Wedding Cakes
in France
Sculpted in sugar paste in Paris, and delivered by my own hands to palaces, châteaux and estates across France.
One country,
one pair of hands.
I am Ange Gimenez, a wedding cake designer in Paris. I sculpt sugar paste wedding cakes by hand for couples marrying anywhere in France, from Paris palaces to Provence estates, and deliver each one myself.
Many of the couples who write to me live in the United States or the United Kingdom and are planning a wedding in France from a distance. They have chosen the château before the caterer, and they want one person to be responsible for the cake from the first sketch to the moment it is placed on the table. That is the whole of my practice. I draw the piece for your room and your light, sculpt it in Paris over two to four weeks, drive it to the venue myself and install it before your guests arrive.
A French wedding cake, in the sense I give the words, is not the traditional pièce montée of caramel-bound choux. It is a tiered, sculpted cake in sugar paste, closer to what an American or British couple expects, built to hold its shape through a long summer evening. Every flower is shaped petal by petal. No moulds, no templates, and nothing repeated from a previous commission.
France,
region by region.
Each region has its own page and its own venue guides. Follow the link that matches your venue, or write to me if it is not listed yet.
Palaces and the châteaux around the city
The palaces of the Right Bank, and the châteaux a short drive from the city. I have worked at Château de Ferrières to the east, Château de Champlatreux to the north and Château de Nainville-les-Roches to the south, and I am available for weddings at the Ritz Paris, Hôtel de Crillon, Le Bristol, Plaza Athénée and the Four Seasons George V. Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre are covered on my French pages.
Guests stay in Paris and are driven out for the day; I bring the cake from my atelier in the morning and install it before the first guest walks in. The Paris page covers the venues, the timing and how a cake is delivered into a palace.
Bastides, mas and wine estates
Bastides in the Luberon, mas in the Alpilles, vineyard estates in the Var. Provence is where sugar paste earns its keep: a cocktail hour on a terrace in July would ruin a buttercream cake within the hour. I design for the Provençal palette, warm ivory, pale ochre, dusty rose and olive green, and I plan the delivery around the heat of the day.
I have worked at Château de Tourreau, near Carpentras, and at the Domaine de Lamanon in the Alpilles. Le Mas des Poiriers, on an island in the Rhône outside Avignon, has its own venue guide.
From Hyères to Monaco
From Saint-Tropez to Monaco by way of Cannes, Antibes, Cap-Ferrat and Èze. Sea light is hard and it forgives nothing, so a Riviera cake is built taller and cleaner, with edges that read in full sun.
I have worked at Castel Bay in Hyères, a Belle Époque estate facing the Baie de l'Almanarre, and I travel to any venue along the coast.
Vineyards, stone and an orangery
A quieter choice for couples who want vineyards, limestone and an orangery rather than a palace. Château de Varennes, in South Burgundy under an hour from Beaune, seats two hundred in its orangery, and I am available for weddings there. The cake travels from Paris by road, in a refrigerated vehicle.
Burgundy's cool cellars and shaded salons make it one of the easiest regions for a cake to arrive and stand exactly as it was built.
Any venue, one conversation
I travel to any venue in France. Château Bonnaventure, where I have worked, has its own guide. The Loire, the Dordogne, Bordeaux and Normandy are all within a day's drive of my atelier but do not yet have venue guides on this site: write to me with the name of your venue and I will tell you how the cake travels there and what the season means for the design.
Beyond France, I am available for weddings in Italy, and I have delivered to Kenya. The next venue guides are chosen from the questions couples send me.
Reading in French? The Provence, Riviera and Île-de-France towns and châteaux have their own pages: lire en français.
Why sugar paste,
for a wedding far from home
A destination wedding asks more of a cake than a city one: a long drive, a room with no cold store, a cocktail hour outdoors. Sugar paste is the medium that answers all three.
Holds through heat, from the Loire to the Riviera
Sugar paste is stable in temperatures that make buttercream slide and pit. A July cocktail hour in Provence or a glass-roofed salon in Paris changes nothing: the cake looks the same in the last photograph as in the first.
No cold room needed at the venue
Most French châteaux have no cold room. A sculpted sugar paste cake needs a cool, shaded space and nothing more; the portions served to your guests are prepared separately and kept chilled in the kitchen.
Travels in pieces, assembled on site
Tiers are boxed individually and the flowers travel separately, so the cake arrives without a crack and is built on your table, not in a van.
Architectural height for large rooms
A palace ballroom or a château salon asks for six to eight tiers to read across the room. Only sugar paste carries that height through a full evening; the eight-tier Fally carries more than a hundred and fifty hand-made wafer paper flowers.
How a destination wedding cake
travels
Sketch and tasting
A video call for the design, sketches by email, up to three rounds of revisions. The tasting takes place in Paris, scheduled around your planning visit.
Two to four weeks in Paris
The flowers come first, petal by petal, then the structure, tier by tier. Nothing leaves the atelier until it has been checked in full.
The road
Tiers boxed separately, in a refrigerated vehicle for long distances. I drive the cake myself; around Paris, smaller pieces travel assembled.
On site
I assemble, finish and place the cake in the coolest room, then stay until the light and the table agree. The cutting is at the hour your planner sets.
Planning from the United States
or the United Kingdom
Everything up to the tasting happens remotely. You write with your date, your venue and a few images; I reply within forty-eight hours with questions and, if the date is free, a time for a first conversation. Your proposal follows that conversation, and the design consultation is a video call at an hour that suits your time zone. The tasting is in Paris, timed to your planning trip. On the day, I work directly with your planner for the delivery window and the placement, so you do not have to think about the cake at all.
Flavours
that travel well
Lemon and elderflower, raspberry pistachio, hazelnut praline, rose lychee, passionfruit mango, coffee tonka, red velvet with red berries, carrot cake. Fillings are chosen for the season and the distance as much as for taste: a cake that will stand through a Provençal afternoon is built differently from one cut in a Paris salon in October. You taste the shortlist in Paris and choose. How a commission works sets out what each service includes, the portfolio shows the pieces I have sculpted, and you can read more about me and how I trained. The photographers and venues I work with are on my partners page.
Ange made the perfect wedding cake. Not only was it beautiful, but both flavours were absolutely delicious, and all our guests were raving. We now have her as our top recommended cake supplier at our wedding venue, Château de Pont Bourguet.
Hannah Mirbach · Château de Pont Bourguet · Google Review
& Worldwide
Answered before
you have to ask.
Tell me about
your day.
I take around thirty commissions a year, so each piece has my full attention. Wherever your venue is in France, tell me its name and your date, and I will tell you how the cake gets there.