There is no doubt that Hudson Valley wedding cakes are special. Their unique quality comes from the fact that they are customized in every detail and created from superior ingredients under the watchful care of experts.

Certainly, local wedding cakes, like wedding cakes found all over the world, come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and flavors. And although none of the master bakers and confectioners who were interviewed would brave a guess as to what would constitute a regional cake, all were sure that some of the most distinctive, tasteful and celebratory cakes are found right here.

Mike Kemmerer is in the know when it comes to what is trendy as far as wedding cakes go. Kemmerer, of the Pastry Garden & Bridal Shop in Poughkeepsie and Sugar & Spice in both Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, said that the Martha Stewart rage has had a tremendous impact on what couples want in their wedding cakes.

"All the cakes Martha Stewart shows in her magazine are rolled fondant cakes. They may be a little bit more expensive, but that is what many couples want now," said Kemmerer, adding that Stewart wedding cakes also feature hand-painted flowers, which require hours of painstaking work to make.

"It is a very impressive look," said Kemmerer, who manages the 13-year-old business that makes about 40 wedding cakes per weekend for the major hotels and catering establishments in Dutchess County. "The taste is hard to describe. It's a vanilla taste, but not exactly... but it is excellent."

The Pastry Garden & Bridal Shop and Sugar & Spice are not limited to one style of cake. "We have a wide variety of cakes, the traditional and the non-traditional."

One specialty cake is the waterfall wedding cake, which makes use of sheet cakes to create a waterfall scene with bridges and bride and groom. "We can provide anything from a sugar-free cake to a spice or carrot cake. Our most popular filling is probably hazelnut mousse," said Kemmerer, "but chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache are also popular." And butter cream frosting continues to be a favorite, in addition to the rolled fondant. For a slightly lighter cake, a whipped cream frosting is used, "but never use it in an outdoor wedding in the summer," warned Kemmerer. "Whipped cream and heat don't mix."

"Our most elegant cake is perhaps an all white cake with antique lace," said Kemmerer, who encourages couples to take an active part in choosing a wedding cake. "We ask them to bring in pictures from magazines and then we go over it. Everything is made exactly the way they want it."

Cynthia Wadnola, owner of Cynfre's Caterer & Bakery in Ulster County's Lake Katrine said she prides herself on her customized cakes. "We individualize every cake," said Wadnola. "That's probably our strongest point, and why people come to us." Among her most popular choices, the strawberry mousse or strawberry Bavarian. "Another favorite is the strawberry mousse cheesecake, which combines cheesecake layers with regular cake. Then we frost it with butter cream and pour chocolate over it," she said of this extremely rich wedding cake option.

At Cynfre's, carrot cakes are handled a bit differently. "We use a cream cheese filling and a whipped cream frosting," said Wadnola. "That makes it lighter and more edible."

Among her more exotic choices is the rolled fondant with gum paste flowers. "You have to do each petal individually. It's a lot of labor, but a labor of love." Even more work and possibly more outstanding is the Croquebusche. "It is a teepee of cream puffs that are dipped in carmelized sugar. I had to build it three times before I was satisfied," she said of her last Croquebusche cake.

At Terry's Country Bake Shop in Red Hook, every wedding cake is made from scratch. "We specialize in healthful and nutritious food," said Reetz-Callejo, who operates the business with her husband Charlie. Reetz-Callejo, who protests that her husband is the better baker and she the better decorator, keeps her recipes secret but always listens closely to the wishes of the bride when determining what kind of cake should be made.

"We basically have two kinds of wedding cakes," she said, who only recently added wedding cakes to their growing list of products. "We have a traditional yellow or chocolate cake with a fruit filling and our butter cream frosting, and then we have a carrot cake, which is also delicious. We use organic rye flour and it is very pleasing to the many health conscious. We even shred our own carrots."

Cakes, including the carrot cake, are always customized. Individual tiers can be done differently to address different guests' needs. "We can do a sugar-free cake, or just a small tier that is sugar-free for the 8 to 10 guests who are worried about their sugar intake." Each tier can be filled with a different fruit filling, if that is what the client wants. Apricots and raspberries are among her favorite fillings. "But we can do anything that a bridal couple want. The sky's the limit." Reetz-Callejo's special butter cream frosting, which is her own creation, can be replaced with a specialized whipped cream frosting for those interested in less sugar or a not as rich cake.

Decorating the cake is Reetz-Callejo's forté. "I love to put cherubs and lovebirds on cakes, if they want them, but a lot of people opt for simpler cakes and don't want the decorations to be too elaborate." Reetz-Callejo also adds a hint of the colors that the wedding party is wearing to the cake.

At Deising's Bakery & Coffee Shop in uptown Kingston, skilled bakers and cake decorators strive to meet the needs of their customers. "Most people for a vanilla cake. I guess the most popular kind is strawberry with vanilla pudding, frosted with either whipped cream or butter cream," said Eric Deising, who has worked in the family owned business for the past 12 year. "Other people want a more upscale cake, like a carrot cake or a Black Forest cake, but not everyone likes a carrot cake."

A recent trend he has noticed is the use of fresh flowers as decoration on the cake. "In the spring they want pastel colors, and in the fall you see more reds, colors that go with the season." Deising recalls one wedding cake that was decorated with poinsettias and ivy for a Christmas wedding. "When the bride and groom come in, we sit them down and talk about 20 minutes to find out what they want. We have displays of all the cakes we make, so it is fairly easy," he said.

At The Baker & The Serpent, pastry chefs Jane and Markus Farbinger of Red Hook are so intent on using the freshest ingredients in their wedding cakes that they actually pick their own berries. "We make one-of-a-kind wedding cakes," said Jane Farbinger, whose husband Markus was born in Austria and trained as a master pastry chef throughout Europe.

"We stress local ingredients and we use imported chocolate. We make sure to use only the best," said Farbinger, "and everything on the cake is edible." Most recently, the couple finished a wedding cake that was designed like an English castle, "with turrets and gargoyles."

Markus does blown sugar work. It's an ancient craft similar to glass blowing. You heat the sugar to melting, and then blow it. Vegetable dyes are added before the sugar is melted for color.

"It is important that a cake be what the wedding couple want. We try to make it as close to their dream as possible," said Farbinger.