30 Beautiful Naked Wedding Cake Ideas

Want a simple yet beautiful cake at your wedding? Try a trendy and cute naked wedding cake for something unique. 

What is a Naked Wedding Cake?

Naked wedding cakes are the newest trend for weddings. Imagine you take a traditional wedding cake, and scrape off the exterior vanilla buttercream to expose the interior flavor of the cake. That is a naked wedding cake!

This trend is for anyone who enjoys the beauty of a traditional wedding cake, while wanting a minimalistic and simple cake for your special day.

You typically decorate these cakes with fresh flowers. The naked wedding cake is perfect for a beautiful, simple affair. These cakes look amazing when you cut into them. 

Types of Naked Wedding Cakes

There are many different sizes and shapes for these type of cakes. Naked wedding cake ideas are endless because they can be any shape, size, color, or flavor that you want. A naked cake simply just has exposed cake layers and less frosting than a traditional cake.

There are cakes that are single layer, double layer, triple layer, or even four layers. These cakes can range in sizes from a simple one layer cake to towering high at your reception. Your guests will love the naked wedding cake.

The Best Naked Cake Ideas

Here are the best naked cake ideas for your wedding or bridal shower.

1. Rustic Cake

At your countryside wedding, opt for a naked rustic wedding cake for your reception. The unfrosted layers are the perfect accessory to a rustic wedding. With the simple layers exposed, the white wedding cake is perfectly rustic for a country barn wedding.

 

2.  Strawberry Shortcake Summer Cake

Serve strawberry shortcake at your wedding. Have angel food cake layers exposed on the sides and layer whipped cream between the layers. For a summer wedding, strawberries are in season and you can add them between the layers to add a pop of color and taste. Use fresh berries for this cake.

 

3. Confetti Naked Party Cake

Add rainbow sprinkles to your wedding cake to add a fun, party-like touch. Confetti cakes are the perfect cake for the couple that just wants to have fun on their wedding day.

Make sure that your cake is party ready with sprinkles in your cake batter and in between the layers with fun colored frosting layers. This type of cake was popularized by Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City.

 

4. Berry Semi Naked Cake

Make your cake beautiful and delicious too by adding seasonal fruit to your cake. Whether it is raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry, the flavors will add to the taste of the cake as well as the appearance. For anyone who wants a cake that is more of a simple dessert than a pile of frosting and fondant, this cake is for you!

 

5. Beautiful Fall Cake

Add fall colors to your lightly frosted layers to add an autumnal flair. You can even order a pumpkin or carrot cake so that your exposed cake has an orange tint. You can also decorate with orange flowers. The seasonal flavor will taste amazing and the exposed cake will go with your fall wedding colors!

 

6. Red Velvet Cake

Order a red velvet cake for your wedding, and let those beautiful, red layers be exposed by making it a naked cake. Tell whoever is making your wedding cake to make the red velvet layers especially red so the color stands out on the sides that are exposed. Here is a great red velvet recipe for your wedding cake.

 

7. Tall and Narrow Cake

Stack layers of cake into a tall, narrow cake that will draw attention at your wedding. The tall, naked layers will add a simple and beautiful touch to your wedding reception. A three or four-layered cake is gorgeous at your wedding, especially with the added elegance of naked layers.

 

8. Chocolate Drizzle Cake

Let your cake be drizzled with chocolate on the exposed sides. This will not only be beautiful, it will also taste delicious! Artistically drizzle the chocolate, whether it is milk, dark, or white chocolate, on the exposed sides of your cake. 

 

9. Small One Layer Cake

For the bride who doesn’t want a huge wedding cake at their wedding, opt for a simple one layer wedding cake. You may not be able to feed all the guests at your reception with this cake, but it will look cute and elegant on your wedding day. A one layer cake is perfect for the simple bride who doesn’t want a large cake.

 

10. Gold Brushed Cake

Brush the edges of the exposed, lightly frosted on the top cake. The gold will add a modern touch, and if gold is already a part of your wedding color scheme, this idea is perfect for you!

 

11. White Florals Bright Cake

Use bright white florals from your wedding to a white, lightly frosted layer to have the perfect, simple wedding cake. This cake with edible flowers is the most authentic type of naked cake, how it originally was intended to look at weddings.

 

12. Piped Edge Cake

Pipe the layers of the cake around the edges with piping bags to add a cute, and simple touch to the cake layers. By piping small dots, large scalloped edges, or whatever design you are thinking of to the edges of the exposed layers, it makes the cake more extravagant and less simple.

