Bride, 18, spends £13,000 on a 4ft castle cake, complete with 8-brick icing and LED balloon lights

A bride was left speechless after spending £13,000 on a 13ft wedding cake covered in eight bricks of fondant icing for her big day.

Madeline Burton, 18, from Essex, married her high school sweetheart Patrick, 20, on January 12 this year and spent £50,000 to book the reception in a ballroom at London’s ‘magical’ Savoy on the Strand.

The masterpiece was designed by cake artist Sam Woodruff, 48, who started creating the cake structure in November 2023.

To create the ‘showstopper’, Sam used six 20cm round cakes which sat in petal shapes at the base of the structure and the rest of the design was made from polystyrene.

Blue turrets made on a 3D printer were then stacked on top of the structure and each window was fitted with LED balloon lights to make the cake glow.

Madeline said she was ‘speechless’ when her cake was unveiled to her on her big day after taking three months to make, and said her wedding was ‘perfect’.

Stunning images show Madeline’s colossal cake, 4 meters high and 1.80 meters wide, covered in intricate Renaissance portraits and hundreds of silk flowers.

In total, Madeline’s wedding cake was wrapped in eight bricks of white fondant icing and then decorated with gold leaves.

Madeline from Essex said: ‘My whole wedding day went perfectly. It was a large wedding with over 200 friends and family.

‘The cake was absolutely beautiful and I was speechless.

‘I paid around £13,000 for the cake and I loved the top of it, with all the light-up details.

‘Sam and I worked together to design my dream cake.

‘She is so talented and has been designing all my cakes for me since I was 13 years old.

‘I asked for a castle and she gave me a showstopper. Sam continues to amaze me.’

The couple married at St Mary’s on the Strand and then had their reception at the Savoy.

Madeline said: ‘My dress was designed by Mustafa Aslanturk at Shadiye Bridal shop and my favorite part of my dress was the Victorian lace.

“I had five bridesmaids who were relatives and friends. Our first dance song was Forever by Chris Brown.”

Sam, who has been making cakes for six years, said Madeleine’s cake was the largest she has made so far.

The mother-of-four said it took her and her husband Dave Woodruff, 47, six hours to build the castle in one day and they had to use a ladder to reach the top.

And after stepping back to view the latest masterpiece, Sam admits it brought tears to her eyes.

Sam, from Gray Thurrock in Essex, said: ‘I cried when I saw the finished product. I was very emotional because the whole building process had taken so long.

‘I’d never seen her fully built before because the cake was so tall and I couldn’t complete her in the house, so it was great to see it fully lit with all the parts.

‘Madeline is an old romantic and loves everything Renaissance and nostalgic and rich colours.

‘It’s not all cake, because something of this size and structure is just not feasible to make from cake.

‘The entire cake was covered with 50 kg of fondant icing and decorated with silk flowers.

‘All the windows are blank and then I added tracing paper and hot-glued balloon lights to the top and bottom.

‘It’s the biggest creation I’ve ever made to date and having worked with Madeline for so long, she knows I will always go above and beyond for her.

‘It took three months to design and make all the parts and on the day it took six hours to build.

“When we got to the Savoy, everything had to be built with a ladder because it was so high and I definitely had a few training sessions building it.”