How to Keep Your Wedding Cake from Melting in Summer: Our Tips for Hot Weather Celebrations

If you're tying the knot during the summer months plan ahead with your cake designer. You may love buttercream but, particularly if you're planning an al fresco celebration with no air conditioning for example, there's a good chance it won't survive the temperatures! Your cake maker may instead suggest a showstopping, sophisticated fondant iced bake, which is much less likely to melt in the heat. You may also find that they decide to use a layer of ganache beneath the fondant to increase stability. Practical and oh-so yummy!

An alternative to fondant icing is a completely naked cake. These were on trend for a long time, particularly for rustic wedding themes. With minimal to no icing, you only have the buttercream inside to worry about. However, it's worth noting that the heat can cause the sides to dry out and as they're often decorated with fresh fruit, keeping it cool is still important.

Even when keeping all of this in mind at the planning stages, there's still an element of risk, so where you display and store the cake is going to be key. Look for a spot in the venue that's cool and away from direct sunlight. Avoid placing it near a window where the greenhouse effect caused by the glass will generate additional heat, causing your beautiful bake to look like the leaning tower of Pisa by the time you come to cut it. Alternatively, if the weather forecast looks to be particularly scorching, you may want to make arrangements with your venue to keep it stored in a cool place until the cutting in the evening, when hopefully temperatures will have dropped a bit. If all else fails, treat it to its own fan to keep the air circulating around it.