When it comes to wedding cakes, most couples fall head over heels for the visuals first. The layers, the florals, the texture, the colour palette… I get it. I’m the same. But before you lock in that Pinterest-perfect design, there’s something even more important to think about. It’s the artist behind the cake.

Your cake maker isn’t just mixing butter, sugar and flour. They’re crafting something memorable for you and all your favourite people to enjoy, so it has to taste just as good as it looks. You want someone you trust, someone skilled, and someone who understands your flavour vision just as much as your style.

Vicki Rutch is the Sunshine Coast cake artist behind One Sweet Moment, whose creations are full of love, care and so much flavour and she’s given me some great advice to share.

Before You Choose Your Wedding Cake Maker

Your wedding cake is more than a sweet treat. It’s a centrepiece, a photo moment and one of the most talked about parts of your reception. So before you lock in a baker, it’s worth asking a few smart questions to make sure the cake you dream about is the cake you get on the day. I asked Vicki from One Sweet Moment to share the key things every couple should cover before signing anything, and her advice is pure gold. From booking early to making sure your baker works in a licensed and insured kitchen, these points can save you stress, money and a whole lot of melting frosting.

Vicki also reminded me how important it is to choose a cake suited to our Sunshine Coast weather. Some designs hold beautifully outdoors, while others start sliding before the first toast, so a baker who gives honest guidance is priceless. And yes, there’s an unofficial sixth rule that I’m absolutely obsessed with… always taste test. Beautiful cakes are lovely, but cakes that taste incredible too are unforgettable. So grab a fork and keep these questions ready when you start chatting to potential bakers. Your guests will thank you later.

Five Questions to Ask Before You Book Your Wedding Cake Maker

Here are Vicki’s must-ask questions to help you choose the perfect baker.

1) Are you available on our wedding date?

Great cake makers book up quickly, so check their availability before you fall in love with their designs.

2) Are you council registered and insured?

A registered kitchen and food safety certification means your cake is made in a safe and compliant environment. Insurance is essential too.

3) Are our cake ideas suitable for the season, venue and temperature?

We all know Sunshine Coast summers can be steamy. Some cake styles simply won’t survive long outdoor heat. Your baker should guide you with honest advice and alternatives.

4) Here’s our budget. Can you help us make the most of it?

Cake makers can often suggest clever changes to suit your price range, like simplifying decorations or adjusting serving sizes.

5) Do you provide delivery and what does it cost?

This is a big one. Delivery and setup fees vary and sometimes cost as much as the cake itself if it’s travelling across the Coast. Tiered cakes should always be delivered by a professional.

And I’m adding an unofficial number six, because I see this all the time as a wedding photographer:

6) Always taste test before booking.

Pretty cakes aren’t always delicious cakes. Your guests (and let’s be honest… you) deserve a cake that tastes as incredible as it looks.

Vicki’s Best Wedding Cake Advice

If Vicki could give couples one piece of cake-related wedding wisdom, it’s this:

Make your cake your dessert.
Have your venue plate it beautifully with coulis, salted caramel or something extra special. Make it delicious, make it memorable and actually enjoy the cake you’re investing in.

Honestly, I love this so much.

Listen to the Full Episode

You can listen to the full episode featuring NVicki Rutch from One Sweet Moment right here👉 How to Choose the Right Wedding Cake Baker

Planning Your Sunshine Coast Wedding?

Hey, I’m Lou O’Brien - long-time local and wedding photographer behind Pop the Question! I’ve photographed hundreds of beautiful Sunshine Coast weddings and love helping couples plan their dream day with ease.

If you’re still searching for the perfect photographer to capture all the love, laughter, and in-between moments, I’d love to chat!

📷You can view my packages here - Wedding Photography Packages
🎧 Want more wedding wisdom? See all Pop the Question episodes here
📘 Download my FREE Sunshine Coast Wedding Planning Guide - it’s full of local tips and insider advice to help you plan with confidence.

