Modern Wedding Cakes

Going with a modern theme is guaranteed to make your wedding day look sleek and sophisticated, and a modern cake will help you achieve that look. From geometric designs and edible metallic foil, to glossy white fondant and pops of color, get inspired by these modern cake ideas.

Geometric Detailed Cake 

Amy Beck Cake Design created this fun, four-tier confection and decorated it with colorful hexagons and criss-crosses in keeping with the couple's geometric theme. Each tier boasted a different flavor: red velvet, passion fruit with passion fruit filling, chocolate ganache with strawberry and vanilla filling, and lemon cake with raspberry filling.

Martine Pasties created this two-tier vanilla and almond cake, featuring a bottom tier covered in edible silver leaf and adorned with a sugar magnolia.

Exquisite Desserts created two cakes for this couple's California wedding: a buttercream-covered chiffon cake with mango mousse and a carrot and red velvet cake, the couple's runner up option from their cake tasting.

This large chocolate cube cake made an unforgettable statement at this South Carolina wedding. 

These chocolate buttercream-covered cakes from Sylvia Weinstock featured two different flavors to reflect the personalities of each of the grooms: one with chocolate on the inside and the other with peanut butter. 

Each of the tiers on this sleek confection from Sweet on Cake had a different flavor: strawberries and cream with lemon curd, caramel-toffee fudge, and red velvet.

This fully-gilded two-tier cake from Public NYC had a decadent dulce de leche filling.

Nine Cakes created this black and white confection using ruffled fondant and layers of orange blossom cake with passion-fruit curd and vanilla buttercream.

In keeping with the black and white color scheme for their wedding, this couple chose a four-tier cake with black striped details from Wow Factor Cakes. Inside the cake were decadent layers of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and white cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate mousse.

This couple cut into a small buckwheat cake with pickled blueberry and lemon cream from Reynard at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, New York.

For their cool city wedding, this couple brought in three different cakes from Fluffy Thoughts, each with their own unique white on white buttercream frosted pattern, and each topped with a different cake topper from Sweet and Saucy Supply. Two of the confections were white cake with passionfruit curd and blackberry meringue buttercream, and the third was an almond cake with salted caramel filling.

This couple cut into a simple vanilla cake with chocolate chip cannoli filling from Goddess and Grocer for their cocktail-style reception.

This lemon cake with lemon ganache and wild strawberries from Rose Cakes had a simple adornment of two fondant cypress trees, as a nod to their Italian wedding location, and to represent the two grooms.

This a four-tier confection from Ashley Perkins of Tier Luxury Cakes featured a faux bois-printed fondant and a gold monogram. It was filled with a delicious orange honey buttercream.

This couple chose a cake from the favorite NYC bakery, Momofuku Milkbar. Each tier was a different flavor, and the bride and groom chose to save the strawberry-lemon top tier.

BCake NY made these utterly cool bride and groom skull cakes in the style of Dia de los Muertos figurines. The bride skull was dark chocolate with chocolate mousse and ganache filling, with a floral sugar veil topper, and the groom skull was infused with white tequila and lime and topped with tequila buttercream and a top hat.

The vanilla, three-tier cake, topped with a miniature "Love" by artist Robert Indiana from Blue Butterfly Design, was cut using the same knife that the bride's parents used at their own wedding.

We love the sleek simplicity of this ginger-lime cake topped with paper flowers from Nine Cakes. 

This bright and fun confection from Hey There, Cupcake! featured wafer-paper flowers and sugared fondant. 

Hey There, Cupcake! created this two-tier lemon cake with blueberry curd filling, pretty blue watercolor-esque design, and paper flowers. 

This petite hexagon-shaped chocolate cake from Sweet and Saucy Shop was topped with paper gems, frosted in vanilla buttercream, and covered in crushed rock candy.

Kendall's Cakes created this elegantly simple four-tiered coconut and carat cake. We love the sleek gold and copper rings decorating the bottom of each tier.

