Non-cake wedding cakes, anyone?

Wedding “cakes” don’t always have to be made of cake — it’s your wedding after all so you get to make the rules, isn’t that awesome? Treat your guests to a fresh spin on the traditional wedding cake by providing a dessert buffet, or by stacking your favorite treats — sweet or savory, whatever works for you! — on a dessert tower.

You may also take inspiration from the 30 wedding cake alternatives I’ve compiled below. I’m sure you’ll be amazed at how fun, creative, unusual, surprisingly simple, relatively inexpensive, and most of all unexpected some of these alternative wedding cake ideas are!

* I didn’t include the ubiquitous cupcake wedding cake since all of us already know what it looks like.

Cereal wedding cake via Betty Crocker Recipes on Flickr. (The link has a recipe!)

Jell-O wedding cake by Bompas and Parr

Rice Krispie wedding cake via Brides.com

Doughnut wedding cake photographed by Nick Sherman

Cake pop wedding cake by Sweet Lauren Cakes

Ice Cream Cone wedding cake via The Knot 

Chocolate brownies wedding cake via Capture It

S’mores wedding cake via The 10 Cent Designer 

Wedding cookie tower via La Cuoca Ciccia 

Oreo wedding cake by One Girl Cookies via Style Notes 

Caramel apple wedding towers via Be in Love Designs

Shortbread wedding cake by Nancy Swiezy’s Events Weddings and Flowers 

Twinkie wedding cake via Bride Tide blog

Pancake wedding cake via Marilyn’s Keepsakes 

EDIT: Blog passerby Tinka informed me that this isn’t a pancake wedding cake and is in fact a kransakaka / kransekage, a Nordic traditional dessert. Thanks for the correction Tinka and my apologies for the misinformation! (I still think a pancake wedding cake could be a nice wedding cake alternative for a breakfast-loving couple,  what do you think?)

French macaron wedding tower via Merci New York 

Truffle wedding cake via Bodca 

Bundt cake tower via Martha Stewart Weddings

Lemon meringue pie wedding cake tower by Bella Bambini

Wedding cake shooters via Weddings in North Carolina

Crepe wedding cake via Martha Stewart’s Test Kitchen

Croquembouche via La Creme Patisserie 

Meringue tower wedding cake by Linda Fripp Designs 

Marshmallow wedding cakes / towers by The Sweet Treat Co. and Lick the Spoon 

Sorbet wedding cake via Martha Stewart Weddings 

Cheese wedding cake via Norbiton Fine Cheese Co

Jaegermeister liqueurs on a wedding cake ice sculpture by Sub Zero Sculptures

Wedding Jell-o shots tower by Joyz Creations

Pizza wedding cake via The World’s Great Pizza Sharing Experience

Sushi wedding cake via Vyrtuosismi

Pork Pie wedding cakes via Mail Online UK and Wilsons Butchers

Did I forget anything? The choices are limitless! Other treats that come to mind are individual trifles served in cups, chocolate candy bars and M&Ms stuck together with caramel fudge to form a cake, individual cups of flan on dessert towers, granola bars layered with dried fruit to form a pyramid, daifuku or ice cream-filled mochi arranged like the French macarons cake shown above, a “popcorn wedding cake” for the movie-loving couple, and so much more.

I even read about a couple who had a wedding cake made of uncooked pasta. Instead of cutting it, they tapped to break it into boiling water and the pasta was cooked and served to the guests right there!

Are you planning on having an alternative wedding cake? If you have other ideas for wedding cake substitutes, feel free to let me know.

Tags: alternative wedding cakes, inspiration, unusual wedding cakes