Brown Wedding Cakes and Desserts

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Chocolate Petal Cake

Credit: Dana Gallagher

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Hidden beneath a gentle flurry of bittersweet chocolate curls are three tiers of mocha spice cake made tender with sour cream. The cake gets a lift from coffee, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove -- each layer is brushed with ginger-infused syrup before it is frosted with chocolate buttercream.

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Turtle Cake

Credit: Dana Gallagher

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Five tiers of dense double-chocolate brownies are glazed with caramel and trimmed with candied pecans. An acrylic pole keeps the tiers aligned -- pieces of acrylic tubing slipped over the pole separate the tiers. Vanilla ice cream is served alongside. Use a custom-designed acrylic cake stand to support the brownie tiers.

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Chocolate Faux Bois

Credit: Dana Gallagher

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Faux bois, French for "fake wood," is a lovely decorative motif. A wood-graining tool creates the white chocolate markings on bittersweet chocolate panels -- they're then pressed into the chocolate ganache that envelopes the cake. To make the leaves, tempered bittersweet chocolate is brushed onto real lemon leaves, which are peeled off after chilling briefly.

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Individual Chocolate-Espresso Charlottes

Credit: Anita Calero

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This elegant dessert has a sweet secret: layers of chocolaty richness nestled in a shell of almond sponge cake. One bite will reveal moist chocolate sponge cake, creamy milk-chocolate ganache, and smooth mocha Bavarian cream.

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Stenciled Monograms

Sometimes the simplest techniques produce the most striking effects, as is the case with these single tiers topped by cocoa-powder initials (his, hers, and theirs).

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Mocha Cake

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This cake dresses (and sweetens) up the standard after-dinner fare: coffee.

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Chocolate Chestnut Wedding Cake

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Reminiscent of a classical still life painting, the fruit on this cake adds a touch of elegance and old-world style to the simple brown ganache.

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Chocolate and Cream Cakes

Credit: Dana Gallagher

These small cakes -- one is made with malted dark chocolate, the other with coconut -- can be sliced into thin pieces when the larger cake is cut by the caterer.

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Rustic Basketweave in Buttercream

The top and bottom sections of this grand cake display a classic basketweave design, while the thick whorls (made with a petal tip) and braided wreaths (a round tip) of the middle tiers copy the artistry of baskets made by Maine's Wabanaki tribes. Mocha buttercream is also unconventional -- along with a brown satin ribbon around the stand, it gives the cake an autumnal air.

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Delicate Dotted Petals

A graphic embellishment is all the more striking against rich, chocolate-brown fondant. These royal icing designs, piped in white and light-brown dots, echo the petal shape of the cake tiers and stand. A pattern was first pinpricked into the fondant and then piped over. The cascading design on the top tier forms an intricate, many-petaled flower -- an understated alternative to a cake topper.

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Marble Cake

Credit: Dana Gallagher

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Bakers have been swirling dark and light batters together for more than 100 years. Here, marbleized fondant hints at the cake's interior and covers a layer of buttercream frosting.

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The Megeve

Credit: Gentl & Hyers

This cake was named for a ski resort in Switzerland, the Megeve, and it resembles nothing so much as a mountain -- one, perhaps, of childhood dreams, covered in chocolate curls. Beneath them are disks of vanilla meringue layered with chocolate mousse.

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Mini Doughnuts

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End your celebration with a few oohs (as in diminutive doughnuts) and aahs (as in the delighted response they're sure to evoke) by passing out these traditional breakfast treats as a dessert with coffee service, either skewered on coffee spoons or set in dainty piles. Any way you serve them, guests are sure to circle back for more.