In keeping with their fall theme, this couple had Sweet Fix create a pumpkin spice cake with a cinnamon-brown-sugar buttercream frosting, with a colorful diamond design hand-painted onto the outer fondant layer. 

Coco and Fig created this three-tier, stawberry and Champagne-flavored confection featuring a sleek gold middle tier between two white buttercream-frosted tiers. 

This lemon-scented cake with a tri-berry compote and vanilla buttercream frosting from A Simple Cake was decorated with blue ombré polka dots and a fox bride and groom cake topper from Bunny with a Toolbelt to keep with the wedding's fox theme. 

The Whole Cake created this geometric almond cake, finished off with fondant white and gold hexagons. 

This three-tier strawberry shortcake confection from Charm City Cakes was decorated with a modern, geometric trellis motif for a sleek finish.

Cake Studio of Ocean City created this bold red, four-tier chocolate tiramisu and green tea cake. The geometric shape and gold animal detailing give the cake a modern edge, plus the dragon and phoenix have extra meaning as they represent man and woman in Chinese culture. 

This three-tier cake from Hey There Cupcake was painted with black stripes on the bottom tier, splattered dots on the middle, and an "XO" on the top, flanked on one side by bright florals. 

Zoe Francois created this orange blossom honey sponge cake with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream, layered with kumquat-Champagne confit with a gold-painted bottom tier for a modern edge.

This vanilla and strawberry cake from Holiday Market was frosted with white buttercream and topped with aluminum letters from Gauge NYC.

Jim Smeal designed this two-flavor showpiece—butter cake with finely-diced crystalized ginger infused with lemongrass simple syrup and classic carrot cake with toasted pecans and white chocolate cream cheese frosting—that bore a pattern inspired by the couple's invitation.

This cake featured two tiers of yellow cake with chocolate mousse and a third layer of chocolate cake with chocolate mouse. The outside was assembled with panels of white chocolate and tons of fresh raspberries.

Give your cake a splash of whimsy. Order up a fondant cake, plus a bucket of fondant, from a bakery. Add food coloring to the fondant to get the right hues, and roll out into a thin sheet. Cut with various teardrop-shaped cookie cutters, let dry, and attach to the front of the cake with gum paste mixed with hot water. Cookie-cutter set, Ateco, Sur La Table.

You want to decorate your cake, but you're not so skilled with the pastry bag? No problem. Just order up a tiered cake covered in fondant, and deck each layer with paper ornaments. Any way you slice it, it's a budget-conscious, style-savvy idea.

Here, the notion of icing is put on ice, relying instead on unadorned pastel layers for graphic appeal. Coconut pound cake, tinted with gel-paste food coloring, serves as the foundation, while white fondant and passion-fruit curd rests on top (the curd is also between each layer). Sorbets in mango, passion fruit, lychee nut, and coconut are paired with strawberry sugar wafers that mimic the look of the cakes.

Apples have been a symbol of love, fertility, and abundance since ancient Greek times, when the goddess Gaia gave her granddaughter a golden apple tree as a gift at her wedding to Zeus. Golden lady apples, painted with edible gold luster dust, are the focal point of this tower by Betsy Thorleifson of Nine Cakes in Brooklyn, New York. The vanilla-bean spiced apple cake—filled with caramel buttercream—is drizzled with luscious caramel.

As a symbol, rings are stunningly simple yet monumental in their meaning. More than a promise cast in platinum or gold, they represent the eternity you and your husband will spend together: The band itself has no beginning and no end. Here, New York City baker Mark Joseph uses an abundance of precisely applied sugar-paste rings to create a stylish, mod-inspired pattern. A base of unexpected yellow makes the rings pop and completes the fresh, contemporary effect.

Pretty fabric butterflies transform a plain-Jane cake into a marvelous tiered wonder—and there's nary a pastry tip in sight. Simply slide the wired section of each fluttery beauty into a fondant-covered cake, clustering the butterflies here and there for the most dramatic look. Tied around a cake knife, a ribbon in a matching hue completes this super-easy—not to mention easy on the wallet—makeover.

