Square is in, and gone are the days of plain white wedding cakes.

With exotic flavors like caramel turtle cake, key lime cheesecake, triple chocolate cake with white chocolate shavings and raspberry marble poundcake, guests are no longer looking for places to hide their desserts.

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"Cheesecake wedding cakes are a big surprise for guests," said Mark Lotti, owner of Classic Cheesecakes & Cakes in Buckhead. "It's a cake that keeps guests coming back for seconds and thirds and fourths."

Lotti has been making cheesecakes for weddings for a dozen years, developing 28 flavors of the New York-style cake requested by both brides and grooms.

"They look just like traditional wedding cakes, and the tiers are a minimum of four-and-a-half inches thick, solid cheesecake, except for the graham-cracker crust," Lotti said. "The New York style is dense, rich, creamy and good. We've had brides request different flavors for each tier."

Mixing flavors within tiered cakes is not an unusual request.

Ryan McEntyre, co-owner of McEntyre's in Smyrna, often gets requests for different flavors for each tier.

"Red velvet is really popular, but we almost always make at least one layer of good old-fashioned pound cake," he said. "Strawberry marbled pound cake is one of the most popular."

Fruit fillings add interest to wedding cakes.

"People are requesting fruit fillings between the layers more and more," said Brenda Reid, manager of media and community relations for Publix. "We use real butter in our cakes and icing, and we trim off the outside crust to maximize the moistness."

The "in" shape is square, with very little embellishment. With clean lines, a square cake looks more modern and stylish. The elaborate piping and sugar flowers have become less popular.

"If people decorate their cakes, they use a few fresh flowers or just a bit of decoration," said Diane Lovell, owner of Original's Cakes and Catering in Clayton County. "Clean and elegant seem to be what most brides want, something simple. They also use more colors than ever before."

Originals often uses lights and fabric decorations on the cake table to set the tone for romance.

"Wedding cakes kissed with light are beautiful," she said. "Some brides really like our Romantic Elegance line, featuring cakes on lighted pedestals and completely decorated tables with sheer organza with more lights."

Monograms combining the couple's initials top many of today's cakes. Statues of brides and grooms are used rarely, unless they're antiques passed down from parents or grandparents.

"Groom's cakes have made a resurgence," McEntyre said. "They used to be all about the groom, but now they represent the couple. People are imprinting them with their engagement photo or a picture of themselves on a trip."

Groom's cakes may reflect the couple's hobbies or simply provide an alternative choice for dessert. Lotti has made sculptured cakes for grooms, including a replica of Bobby Dodd Stadium in vanilla bean cheesecake for Atlanta Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking, who attended Georgia Tech.

As with many bakers, Lotti accommodates special requests for flavors and shapes. He offers 28 types of cheesecake and 19 poundcake choices.

The best way to select a wedding cake is to arrange for a tasting. Bakeries set appointments with couples to help with the selection. Some bakers, like Originals, offer monthly tastings. Lovell brings three to four cakes to the tastings, which are held at the Merle Manders Convention Center in Henry County.

A couple should select a cake at least six months before the wedding. Good cakemakers' schedules fill up early, and some will schedule only a limited number of cakes on any given weekend because of the delivery and setup time required on the wedding day.

As for serving the wedding cake, Lovell suggests using sheet cakes that have been pre-cut to serve guests, especially if the bride's cake is a focal point of the reception decorations.

The tradition of saving the top layer of the wedding cake for a first-anniversary celebration still lingers, but Lovell has other suggestions.

"Don't keep it a full year," she said. "Eat it after you get back from your honeymoon or as dessert for the first meal you cook in your new home. If my couples want a one-year anniversary cake, I'll bake them one."