Dummy cake

Have seen this done as a guest. The couple did it under the idea that they were going to saving money, and the guests as a whole thought it was bizarre as it played out at the reception. What backfired for the couple is they could not locate where the real slice of cake was for the cutting photo op. They also ended up spending twice as much on the fake cake than they would for a regular tiered cake at the local grocery store bakery, due to the cost of labor of decoration and assembly. While guests thought it was strange that the display cake was clearly not real and not going to be served, they were very excited for the 3 different flavors of full size sheet cakes from a local grocery store bakery that were on display in front of guests and cut to order so nothing was hiding in a back room to be cut. 2 aunts of the couple cut the cakes as requested into birthday cake size slices and guests could get 1 flavor or all 3 and go back for 2nds or thirds. There was plenty of cake that was polished off after dinner/dance at a separate venue. Guests preferred that setup to messy cupcakes that get on your face and are never served with forks, or other desserts that don’t have the same festive vibe. Years later, people are still in love with the idea. The sheet cakes ended up being cheaper than a regular wedding cake but the faux cake was more expensive and more headache.

I had an all-inclusive reception venue, and cake, cake decorations, and sheet cake were included as part of the fee. I didn't pay as much attention to the logistics since it was all included, but I think we wound up with something like this. Our baker had the display cake set up where the top tier (the anniversary tier that got wrapped up and frozen) was cake, the middle layer was fake, and the bottom had a slot for a slice of cake for us to "cut" into. They had little indicators of where we needed to cut, and from what I could tell, it looked like there was real cake on either side of the cut so it would have looked like cake to anyone who had a good view before they wheeled it into the back. They had 2 flavors of sheet cake in the back that got cut and served to everyone. The only person who caught on was my aunt (who has some SERIOUS baking skills) because the slices that were served didn't have fondant.