RAVELLA, NEWCASTLE · MARCH 2025
Claudia & Zac's Draped Fondant Wedding Cake
Every wedding cake has a story. For Claudia & Zac's wedding at Ravella Newcastle, the story began with Claudia's mum, Lee-Anne, contacting Nadine to create her daughter and son-in-law's wedding cake.
Lee-Anne chose an in-person consultation so they could sit down together and discuss all the details. She emailed through Claudia's design inspiration — a tall, two-tiered fondant-covered wedding cake with beautiful draping. The design was elegant, but the cake underneath the fondant needed careful consideration too.
Serious Cakes for a Serious Design
For fondant-covered cakes, mud cakes layered and covered with ganache are an excellent choice — their dense, sturdy structure allows them to withstand the decorating process and remain stable on display throughout the wedding.
The Cake
Mud cakes use considerably more cake mix than many other styles and need to bake slowly at a low temperature — one of the reasons they're the most expensive cakes Nadine makes. While the cakes were slowly doing their thing in the oven, there were emails to Claudia and Lee-Anne, logistics to organise, and cake cutting guides to prepare and send through to Taylah at Ravella, so the kitchen team knew exactly how to portion the cake on the day.
The original inspiration image had a more angular look, but as the draping came together, it felt right to let it soften into something more curved and flowing. Sometimes you trust your experience and intuition and let the cake evolve as you're creating it.
Then Mother Nature Joined the Wedding Planning Committee
Just as the cake was finished, the weather turned — torrentially wet and incredibly humid. Fondant does not enjoy that kind of weather. Working through the night with heat lamps, a fan and careful air-conditioning, the drapes were coaxed back under control, and by morning everything had dried beautifully.
Then came the two-hour drive to Newcastle — torrential rain, a pothole-riddled Lakes Way, and a fully packed emergency kit of heat lamps, fondant, edible glue and everything else a cake emergency might call for. "Cake On Board" magnets proudly on the back of the car the whole way.
The Big Reveal
Taylah was incredibly helpful on arrival, and together they carefully carried the cake inside on its Sugarworks Cake Porter. Taylah exclaimed that the draping looked just like the drapes around the church — completely fitting for Claudia & Zac's wedding, and she loved it.
"Usually wedding cakes either look or taste good — but yours was both!"
— Taylah, Venue Manager, Ravella
The following day, Lee-Anne sent a message during the reception: "The cake is amazing!!!!!! Claudia & Zac love it." — along with photos. And Taylah followed up: "Nadine it was so delicious and received so many compliments on the night! The kitchen was very appreciative of the details on how to cut it. Hope to work with you again soon!"
This is exactly why a wedding cake is never just ingredients and a few hours in the kitchen — it's consultation, design, flavour planning, ganache-making, structural support, venue liaison, delivery logistics, and the problem-solving that comes with Mother Nature deciding to get involved.