A majestic design turns a bit coquettish when it's festooned with macarons—the quintessential French treats—and dressed up in flirty pink. Homemade marshmallows cut into rounds echo the shape of the raspberry macarons, as does the pattern on the fondant.

Why limit monograms to stationery and linens? Here, sweeping lettering adorns icing on a geometric cake by Wendy Kromer; placed end to end, the arcs and swirls seem more like a graceful pattern than initials. You can have the baker adapt your existing monogram. Rather than piping the design freehand, she traces the monograms in royal icing onto waxed paper, lets the letters harden, and then affixes them to the cake.

Miniature calla lilies, long and sinuous, are a dramatic counterpoint to crisp, angular tiers. Only the bottom layer of this glamorous structure, clad in white fondant, is meant to be eaten; the remaining tiers are Styrofoam, which keeps the flowers from touching the cake. Rubbing the stems between fingers renders them bendable. The tiers sit on clear acrylic columns and a custom stand.

The monograms on these French patisserie-style charlottes, or molded sponge cakes, consist of piped chocolate batter baked into almond-flavored cake. Each confection is filled with milk-chocolate ganache and chocolate-espresso Bavarian cream; the top and bottom are sealed with chocolate cake rounds brushed with espresso syrup. Glossy chocolate glaze and a crisp twirl of espresso Swiss meringue complete the picture. Calligraphy by Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls.

This square buttercream wedding cake is adorned with apples, peaches, pears, plums, and currants to soften its edges and give it a charming appeal.

The fondant-covered box "lids" are the actual cake here, and the bottoms, also wrapped in fondant, are cake risers. The whole package is tied together with a taffeta ribbon, while each tier is edged with gold luster dust and matching royal-icing dots. The surrounding gumdrops, mint "lentils," sugar wafers, dragees, and pillow mints, are treats you might find inside these packages ... were they not made of cake.

No wonder King George went mad! He was likely driven to distraction by the opulent jewelry Englishwomen took to wearing during the 18th and early 19th centuries. This cake is an homage to those showstoppers, with four regal tiers of spearmint-hued fondant, royal icing piped to mimic pearl strands, and sparkling edible baubles, each ringed in a "pave setting" of royal-icing pearls.

Early summer is the best time to choose a cake like this one—brimming with a fresh and varied assortment of the season's best berries. Red currants, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and strawberries look beautiful jumbled together on basket-weave tiers. The basket-weave effect was created using an oversize leaf tip. The cake's three tiers are supported by wooden dowels; the berries are arranged before the dowels are inserted, which helps hide the supports.

A sunny canopy parts to reveal a three-tiere, fondant-covered cake. It is finished with an Initial made of hand-painted sugar-paste flowers, a sweet topper for a garden wedding.

This bloom's reputation as nature's most definitive love symbol stems from the Greeks, who used the flower to represent the goddess Venus. White roses, specifically, have come to symbolize purity, unity, and true love—as opposed to red roses' association with passion—which has earned them the status of Ultimate Wedding Flower. Here, New York City cake guru Sylvia Weinstock blanketed three tiers of cake in handmade, edible sugar petals to gently echo the shape of a French croquembouche—and create a temple to Cupid's favorite bloom.

This cake reflects a dreamy springtime moment amid the cherry trees, when a breeze scatters the dainty blossoms into the air. Here, they seem to drift from the top of the cake, where they are densely massed, down to the bottom, where the pink petals break apart as they would in nature.

Textiles—whether found in upholstery or clothing—are a rich resource for colors, patterns, and textures appropriate for this celebratory treat.

This fondant-covered cake decorated with hydrangeas is made of three graduated square tiers.

Three square tiers, draped in pale pink fondant, are embellished with a sparkling array of trims and ribbons. This is an easy, inexpensive way to turn a plain cake into a gilded confection. The topper is made of three nesting boxes, each edged in gold ribbon, tied up like a parcel from an elegant boutique.