Choosing the right cake maker is more than picking a pretty design. It’s about flavour, food safety, trust and ensuring your cake survives the Sunshine Coast climate. With Vicki’s tips, you’ll know exactly what to ask when you start planning your sweet creation. You can find her here:

📸 Instagram: @1_sweet_moment_sunshinecoast

👍 Keep up with Pop The Question & me, Lou O’Brien – Sunshine Coast Wedding Photographer:

Subscribe to my YouTube: @sunshinecoastweddingcollective
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Full show notes - https://www.imagesbylouobrien.com/pop-the-question

Episode Transcript

Lou (00:31)

When it comes to wedding cakes, most couples start by falling in love with how it looks, the design, the layers, the decorations. But before you choose your wedding cake, there's something even more important to think about, and it's the baker behind it. Because finding the right cake artist isn't just about style, it's about trust, skill, and knowing

they can bring your vision and flavor to life.

So today we're chatting all things wedding cakes and who better to guide us through it than Vicki from One Sweet Moment. Now Vicki and I have known each other actually for a few years through a mutual friend and I've been lucky enough to enjoy her cakes at birthdays and celebrations long before she started One Sweet Moment. I always thought that she should go out on her own and make a living out of it and I'm so glad that she did. Her cakes are full of love.

Vicki (01:23)

Thank

Lou (01:25)

care, flavour, it's the perfect recipe for a memorable wedding day. So hi Vicki, thank you so much for joining us today.

Vicki (01:29)

you

Lou (01:35)

Okay, so Vicki, for people that don't know you, can you tell everyone how you got into baking and to doing wedding cakes?

Vicki (01:38)

Yes.

Yeah, course. Good morning. I'm Vicki. So I've been baking since I can remember as a child. Baking was always my love along with horse riding. Yeah, I've been baking ever since I was a child in terms of baking professionally. That's come about in the last three to four years. So I would always bake for my friends, which is probably where you started trying. ⁓

Lou (02:07)

Yeah.

Vicki (02:07)

trying

cakes and then what happened was my friends would say to their friends or someone that was at my friend's event would say, could you do a cake for me? And I'd say, sure, sure. You're in my community. You're a friend of a friend and I can do that. I'd love to do that. But then those friends had their friends asking about it and then their friends asking about it. And then people that I didn't know were asking about, ⁓ would you make us a cake? And so at that point we realised we need to get

a registered kitchen and some insurance and just try start a little business, which officially we did two years ago.

Lou (02:44)

Wow, that's amazing. It's so weird because I have been eating your beautiful cakes and macarons, which I absolutely love, ⁓ for years. So I wasn't sure when the official business started and didn't because honestly, your cakes have always been amazing, like incredible. Yeah. So actually, I've got a very ⁓ quick question. What is your favourite flavor?

Vicki (02:51)

Yeah.

Yes.

thank you.

Now that does change on a regular basis, but at the moment it would be a white chocolate mud cake with lemon curd and macadamias. I call it the Queenslander, but it's a mixture of sweet and tart and the richness of the mud cake and the macadamias and the crunch and my gosh, I love it.

Lou (03:21)

Whoa.

my goodness, that sounds amazing. So good. Okay. You need to make me a sample of that. need to try that. Okay. So Vicki, today I thought we would ⁓ help our listeners out who are looking for a cake baker. And my question for you today is what should couples ask their cake baker before hiring them?

Vicki (03:47)

Yes. Cool.

Such a good question. Such a good question, Lou. So when it comes to wedding cake makers, what you'll find is a lot of wedding cake makers are going to be booked up well in advance. So you want to check that your date is compatible with them, that they can do it on that date before you get your heart set on that wedding cake maker. So check that they're available.

Lou (04:22)

Right.

Okay, so that's a good question because as a boutique wedding photographer, I can only do one wedding a day. As a boutique cake maker, how many cakes can you deliver on a wedding day?

Vicki (04:30)

Sure.

How many cakes could I deliver on a wedding day? Look, it does depend on the scale of the cake. So if it's a big three tier cake, one. But if it's a cute little elopement cake, so, you know, quite a few. So it would depend. It is multiple. It's not just one a day unless it's a very extravagant one.

