Is it acceptable to skip the cake distribution?

That seems perfectly fine to me. My caterer said most people don't eat the cake anyway, and even fewer will eat it if there are other desserts.

I personally wouldn't do that... if you're going to have a cake cutting, then you should serve cake to your guests. It doesn't necessarily have to be the exact cake you cut (can be sheet cake or even cupcakes), but one of my biggest pet peeves at weddings is when couples have a cake cutting but then don't serve any cake to guests.

I also would suggest not doing this. It’s considered rude to present food, but then not make it available. I would have your small cake for cutting, then have a plain sheet cake in the back that can be served to guests.

If you have another dessert option then you're totally fine not serving the cake. We had a big wedding with passed desserts and didn't serve any of our small cake that we cut.

But I will say, if you are having a small wedding of 25 people, you'd only need an 8" cake to serve everyone. So my suggestion would be do an 8" cake instead of 6" and just serve it as well as your donuts

If you don't want to serve cake I just wouldn't do a cake cutting at all. I love cake so I d be disappointed to see a cake and then not get to have any of it. If I were you though I would do something cute with the donuts instead.

If you don’t plan to serve cake to all guests, don’t have the cutting ceremony. That backfires and makes you look like you don’t care about hospitality for guests. You can cut a donut and feed each other for pictures.

This falls under the category of it not being gracious to display and or serve yourselves something you aren’t offering to your guests. A cake for 25 people does not have to be expensive. If you’re set on donuts do that in addition or skip the cake.

I think the translation of this custom has now evolved into this thinking: I share life's sweetness with my spouse (through this dessert), then we share this all with our guests. So serve each other doughnuts (cut in half to be cute), then serve this chosen dessert to your guests. You can assemble the doughnuts into a tower, etc to give the visual effect like a cake.

You can also skip this custom.

Thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions!

After considering everything and talking to our catering service, we've decided to serve the cake at the reception. They'll be providing us with a sheet cake for distribution.