Here, you’ll find 28 unique small wedding cake ideas perfect for an intimate wedding, with tips and tricks to DIY them.
How to find a small wedding cake idea suited to your cake-decorating level?
I’ve come up with a system. The cake ideas are presented to you according to their level of difficulty. There are three categories :
What Are Beginner Cake Ideas?
These are easy cake ideas. If you’ve never decorated a cake before (or only did it once or twice), these are the cakes that you should pay attention to.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful cake ideas that only require basic cake decorating techniques. This is a great place to start your journey.
What Are Intermediate Cake Ideas?
Low-Intermediate Baker: If you are confident that you’ve mastered the cake decorating basics, such as how to smooth a cake, but feel like you still have a lot of techniques to learn apart from this foundation, this category is perfect for you.
- What you’ll find: Cake ideas that require both basic decorating skills and one or two techniques that are a little bit more advanced. This is a great place to grow your cake-decorating skills.
High-Intermediate Baker: If you’ve mastered both basic techniques and several more advanced cake decorating techniques, these cake ideas are made for you.
- What you’ll find: Stunning cake ideas that can be fairly challenging but are a great place to get even better than you already are.
What Are Advanced Cake Ideas?
If you consider yourself an experienced cake decorator and have mastered most of the decorating techniques, including the use of fondant, then this is the perfect place for you.
- What you’ll find: Showstopping and challenging cake ideas, perfect for sharpening and maintaining your skills.
The Grading System
Finally, I’ve also assigned a grade of difficulty to each cake inspiration: 1/5 being the easiest design and 5/5 being the hardest. The goal is to make the ranking the most accurate possible. You will find this to be particularly helpful if you happen to fall into the Beginner or the Intermediate Cake Ideas categories.
Growth Tip : This list is great a place to set goals about your cake decorating skills. Pin this post and come back later to tell us how far you’ve come in your cake decorating journey !
How to follow the instructions of the designs.
For the cake designs in the beginner category: I’ll provide written instructions on how to recreate the cake idea presented to you. Don’t hesitate to watch video tutorials about basic techniques, such as smoothing a cake.
For the designs in the intermediate category: I’ll provide some guidance on how to perform the more complicated techniques.
For the advanced category: you are an experienced baker, at this point, and you will find great opportunities to put this experience to use. To be completely honest, I cannot make myself several cake ideas from the advanced category, so trust your abilities and go for it.
Find the perfect single-tier wedding cake idea for your baking skills.
Growth Tip : If you aim to get better at cake decorating, you should choose a cake idea that feels sligthly above your current cake decorating level. Get out of your comfort zone !
Small Wedding Cake Ideas For Beginner Bakers
Here, you’ll find 11 easy single-tier wedding cake designs perfect for beginner bakers.
Small Naked Wedding Cakes
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover your cake.
- Non-toxic fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in cling film and floral tape + Large straws to place your flowers.
How can you recreate this cake?
- Apply a thin and even coat of frosting with your offset spatula all around your cake.
- Smooth it with your cake scraper, holding it at a 45-degree angle on the cake while spinning your turntable. Only the turntable is supposed to move, not the cake scraper.
- If you can’t see the cake’s edges underneath, you’ve put too much frosting on the cake. Keep scraping until you’re satisfied with the result.
- Chill the cake for 20 minutes (until your frosting sets) in the fridge.
- Finally, place your flowers on your cake as shown in this tutorial.
What you’ve learned :
Naked cakes are the perfect foundation to begin your cake-decorating journey.
Pearl Wedding Cakes
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
What you will need :
- Enough white frosting to cover your cake.
- Edible pearls.
- Golden cake toppers (optional).
- Non-toxic fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in cling film and floral tape + Large straws to place your flowers (optional).
- White satin bow (optional).
How can you recreate this cake?
- First, you must crumb-coat the cake to avoid any crumbs in your final design. Apply a thin and even coat of frosting with your offset spatula all around your cake.
- Smooth it with your bench scraper, holding it at a 45-degree angle on the cake while spinning your turntable. Your bench scraper isn’t supposed to move, only turn the table.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect as it is only the first coat. Chill the cake for 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge (until the frosting sets).
- Then, apply a thicker coat of frosting and repeat the smoothing operation. Fill in any gaps and smooth the cake again. Repeat this operation until the cake looks smooth enough for you. Here, you’ll find a video tutorial of the covering process, if needed.
- Next, chill your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or until your buttercream cover sets, and use a knife warmed with water if you want sharp edges on your cake.