 

13. Ombre Cake

Use different colored cakes to make an ombre cake. The exposed layers of cake will create an ombre effect because they do not have frosting on them. If you add a small layer of frosting to the outsides of the cake, it will make the ombre pretty and cohesive.

 

14. Succulent Wedding Cake

If you are incorporating succulents into your wedding theme, add them to your wedding cake. Add succulents like they are florals to your cake, add more or less frosting to the outside layers depending on how naked you want your cake to be. Then, artistically place succulents on the layers.

 

15. Semi Naked Wedding Cake

Conflicted about whether to have a traditional wedding cake or a naked one? Why not have both! Put frosting on the tops of the layers and slowly use less frosting on the bottoms of the layers leaving some cake exposed. You get the best of both worlds with this wedding cake idea.

 

16. Multicolored Cake

Use different flavors of cake to add different colors to your cake. If you truly do not want any frosting on your cake, dye the cake colors depending on the colors you need. If you are going the natural route and do not want to add colors, use unique flavors that will make your cake colorful.

 

17. Tropical Cake

If you are having a tropical themed wedding, add tropical flowers and flavors to your cake. Add hibiscus flowers or palm leaves to the naked exposed layers to tie in the tropical theme. Use pineapple flavored cake or coconut to add tropical flavors into the cake. Here is a recipe for pineapple cake.

 

18. Wedding Flowers Cake

Decorate your cake with the flowers from your wedding. Use the same flowers in the bouquet from your ceremony on the cake. This will tie your florals throughout your wedding and create a beautiful, unique cake.

 

19. Fern Cake

Add ferns to your cake to make it tie into your wedding theme. Add fern leaves to lightly frosted layers to your half dressed cake to add an earthy touch. The green foliage will make this cake even more gorgeous and unique.

 

20. Crepe Cake

Use crepes instead of cake for your cake. The crepe layers will be unique and a different type of cake that your guests have never seen before. Leave the cake exposed, but add jam or an almond cake filling between the layers of crepe cake.

 

21. Fruit Cake

Decorate your cake with different types of fresh fruit. Whether it is figs, pineapple, apples, pears, or any other type of seasonal fruit imaginable, add it to your cake for a unique and yummy touch! Add whatever fruits compliment your cake flavors.

 

22. Bundt Cakes

Serve exposed and naked bundt cakes at your wedding instead of a large tiered wedding cake. The small bundt cakes will be unique and taste different than a traditional wedding cake. If you love bundt cakes, opt for this idea at your wedding.

 

23. Mostly-decorated Naked Cake

Can’t choose between a naked cake or a frosted cake? Choose a mostly frosted one that still has exposed layers. A mostly decorated cake will cover up any spots that do not have frosting with other decorations like fruit, chocolate, or flowers. The cake will look like it has frosting but it will actually have exposed layers and less frosting than normal.

 

24. Naked Italian Wedding Cake

Have a naked traditional Italian wedding cake at your wedding. Usually Italian wedding cakes are called Millefoglie. This flavor is layers of flaky, crispy pastry dough that is finished with whipped cream. Serve this cake with fruits that go with Italian wedding cake like strawberries. 

 

25. Peony Naked Cake

Add peony flowers to your naked cake to tie in your floral theme of your wedding. If you have peonies in your wedding, add them to the wedding cake for a unique and beautiful touch.

 

26. Rose Naked Cake

Add roses between your exposed layers of cake. These flowers are the epitome of romance, so add them to your wedding cake. If you add roses to the layers, the exposed naked layers of your cake will look classic and simple. 

 

27. Black and White Cake

Make your cake black and white by having chocolate cake and white, vanilla icing. The exposed edges of the cake will make it have a stark contrast to the frosting if it is a dark chocolate cake. Make your cake black and white while still being a traditional naked cake.

 

28. Chocolate Naked Cake

Have chocolate cake flavors on your naked cake instead of vanilla cake. The exposed edges of chocolate cake will make the cake darker on the outside, but it will be a unique look with white frosting on top, lightly frosting the layers. 

 

29. Square Cake

Mold your cake into square layers instead of circular layers. This will make your cake even more unique than if you just had a regular wedding cake. The square, naked layers are a perfect accessory for the contemporary couple.

 

30. Mini Tiered Naked Cake

Want a smaller cake at your wedding but still like the look of a tiered wedding cake? Opt for a mini tiered cake. The small layers will be stacked up into a smaller than normal wedding cake for your reception!

 

 

Final Thoughts

These are some of the most unique and simple unfrosted cake ideas for your wedding!