Why You Don’t Need to Preserve Wedding Cake for Your Anniversary

An After-the-Wedding Guide

Skip the freezer. Your first anniversary deserves a fresh cake.

You do not need to preserve wedding cake for your first anniversary when your cake comes from Sweet E’s. Every multi-tier wedding cake I make includes a complimentary 4-inch anniversary cake, baked fresh for year one, so there is nothing to wrap, chill, or freeze, and nothing to thaw and hope for the best twelve months later.

Most couples invest $650 to $1,200 in their wedding cake, and every multi-tier design includes a tasting, a design consultation, and that anniversary cake. You can see how the tiers and servings work on my pricing page, browse real cakes in the gallery, or start with my guide to Utah wedding cakes.

Why I Bake You a Fresh Anniversary Cake

Saving the top tier began as a sweet way to taste your wedding day again a year later. The idea is lovely. The reality is a cake that has spent twelve months in a home freezer beside the frozen peas, and even careful wrapping cannot fully protect the crumb and the buttercream for that long.

So every multi-tier wedding cake I make includes a complimentary 4-inch anniversary cake, baked fresh for your first anniversary. Request it at least one month before the date and pick it up within 30 days of your anniversary. If you need a different window, tell me ahead of time and we can arrange it in writing. For one couple, I recreated a mini version of their wedding cake. Another couple wrote simply, “She did our wedding cake and our first anniversary cake.”

Berkeley and Jarom are a favorite example. Their winter wedding cake at the Sundance Rehearsal Hall was two white tiers with vertical texture and a crown of baby’s breath, the second photo in the carousel above. A year later, I made their anniversary cake, and getting to celebrate with a couple again after their wedding is one of the real joys of this work.

	Frozen Top Tier	Fresh Anniversary Cake
When it is baked	For your wedding, then stored about a year	For your first anniversary
Your part	Box it, wrap it, chill it, freeze it, and guard freezer space for twelve months	Request it at least one month ahead, then pick it up within 30 days of the date
Texture and flavor	Depends on the wrapping and the freezer	Fresh from my Provo studio
At the reception	The top tier goes home unserved	The top tier can be served to guests
Included with	Your wedding cake	Every multi-tier Sweet E’s wedding cake, complimentary

You Do Not Need to Preserve Wedding Cake at All

The usual advice on how to preserve wedding cake asks a lot of a couple on the busiest night of their lives. Someone has to set the top tier aside, box it, carry it home, wrap it, chill it, and find a year of freezer space for it. With a multi-tier Sweet E’s cake, none of that is necessary, because a fresh anniversary cake is already part of your order.

That frees your top tier to do what it was baked for. Venues handle cake cutting and service, so let your venue or caterer know the whole cake can be served, top tier included, which matters when you are counting servings. My wedding cake servings guide walks through how the tiers add up. If your design carries sugar flowers, they are made to be admired rather than eaten, and a single bloom makes a lovely keepsake; my guide to sugar flowers on a wedding cake explains how they are made.

How Your Anniversary Cake Works

Why Sweet E’s

“For our one year anniversary she surpassed our expectations by recreating a mini version of our wedding cake. Her carrot cake recipe is the best we’ve ever had, and we have gained a new friend in Erika in the process :)”

Alexandra C.

Flavor is where the anniversary cake feels most personal. Choosing it starts at your tasting, and my wedding cake flavors guide is a good place to begin.

Anniversary Cake Questions