Lou (04:54)

Okay, that's good to know. Okay, what was your next tip that they should ask?

Vicki (04:59)

Okay, so you've got that your date's compatible. Next, you want to check is your wedding cake baker council registered and insured. So basically to have a council registration, lovely, really lovely council lady comes in and she checks the kitchen, she checks the water temperature, she checks that all the right things are going on in the kitchen to ensure that the ⁓ cake is prepared safely.

also means that I've done a food safety supervisor course and so I'm aware of food temperatures, food safety, I'm aware of allergens and insurance is pretty much like any other industry. It just means that I'm covered if anything were to go wrong with your cake.

Lou (05:40)

Yeah, no, that's so important because as a cake maker, I mean, all the guests are going to be eating your cake. And I don't think it would be a good idea if your whole guests got sick from the cake.

Vicki (05:47)

Okay.

Lou (05:54)

So that's a great tip Vicki. So what is your third one that you've got for us today?

Vicki (05:57)

Yes, third thing,

third thing. So do you have a pricing structure and can you help me maximise my budget? So great to come to your cake maker with an idea of what your budget is and they will give you their pricing structure. If it's outside of what your budget is, you can always ask them, there any way that I maximise my budget? Can we do something simpler?

Lou (06:18)

So with the cake, I mean, ⁓ as a wedding photographer, when I see the cake get cut, there's a few different ways. Some people have their cake as their dessert at the reception. Other times, they have their cake as a little favour to take away with them. Sometimes I'm not the biggest fan of that one because I see the poor cake left on the table and people don't take it. So I do actually love it when the guests have the cake as their dessert.

Vicki (06:26)

Yes. Yes. Yep.

Yes. True. I know. Yep.

Lou (06:47)

tip number four, what have you got for us?

Vicki (06:49)

Tip number four, are my cake goals compatible with the venue, the season and the temperature?

Lou (06:56)

yes, that's fantastic because yes on the Sunshine Coast here we can in our summer have a very hot weather so yes if you're having an outdoor country wedding probably having your cake sit out there may not be the best idea.

Vicki (07:02)

Yes. Yeah.

Thanks and pray.

Yes.

Yes, correct, correct. You want to make sure that the cake that you are dreaming about is going to be successful at that venue in that temperature. there's, you know, we're quite familiar with the different venues, what they've got available for storage. And so we can, you know, most of the cake makers can give you a really good idea about, yes, you can do that cake here that will work well and if not potentially offer you some more suitable solutions.

Lou (07:38)

Yep, awesome. Okay, and I think, did you have one more tip for us today?

Vicki (07:42)

Yes, so you also want to check in with your cake maker about delivery. So most cake makers will quote you the delivery. However, if you're just getting a small wedding cake, but you're getting it delivered from Caloundra to Noosa, the delivery fee can be the same amount as the cake. So you just want to check in and make sure that you're factoring in the cost of delivery as well as the cost of any setup that's required to the cost of the cake so that you know

Lou (07:48)

⁓ yes.

Vicki (08:11)

everything that you need to pay upfront.

Lou (08:13)

Yeah. And like for you with your business, can people come and collect it from you or do you prefer that it is actually delivered by you? What do you think?

Vicki (08:23)

Yeah, Lou, that's a really, really good question. So for some of the smaller cakes, it's perfectly fine. I'm really confident for you to transport the smaller ones and the flatter ones. But when it comes to a tiered cake, you really need it delivered carefully by someone that knows what they're doing when it comes to carrying, when it comes to packing it in the car, when it comes to the temperature of the car as well. That all needs to be really secure for those bigger cakes.

Lou (08:48)

Yes, my gosh, I would be actually really nervous to deliver a big cake like that. So I would certainly get someone to deliver that for me. Awesome, there are some great tips. So Vicki, we are going to move on to the next part of our podcast. This bit I absolutely love. This is our pop the question, mystery wedding theme question. I'm going to get, Kiki's gonna help me here. We've got our camera right here.

Vicki (08:49)

Thank

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Love this.