- Finally, add your edible pearls, cake toppers, and optional bow. If you want to add fresh flowers, you can follow this tutorial to place them on your cake.
Small Floral Wedding Cakes
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake.
- Non-toxic fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in cling film and floral tape + Large straws to place your flowers.
- Edible golden or silver leaves + a small paintbrush (optional).
How to recreate this cake?
- First, crumb coat, cover, chill, and cut the edges of your cake as explained in the previous cake design.
- Then, with your paintbrush, transfer gold/silver leaf bits from the sheet of paper to the cake. Don’t use your fingers; they will stick to them.
- Finally, place your flowers on your cake as shown in this tutorial.
Easy Textured Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake.
- Non-toxic fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in floral tape or cling film.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, crumb coat, cover, chill, and cut the edges of your cake as explained in the previous cake design.
- Let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before using a fork to trace straight lines on the sides of your cake
- When you’re ready to go, place your flowers on your cake as shown in this tutorial.
Simple Wedding Cakes
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover and decorate your cake.
- Wedding cake toppers.
- Non-toxic fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in floral tape or cling film.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, crumb coat, cover, chill, and cut the edges of your cake as explained in the previous cake design.
- Before chilling your cake, place your spatula at the top of the side of your cake and start spinning the turntable while slowly moving your spatula down to recreate the texture.
- Finally, chill your cake until the frosting has set, and place the flowers and the cake topper, once you’re ready to go.
Small Wedding Cake Ideas For Intermediate Bakers.
Here, you’ll find 14 small wedding cake designs perfect for intermediate bakers.
Pressed Flower Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate).
Adding pressed edible flowers to your cake design is an easy way to create a unique wedding cake design.
A little guidance
Follow this tutorial if you want to give a try to DIYing your own pressed edible flower.
Small Textured Wedding Cakes.
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate)
Texture is another way to add personality to your small wedding cake.
A little guidance
Cover your cake as usual and use a cake comb to create texture as shown in this cake comb tutorial. Then, let your cake set in the fridge before adding the final details to your wedding cake.
Wedding Drip Cakes.
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
A little guidance
Adding a simple white chocolate drip (that can easily be colored) is another rather simple way to make your cake stand out from the crowd.
Small Printed Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
Don’t hesitate to play with colors. Soft muted pinks can be a nice alternative to white, for example.
A little guidance
Using cake stencils is a simple way to add texture to your cake for an elegant and unique look.
Single Tier Ombré Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate).
You can even go for a bolder look, like this beautiful ombré wedding cake.
A little guidance
In order to get a nicely blended ombré buttercream, divide your buttercream into 4 shades of the same color. Then, stack each shade from the darkest one to the white one on top of each other, and smooth your cake as usual, as shown in this quick tutorial.
Small Crystal Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
You could also add a velvety texture and edible crystals to your cake.
A little guidance
Use an edible velvet spray to recreate this kind of texture. Make sure to protect your kitchen, as it can be messy. You can also learn how to make your own edible crystal cake toppers.
Small Vintage Wedding Cakes.
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate).
Vintage cakes are perfect for you if you’re looking for a trendy cake design.
A little guidance
To create your own wedding vintage cake, you can follow this vintage cake piping tutorial. If you want to opt for a vintage heart cake, you don’t necessarily need heart-shaped cake molds. You can easily DIY them.
Minimalist Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 4/5 (High-Intermediate).
Remember, buttercream flowers are an original alternative to fresh flowers to decorate your cake.
A little guidance
Use the #103 and #104 piping tips by Wilton, follow this simple buttercream flower tutorial, and place your flowers on your cake using buttercream as glue once they have set in the fridge.
Small Wedding Cake Ideas For Advanced Bakers
These 3 small wedding cake ideas will be perfectly suited to experienced cake decorators.
Small Fondant Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 5/5
This kind of draped cake might be the best option for you, especially if you’re a fondant lover.
Small Buttercream Wedding Cake.
Difficulty Level: 5/5
More intricate buttercream flower cakes will definitely be more suited to the buttercream fans.
Wedding Bow Cake.
Difficulty Level: 5/5
Finally, you can have the best of both worlds with a fondant wedding bow cake.
If you’re looking for more cake ideas, check out these 15 Unique bridal shower cake ideas or my other cake ideas for adults.
Did you enjoy these small wedding cake inspirations? Sharing is caring! Pin this post to come back to it.
Please let me know in the comments if you’d like some specific cake ideas and/or tag me on Instagram @theperfectcakeidea. I’d also love to see your creations.
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