Eighteen-year-old bride wows London with £13,000 cake size

A British bride paid £13,000 for a four-metre castle-shaped wedding cake, decorated with eight layers of icing and LED beads.

Eighteen-year-old Madeline Burton from Essex married her childhood sweetheart Patrick on January 12, 2024, after spending £50,000 on a reception in the ballroom of the Savoy Hotel in London.

In addition to the luxurious hall, the bride ordered a huge cake in the shape of a castle. This masterpiece was designed by 48-year-old cake artist Sam Woodruff, who began creating the cake front in November 2023.

The pastry chef used six eight-inch round cakes that were placed at the base of the structure in the form of petals, and the rest of the structure was made of polystyrene.

Blue 3D printed turrets were layered on top of the structure, and each window was fitted with LED bulb lights to make the cake glow.

Madeline was left “speechless” when she was shown the cake on her big day after it took three months to design and more than six hours to assemble, and commented that her wedding was “perfect”:

“My whole wedding day was perfect. It was a big wedding with over 200 friends and family in attendance.”

The cake was about 2 meters wide and there were intricate Renaissance portraits on the castle walls and all the flowers were made of silk. In total, Madeline’s wedding cake was covered in eight layers of white fondant frosting and then decorated with gold foliage.

Madeline told the Daily Mail: “The cake was absolutely gorgeous and I was speechless. Sam and I worked together to design the cake of my dreams.” Speaking about working with a pastry chef, the bride said, “Sam is so talented and has been designing cakes for me since I was 13 years old. I asked for a lock and she gave me a cake stand. Sam never ceases to amaze me.”

She also revealed other secrets of her dream wedding: “My dress was designed by Mustafa Aslanturk at Shadiye Bridal Salon and my favorite detail of my dress was the Victorian lace. Our first dance song was Forever by Chris Brown.”

Sam Woodruff, who has been making cakes for six years, said Madeleine’s cake was the largest she had made to date. The pastry chef admitted it took her and her husband Dave Woodruff six hours to build the castle and they had to use a ladder to get to the top.” And as Sam steps back to look at the final masterpiece, she admits it brought tears to her eyes.

“I cried when I saw the finished product. I was very excited because the whole creation process took so long. I had never seen it fully assembled before since the cake was so tall and I couldn’t finish it at home, so it was amazing to see it fully covered in all the details,” Woodruff shared. The pastry chef was able to finish the work at the celebration site – “everything had to be built using a ladder, because it was very high, and of course I practiced a little before we built it.”

Speaking about her customer, the pastry chef admitted that “Madeline is an old romantic, she loves everything Renaissance, nostalgic and loves rich colors. It’s not all cake, as something of this size and texture simply cannot be made from food.” She added why she decided to take on such a large project: “Having worked with Madeline for so long, she knows that I will always do my best for her.”