And Kiki, okay,

Lou (09:16)

And we are going to open this up and we are going to get one of your mystery questions. We'll dig in deep.

Vicki (09:16)

fun. ⁓ my goodness. Fun. What's it gonna be?

Lou (09:26)

okay. I'm having a look here. okay. One piece of advice you could give couples. So what's one piece of advice you could give a couple for their wedding date? It doesn't have to be cake related.

It can be anything at all.

Vicki (09:41)

my goodness, how much time have I got? The clock's ticking. One piece of advice for your wedding day.

I think

Lou (09:49)

It's hard. It's a very open-ended question.

Vicki (09:49)

Make.

There's so much that's going through my head, but do you know what? I'm actually going to relate it to the cake industry and my piece of advice would be make the cake your dessert. Have the venue plate it beautifully with a little bit of extra coulis or salted caramel. And make it a really banging cake.

Like so much focus is on what the cake looks like. But nah dig right deep into it. Think about it as your dessert course and order something that's delicious. That's bangin and get a sampler for it and just end your wedding meal with something absolutely delicious for dessert. That's what I would say. That's my piece of advice.

Lou (10:33)

That is a great piece

of advice. And I think if we bring it back to the start of the episode, I actually like your white chocolate cake with the macadamia. And was it lemon curd? ⁓ OK.

Vicki (10:43)

Lemon Curd, Macadamia and what not. Mudcake

is a personal favourite at the moment.

Lou (10:49)

Yeah, imagine having that as your dessert at your wedding. Fantastic. I love it. Great. Great answer, Vicki. Thank you. Okay. So before we go, let's just go over those five tips really quickly, because I really love with our podcast that our listeners can go away and they will, when they ring up their cake baker, like you, sweet moment, that they have questions to ask you. So what were the five, five important tips?

Vicki (10:56)

Thank you.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

So firstly, are you available on my date? Secondly, are you council registered and insured? Thirdly, are my cake dreams compatible with the season and the venue and the temperature? fourthly.

Lou (11:22)

Yep.

Vicki (11:34)

how can I maximize my budget?

Lou (11:35)

So

is how can I maximise my budget? I love that. That's a great one.

What's number five for us Vicki?

Vicki (11:47)

Five is where are you located and how much will delivery and set up fees cost?

Lou (11:52)

Perfect. I think if our couples ask those five questions to their baker, I think that's a great way of then narrowing their choices down. And then of course, I think I'm going to throw in a number six. You must go and try some samples because not all cakes taste the same. And I can say as a wedding photographer, I sometimes get to have wedding cake at the end of a wedding and I have tasted some amazing cakes.

Vicki (11:57)

Thank you.

to learn.

Yeah.

Lou (12:19)

And

I've tasted some cakes that look really pretty but don't taste so great. So very important. I think tip number six is to definitely try some samples. Yeah. So thank you so much, Vicki, for joining us today. For people out there that would like to find out more about One Sweet Moment, can you tell us where they can find you on the socials?

Vicki (12:23)

Yeah, nice.

That's so good. It's what's inside that account, so hey. ⁓

Yeah, of course. So you need to do one sweet moment, Sunshine Coast, and we'll come up on Instagram. Yes.

Lou (12:50)

So just to Instagram. Are you on to TikTok yet? She's getting on to TikTok. I'm gonna get her on to TikTok. Thanks Vicki for joining us today. So for everyone who is listening, you can always head on over to my website, imagesbylouobrien.com/pop the question. I'll have all of Vicki's details there as well as today's show notes and.

Vicki (12:53)

Yes! Yes.

Thank you.

Lou (13:16)

Yeah, help you on your planning journey, Thanks for joining me. Bye.

Vicki (13:18)

all the best guys.

Bye for now, let me see ya.

Podcast link - How to Choose the Right Wedding Cake Baker – Sunshine Coast Wedding Cake Tips with Vicki from One Sweet Moment

How to Choose the Right Wedding Cake Baker - Sunshine Coast Wedding Cake Tips with Vicki from One Sweet Moment

Before You Choose Your Wedding Cake Maker