CAKES glorious cakes. They come in all manner of different shapes and sizes, a multitude of flavours, and can be coloured in any pigmentation of the rainbow.

This is why choosing a wedding cake is so much fun. It is a chance to tap into your creativity and have something designed that suits you and your personalities.

If you like blue, have a blue wedding cake. If you are a chocolate fiend, have a gigantic chocolate cake. If your favourite film is Dirty Dancing then have statuettes of Johnnie and Baby on top of your cake instead of the traditional bride and groom.

The possibilities are as wide as your imagination.

You should start looking for a cake maker a good six months before your wedding so that you can order the delicacy at least four months ahead of the big day.

Good confectioners get booked up exceptionally early, so catching them a long while before the event is a must.

Go to local wedding fairs, search adverts and websites and take advice from friends to gather informed information about potential cake designers.

If you are visiting websites, or ringing around ensure that the bakers can send you copies of genuine testimonials from couples who have been happy with their services.

When you have found someone who has a good track record, is praised in testimonials and whose gallery looks impressive, then arrange a meeting.

Before you meet there are a few outline decisions it would be good to have in hand such as the type of cake you want to eat, how it will  be eaten (fork or hand), how many people the cake will need to feed, and the sort of decorations and style you envisage.

Your cake-maker will then work with you to help decide how many tiers you’ll need, and to ascertain what they can make to meet your expectations and dreams.

Important things to ask a potential baker about your wedding cake are:

1. How is the cake made – do they bake it from scratch or do they use packet mixes (some do)?

2. What is the cost per serving of the sort of cake you’d like?

3. Who delivers and sets up the cake?

4. Will they need a deposit and when is the final payment due?

5. Are there charges for cake toppers, columns and stands?

6. Can they hire out a cake knife?

7. What is the cancellation policy?

8. What time will the cake be delivered on the day?

The answers to these questions will set you well on the way to the perfect cake. Another absolute must is to try a sample of cake from your prospective baker as there is no point shelling out lots of cash for something that has the taste and texture of cardboard.

But what to choose?

Obviously your cake-maker will guide you through the options, probably starting with the type of cake you’d like.

The traditional fruit cake laden with booze and dried fruit is gradually being phased out by a new wave of cake, so don’t feel you have to conform just to please a few members of the family.

You could go for vanilla sponge, chocolate fudge cake, carrot cake, banana cake, coffee cake, or a whole host of other flavours.

Or you could placate everyone’s tastebuds by having two or three tiers of different flavours – the usual combination being a bottom layer of fruitcake (as it is heavy), a middle layer of chocolate cake and a top tier of sponge cake.

Then there is the little matter of fillings. You could have jam and buttercream, mocha icing, dark, milk or white chocolate truffle, flavoured buttercreams, cheesecake filling and many other combinations.

The next decision to make is the shape of the cake and number of tiers to the cake, which will largely be dictated by the number of guests attending your reception.

You can have your cake made in any shape you like, from the usual round version through to square, rectangle, oval and heart shapes.

If you are having a single layer on a board then the world is your oyster as you can have your cake made into any shape you like depending on the skill of your confectioner.

The fun really begins once all of the preceding decisions have been made, as you come to the design of your cake.

As well as complementing your colour scheme, your cake should reflect a little bit of both of your interests and styles.

If you like things neat and simple then a pure, single-coloured cake adorned with a few fresh or sugarpaste flowers should suffice.

But if you are into dancing, fishing, golf, writing, singing, shopping, theatre, film, holidays or any other number of hobbies and pastimes then try and incorporate a few of these things into the design.

Or have the cake designed to match your honeymoon destination. A break in New York could see the wedding topper be styled like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower could top the cake of a couple visiting Paris, and a pair of lovebirds in a gondola would be an ideal topper for your cake if you are paying a visit to Venice.

If you just want fresh flowers on your cake to match with your bouquet, then talk to your florist who should be able to collaborate with your cake-maker to arrange some beautiful small arrangements to sit on and around your cake.

Some couples choose to scrap with tradition altogether and go for a totally unusual and original cake.

Ideas include:

1. Having a chocolate sculpture instead, which can be hacked into shards and eaten later in the evening.

2. Opting for individual cakes in the guise of muffins, cupcakes or little heart shaped cakes. These look fabulous when presented on a cake stand and can be decorated with lots of different icings and toppings.

3. Instead of cakes have a cake stand covered with little tartlets (chocolate, treacle tart, pecan pie, lemon tart, banoffi pie) or puddings.

4. Fudgy brownies, which would make a delicious treat as individual wedding cakes.

5. Having a giant basked Alaska prepared by your caterers to double as dessert.

6. Going for a few tiers of baked cheesecake served with a fresh fruit coulis.

7. Serving a rich chocolate mud cake or truffle cake with chocolate sauce and cream or a berry reduction.

8. Being really unusual and have an ice cream cake.

nGoing French with a croquembouche, which is a mountain of profiteroles filled with crème patissiere and enveloped in caramel. This doubles up as an impressive dessert.

9. If you prefer the savoury things in life have a cheese cake constructed of three tiers of good quality cheese topped with vine leaves, nuts, dried fruit and grapes. A good choice would be a bottom layer of cheddar such as Keens or Montgomery, a middle layer of a robust blue such as stilton, Blue Wensleydale or Blue Shropshire, and a top layer of luscious and creamy goat’s cheese.

The wedding cake is usually cut and served by caterers after the speeches and is then served as dessert or as a sweetmeat alongside coffee and tea.

If you want to sustain your guests in the evening then cut the cake at the usual time and postpone serving it until the evening, serving it alongside good tea and alcohol-laden coffees.

Budget bakes

If having a cake specially designed for your wedding stretches your budget slightly too far, don’t be disheartened as you can still achieve something just as special.

Ask a family member or friend with good baking skills to make you a cake. There are several cake-making shops selling toppers, colourings, moulds and decorations that will ensure a professional finished result.

Visit ww.jane-asher.co.uk or www.cakecraftshop.co.uk for specialist tins, trays, stands, columns, toppers, decorations and more inspiration.

If you don’t trust anyone else to make your cake then buy iced cakes from a baker or supermarket, finishing them off with decorations and flowers yourself.

Otherwise try buying your cake through a supermarket ordering service. Marks and Spencer and Waitrose have some lovely cakes to order that would be perfect for weddings and are quite reasonably priced.