7 best supermarket wedding cakes for your 2024 wedding - with expert buying advice

Publish date: 2024-08-03

 Looking to cut costs? The wedding cake is a good place to start

Let's face it, weddings are expensive! If there's one area you're looking to save money on the big day - why not start with the wedding cake? Supermarket wedding cakes can help massively cut costs, and you don't need to make sacrifices on style, or taste. Savvy brides and grooms are ditching pricier bespoke wedding cakes and turning to their favourite supermarkets for shop-bought, ready-made wedding cakes, from stores like Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. 

And if you needed proof of how popular these supermarket wedding cakes are, M&S even created a Colin the Caterpillar wedding cake! (Scroll to the end to hear how Colin became the star of one bride and groom's nuptials)

We spoke to Lauren Goodman, wedding expert and founder of Bluebird Creative, to get her opinion. She said: “I'm totally on board with supermarket cake if it's not a priority to a couple. Having a bespoke handmade cake created can be amazing and the taste, texture and design are unparalleled. But for some couples cake design isn't something they want to allocate budget to and I am seeing more and more couples not go for cake at all.

Best supermarket wedding cakes at a glance

“It's all personal preference. For those considering buying a supermarket cake both Marks and Spencer and Costco both have great options for those wanting to have something to cut. Cutter and Squidge are also great mid-range options for couples.”

Supermarket-bought wedding cakes start from as little as £45. So how does this measure up to a specially-designed cake? “Typically something bespoke starts at an absolute minimum of £350, with extremely skilled artisan bakers starting from at least £550,” says Lauren.

HELLO! Magazine’s own Ecommerce Project Lead Rob Kerr chose a Marks and Spencer wedding cake for his own big day, and it was a massve thumbs up all round. He says: “We had an M&S wedding cake for our 150-odd guests. After some exhaustive research and various tastings, M&S was a great choice and well received by our 100+ wedding guests.”

What to consider when choosing a supermarket wedding cake?

Lauren says: “When purchasing a cake from the supermarket, I would always recommend doing your research first - checking how long the cake is going to stay fresh and allocating the right amount of time between purchasing and your wedding day. In addition, check through the ingredients for those guests who may have dietary requirements.

“In terms of transporting the cake, ensure you have a way of getting the cake to the venue which is flat and secure. You won’t have the luxury of a baker packing, transporting and setting up your cake. Finally, I would recommend scoping out where the cake is going to go with your planner, this helps ensure the cake is going to be the right shape and size.”

How we chose the best supermarket wedding cakes

  • 1/7

    Marks & Spencer Flower Festival Tulip Cake

    Best budget floral-themed wedding cake

    This Marks & Spencer wedding cake - which consists of four layers of sponge, filled and covered with vanilla buttercream - is one of their most popular on-site, with 1729 positive reviews and counting. 

    Customers give it the thumbs up for being great quality, value for money and tasting great. The decoration - beautiful hand-piped buttercream flowers - is perfect for a wedding. You do need to pick it up in-store and M&S recommend collecting it 24 hours before your wedding.

    £45 AT M&S

  • 2/7

    Waitrose Lemon, Raspberry & Rose Triple Layer Cake

    Great for pink-themed weddings

    For the price, this Waitrose option makes a great wedding cake. Designed by the renowned Fiona Cairns bakery, it features three layers of lemon sponge, which are filled with rose flavour buttercream and raspberry jam, and topped with more rose buttercream and freeze-dried raspberry pieces. Reviewers say it’s sweet and moreish and a good crowd-pleaser.

    £26 AT WAITROSE

  • 3/7

    M&S personalised Connie and Colin the Giant Caterpillar cakes

    The cute and quirky wedding cake

    (Per Caterpillar)

    Possibly the cutest wedding cake in in existence - Marks & Spencer’s Giant Colin the Caterpillar wedding cake is a popular choice with brides and grooms ordering one of each (Colin and Connie) for their wedding reception. It’s a giant chocolate sponge roll filled with chocolate buttercream, covered in milk chocolate with a decorated white chocolate face and sugar-coated milk chocolate beans finished with a personalised leaf decoration. 

    Choose your message (up to 40 characters) which M&S will write out in icing. This cake must be collected in store and M&S recommend picking it up 24 hours before your wedding.

    CONNIE  £45 AT M&S

    COLIN £45 AT M&S

  • 4/7

    Patisserie Valerie Five layer Chocolate Wedding Cake

    Best chocolate wedding cake

    Patisserie Valerie’s cakes are real show stoppers, and their Five-layer Chocolate Wedding Cake is perfect for choccy fans. It features five layers of light chocolate sponge cake, decorated with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and a lovely hand-piped floral icing waterfall. At the time of publishing, they were accepting orders with two days notice, but it’s worth checking as the next available delivery slots can vary depending on your location. 

