10 Ways to Add Color to Your Wedding Cake

While white wedding cakes will always be timeless, adding color is a beautiful way to make your cake feel personal, playful, and perfectly suited to your wedding design. Whether you’re envisioning soft pastels, bold hues, or unexpected pops of texture, there are so many creative ways to infuse color into your cake. Let’s explore 10 of our favorite ways to add color and personality to a wedding cake!

1. Fresh Flowers

If you are looking for a timeless, traditional way to add a pop of color to your wedding cake, look no further than your bouquet. Choosing blooms that match the flowers in your bridal bouquet and other floral arrangements and adding them to your cake is the perfect way to incorporate your wedding colors and add a romantic moment. Vibrant blooms can be used for a bright pop of color, or soft pastel florals can add an understated, elegant look. They can be arranged in clusters, cascades, or minimalist accents for just the right amount of flair.

2. Hand-Painted Details

If you would like to add color to your wedding cake in a way that is beautiful and unique, consider the addition of hand-painted designs. This design can be anything from soft, watercolor flowers to a 1920s-inspired geometric pattern, or abstract splashes of color. Painted details can be as bold or subtle as you would like, and are the perfect way to reflect your wedding theme in a beautifully artistic way.

3. Metallic Gold Accents

There are endless ways to add a touch of gold to your wedding cake design that will not only highlight the wedding aesthetic but will give the design a glamorous edge. For a clean, modern look, consider adding a bold gold foil accent along the top of each cake tier. For a classic wedding cake design with a twist, incorporate simple geometric gold lines, or swirl gold foil into your buttercream frosting for a whimsical touch. For a unique look, try wrapping half the cake in gold with a bold sugar flower, or highlight a mountain design with metallic accents. No matter what look you are trying to achieve, adding gold accents to your wedding cake will create a gorgeous, dramatic design!

4. Pressed Flowers

We love adding edible, pressed flowers to wedding cakes to create colorful design moments that are unique. Have your baker source edible flowers in your wedding color palette, and arrange them on the cake to tie in the rest of the wedding design and add beautiful colors and textures to your wedding cake. Pressed flowers can be arranged to look like a bouquet along the front of the cake, or can be pressed into the frosting to create a garden meadow. Vibrant pressed blooms can also be arranged along the top of each cake tier for a more modern look, making a simple white cake into a masterpiece.

5. Colorful Buttercream

If you want to add bold color to your wedding cake, why not exchange traditional white frosting for a more vibrant choice? Finishing your cake with a color that matches your wedding palette is the perfect way to make your cake stand out and be the true centerpiece of the reception. A bright frosting color (like robin’s egg blue) can still look playfully traditional with classic white piping, or sage green buttercream can be applied in an ombre effect for a look that is both bold and unique. Finishing full tiers in metallic copper creates an eye-catching design perfect for a modern or rustic wedding. Finishing your wedding cake with whatever color you love will add dramatic personality to the design that your guests will love too!

6. Fruit Accents

Using fruit to add color to your wedding cake celebrates the beauty of nature and is especially perfect for summer and fall weddings. Gorgeous summer berries can be piled on top of the cake, or can be arranged along the top of each tier. More unique fruits like figs and pomegranates are also great choices and add lovely color to the cake. Apple slices can be dried and hand-died, then arranged along the cake for a vibrant look perfect for autumn. Citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits can also be sliced and dried, then arranged on the cake for an organic, naturally stunning look.

7. Geode Cutouts

Incorporating geode cutouts into your cake design is a great way to add not only color, but also unique detail to the wedding cake. To achieve this look, small sections of each cake tier are cut out (after the tiers are assembled), and rock candy is inserted into the hollow space, making it look like you cracked open a geode rock. Any color of rock candy can be used, but we like to stick to jewel tones to keep the effect as natural as possible. Some of our favorite colors to use are deep blue, emerald green, amethyst, and crystal white. Extravagant greenery and fresh flowers can also be added to finish off the wild, natural look of this design.

8. Greenery

Adding greenery to your wedding cake is a great way to incorporate color while keeping a really clean and classic look. Greenery can be arranged along each cake tier for a traditional look that adds dimension to a simple design, or it can be included alongside fondant ruffles for a more modern approach. Small, delicate flowers can be added for a more romantic look, or you can stick to just greenery for a design that is natural and beautiful to look at.

9. Vibrant Buttercream Flowers

If you are looking for bold, artistic flair in your wedding cake, consider featuring buttercream flowers as the design focus. We love creating unique blooms out of buttercream frosting in hues that match the wedding design. Beautiful roses in pale pinks and deep maroon shades can be added to a white cake for a more traditional look, or large abstract flowers can be piped onto a more colorful blue background for an artistic, playful design. However you choose to use them, buttercream flowers are the perfect way to incorporate stunning color into your wedding cake design!

10. Caramel Drip

This one is perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth! Adding caramel to the top of your wedding cake and allowing it to drip artfully down the sides is a really unique (not to mention delicious!) way to add color and visual interest to your wedding cake. If caramel does not complement your cake flavors well, the same effect can be achieved using chocolate or raspberry sauce. We like to keep the other design elements fairly simple after adding a caramel drip, such as incorporating a few delicate flowers or fun spun sugar decorations. A caramel drip is the perfect decoration for a wedding cake that is as beautiful as it is sweet!

Your wedding cake should reflect your personality, your love story, and the tone of your day—and color is a wonderful way to bring that all to life. Whether you go subtle or bold, there’s no limit to the ways you can make your cake stand out.