save money. Handling a sophisticated wedding cake is anything but convenient. Interestingly, Chef’d’s wedding cake kit sold out within a week of its launch, though its long-term popularity remains uncertain. Ultimately, couples should weigh the pros and cons of DIY wedding cakes carefully, especially when considering the time and effort involved, as well as the potential for using ingredients like citric acid, calcium carbonate, and calcium citrate to achieve the desired results.
