This was the first wedding cake that I worked on in which I had no contact with the bride. A bridesmaid took care of all the arrangements. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to meet this bride. Maybe then I’d have an awesome story to share about the meaning behind a wedding cake devoted to puzzle pieces.

But since I don’t, I’ll just assume that the Bride and Groom finally found each other and the fit was perfect.

The design of this cake had to be simple. The tiers were naked swiss meringue buttercream with the basic flavors of chocolate, vanilla and marble.

Originally, the bridesmaid had requested a simple border of joined puzzle pieces lining the bottom of each tier. However, this idea popped into my head and I sketched it out for her so I could present the idea to her. She loved it and gave the bride her opinion on changing the design to something more dramatic. Thankfully, the bride agreed since once I have an idea in my head, its really all I can think about!

We were keeping to a tight budget so I kept all the decorations simple. I purchased a mini puzzle cutter from Copper Gifts and cut out puzzle pieces from gumpaste. I cut some of them in half, some diagonally and kept some whole to add some variation to the design. The pieces that were cut in half worked perfectly for those pieces that seem to be coming out of the cake. I painted them all with silver luster dust diluted with vodka, let them dry and arranged them on the buttercream covered, stacked tiers.

I added some random silver dragees to add another element to the cake. The puzzle pieces dried a bit “flat” color-wise and the dragees had a sheen similar to the initials. I think that their addition made the cake more cohesive.

The couple had provided the initials to be used so I added these just as the bridesmaid arrived to pick up the cake. They were pretty heavy and I was worried about having them so close to the edge of this tier but thankfully, they stayed put!