The UK’s favourite cake flavours revealed

With the return of Great British Bake Off to UK screens for another year, and the all important Cake Week on the horizon, wedding experts at leading wedding planning website Hitched.co.uk have done bakers across the country a favour by revealing the UK’s favourite cake flavours and combinations in preparation for those who intend to bake along with the amateurs this season.

In a poll of British newlyweds and nearlyweds*, it was revealed that only 3% of couples opted for a traditional fruit cake with marzipan icing for their wedding days, with the remaining couples choosing something more modern and personal to their tastes.

Photo by Michael Twiss Jr on Unsplash

The UK’s Favourite Flavours

Fancy flavour combinations were the clear fan favourites, with almost half of respondents (42%) putting combination cakes in their top tier, while 35% said a classic Victoria Sponge or vanilla cake was their favourite flavour, and only a fifth opting for chocolate or red velvet cake as their favourite.

When it comes to the flavour combos, raspberry and white chocolate came out on top, with almost half (47%) choosing this as their favourite flavour combination. Lemon and elderflower was the second favourite option, with a quarter choosing this classic wedding cake combination, followed by strawberry and Champagne and carrot cake and cream cheese, each with 14% choosing these combos as their chosen wedding cake flavour.

Pippa Middlehurst at Sugar & Spiced Cakes says that raspberry and white chocolate is definitely in the top three choices for couples, but according to her, the most popular flavour is a really unique take on a fruit flavour.

“For us, our most popular wedding cake flavour has been strawberry and rose. This has been a major surprise as rose can be a bit ‘Marmite’ – you either love it or you hate it! Raspberry and white chocolate is a close second with lemon and elderflower easily taking up third place.”

The award-winning cake maker has been inspired by these unusual takes on fruit flavours: “We have just created a wonderful peaches and cream version which is proving popular with the fruit lovers. Every year we revamp our flavours and with the trend heavily now into vegan, our vegan coconut and lime is hugely successful.”

The Icing on the Cake

Many would argue that cake icing is often the best part of a cake, and it seems the nation is firmly in agreement when it comes to what they want complimenting their cakes.

While the majority of those surveyed said their own wedding cake was a tiered number covered in icing and decorations (43%), more than a third opted for a naked cake (35%) so as to not overwhelm the senses when it came time to eat.

Additionally, a whopping three quarters of respondents (73%) said their personal preference when it comes to the icing on a cake leans towards a sweet buttercream frosting, while only 8% said they actually love marzipan icing. Meanwhile, 1-in-10 admitted they preferred their cakes naked, or covered in cream cheese frosting.

Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash

Zoe Burke, host of What Not to do When Planning a Wedding and editor of Hitched.co.uk says: “Don’t feel like you have to go for a traditional fruit wedding cake if you don’t like it – as it turns out you’re not alone! You should only follow wedding traditions if they work for you, and with a wedding cake being one of the most important (and delicious) parts of your day, you need to love it!

“There are so many amazing flavour combinations available these days, the options are nearly endless for couples choosing a cake for their big day. Not only that, but the businesses creating these cakes are literal food artists.

“The creations we see couples cutting into are nothing short of edible works of art, so it’s important that the taste of the cake matches the look!”