Wedding Cake Q&A With Jasmine Rae Cakes

With a background in fine arts and mural painting, and a master’s degree in psychology, San Francisco based wedding cake designer Jasmine de Lung, of Jasmine Rae Cakes, brings a wholly unique vision to wedding-cake design.

Weddings in Houston: How does your formal fine-arts training come into play in your cake artistry?

Jasmine de Lung: In every way. As I’ve trained culinary students to make cakes, it’s clear to me how much of what I do is informed by my prior art education: mixing color, composition, sculpting, etc. I use my art training at every moment I’m working on a cake.

WIH: What are your most complex or difficult wedding cake design techniques?

JDL: Sculpting cakes, and my torn-paper technique. Both require a strong sense of composition. Just teaching someone to replicate a technique, to the point that they can make something that looks just like my own work, I find that my final cakes “sing” of my own unique way of composing those elements on the cake. It is both the easiest and hardest part of artistry to make your work personal.

WIH: What role, in your opinion, does the wedding cake play in the wedding celebration?

JDL: It’s both the design anchor-point, and the first food a couple feeds each other. The florals are peppered throughout the ceremony and reception space; the escort-card display disseminates as soon as guests arrive; the table settings are repeated six, eight…or 14 times; but there’s only one wedding cake.

WIH: What trends are you seeing in cake requests for 2018 weddings?

JDL: I’m seeing a lot of cakes moving away from soft, rounded edges, venturing more into coarse textures and sharp lines. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m also seeing cakes that are more delicate than in the past, frills that are more ethereal and less clunky.

WIH: What do you love most about designing wedding cakes and working with wedding couples?

JDL: The relationships. Every time two different entities come together, be it two people getting married, or dark chocolate blending with Meyer-lemon curd, or a sensitive flower against an austere stone background, a special vibration occurs. That’s the best!