    The cake arrives (with free delivery) frozen and Patisserie Valerie recommends you schedule your order for two days before your wedding, storing it in the freezer. On the morning of the wedding, it needs to be taken out of the freezer and left to defrost at room temperature for at least four hours before serving.

    £102.45 AT Patisserie Valerie

  • 5/7

    Paxton & Whitfield Wedding Cheese Cake for 100

    Best cheese wedding cake

    Notice required: 7 days 

    Cake type: 4 types of artisan cheeses

    Size: Not specified, although it’s 3.8kg in total of cheese

    Suitable for nut and peanut allergy sufferers? No

    Suitable for vegetarians? Yes

    A cheese wedding cake might sound like a novel idea, but they are becoming increasingly popular. Paxton & Whitfield’s offering consists of four different types of artisan cheeses, which you can stack to display. The base is the award-winning Gorwydd Caerphilly (often described as a three-in-one cheese as it’s texture varies from rind to centre), the next layer is a deliciously creamy Colston Basset Stilton, the third layer is tasty sheep’s milk cheese Wigmore, and the cake is topped with rich and tangy Langres.

    If you’re tempted but not 100% sure about getting a cheese wedding cake, you can order a tasting kit which comes with a promo code to redeem the cost of the sample box from your wedding cheese cake purchase.

    £295 AT Paxton & Whitfield

  • 6/7

    Patisserie Valerie Five Layer Floral Wedding Cake (Vanilla Sponge)

    Best luxury sponge wedding cake

    If you’re looking for a luxury vanilla sponge wedding cake, this is a great option. It features five layers of vanilla sponge cake sandwiched with strawberry compote and buttercream, topped off with Swiss meringue buttercream swirls and an intricate hand-piped floral waterfall.

    As noted above, Patisserie Valerie cakes are delivered free to UK mainland addresses, and they’re frozen to ensure they arrive in perfect condition. Defrost it on the morning of your big day. You can also add a personalised message and cake topper for an extra cost - plus you get a gift box of 6 macaroons free.

    £99.45 AT Patisserie Valerie

  • 7/7

    Marks & Spencer Vanilla Two Tier Naked Cake

    Best 2 tier wedding cake

    This hand-finished two-tier cake is perfect for adding your own decorations. It’s made of light and fluffy Madeira sponge, filled and lightly masked with vanilla buttercream. The two cakes are delivered separated - you need to assemble the top tier on top of the bottom tier - but multiple reviews say it was easy to put together. It scores top marks for taste, style and value for money.

    £45 AT M&S

    • M&S' Colin the Caterpillar wedding cake - one couple's story

    Ryan Morley, former racing cyclist and owner of Ryan Morley Racing Centre in Wrexham and his wife Lucy, an engineer, chose Colin the Caterpillar cakes for their wedding - and the cakes were a surprise hit. What started off as a joke, turned into one of the biggest talking points of their nuptials.

    Ryan explains: "I’ve always been a fan of a Colin the Caterpillar cake since I was a child, often joking that, ‘it's not a real birthday until there’s a caterpillar cake’. So, it became a little tradition that my mum would always get me one for my birthday, even when I was in my mid-20s."

    "When we were wedding planning, the cake was quite low on our priority list. And with mounting costs, I was reluctant to pay £400-500 for a cake, it just seemed a bit over the top. So, I joked to my fiancée, Lucy, why don’t we just have a caterpillar cake? I thought it would make her laugh, but never thought she’d think I was serious. And then to my surprise, she said why not? It’ll be funny. And that’s where it grew legs. I did some research and found that M&S do these giant Colin and Connie cakes, that serve 40 people each."

    The couple bought one of each, as a bride and groom. "The cakes were £45 each, so we served 80 people for under £100 - an absolute bargain," says Ryan, who also bought a smaller 'Free From' Colin cake for the guests with dietary requirements.

    "The cakes went down a storm - everyone loved them, " says Ryan.  "Whenever the topic of conversation turns to weddings, I show people the cake photo and they love it, and comment what a great idea it is. I’d do it all over again without a second thought. I turn 30 next month and my wife has already ordered a giant caterpillar cake for me!"

    Cleo Stella Photography.

    Meet the expert

    Lauren Goodman is the founder and creative director of Bluebird Creative and Bluebird Bride Academy. With a wealth of experience in her field, Lauren is well-versed in all things wedding planning, from table styling and creating the perfect mood board to tips on calming nerves and coordinating the logistics for the big day. 

    The mission of Bluebird Bride Academy is to make wedding planning accessible to couples across the world via Youtube and digital downloads. Bluebird Creative is the full, luxury wedding planning/coordination arm of the business in which Lauren and the team work hands-on with couples through the process of planning/executing their special day! 

    Through both tailor-made wedding planning services as well as the library of downloadable resources, Lauren’s goal is to make the wedding planning process enjoyable so that couples can enjoy their big day from start to finish.

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