the taste test!
this afternoon brian and i went to check out a bakery in search of a cake. for those of you who’ve never shopped for a cake before, here’s how it works (usually and this time around).
when we got there, we were given two large binders with photos of about 500 cakes. yeah, i know, a lot of cake. the cakes had notes with them, describing the insides, the outsides, how many servings, and misc details (ie, real flowers vs. edible chocolate flowers, unique writing, stenciled decoration).
picking a design was daunting. but, brian came up with a nice system. we each got a binder and flipped through, noting which designs we liked. we then traded binders and lists, circling ones we agreed on and nixing ones we disagreed on and even adding ones we thought should be in the running. we switched again and debated down to four designs. as we tasted cakes, the baker pointed out two of the designs were really similar and we decided we go with one of those.
the design we picked is a 3 to 5 tier, with white buttercream frosting, and round. it has white details (little swirly lines, or whatever) and decorated with fresh flowers. hooray!
after picking a general design, we were given 13 pieces of the different kinds of cake flavorings the bakery offers. the pieces were about two bite sizes and spread out on a baking sheet and numbered according to a cheat sheet of their flavors. we tried a bunch of different ones and settled on one (Alternating layers of cocoa and golden chiffon lightly soaked with cinnamon, Kahlua and espresso filled with coffee pastry cream - via their website). it sounds hella complex, but really just tastes good. it’s chocolate-y without being too heavy (like the fudge ones that were good, but crazy sweet), and included coffee!! excellent!
after that, we talked prices. the design we picked costs about $600 (!!!) for 100 people, plus a delivery fee and an extra charge to put fresh flowers on it. BUT we could get a small cake (3-tier is the smallest), plus sheet cake, all for 300 people, at about $500 (delivery charge included), plus the fresh flower fee (about $40-50). So… about $700 vs $550. not bad - though still ridic.
observation: brian likes classic designs, whereas i prefer more modern ones. so… choosing was a bit difficult, but in the end we really just like simple, yet elegant type cakes.
buying wedding cakes
Let’s talk about cakes and what i’ve learned about them so far…
wedding cakes are fucking expensive
so i’ve started the process of looking for a baker. it’s kinda fun because cakes are inherently a good time. but, breaking it down seems like a lot. typical pricing starts at $5 per slice. obvi the baker doesn’t cut the cake and count the slices, then charges you accordingly. they make a cake sized to serve x number of people and price that way. add on some fees and it looks something like this:
$5 per person x 175 people + $35 delivery charge = $910
fuck that.
the good news
most bakeries will try to work within your budget and suggest getting a smaller display cake along with a not so nice looking back-up, usually sheet type, cake. The cakes taste the same, but the second one isn’t for show. so, for example:
$5 per person x 75 people + $3 per person sheet cake x 100 people + $35 delivery = $710
honestly, though, that’s still a lot of money for what’s basically eggs, flour, sugar, and milk, especially when not many people at weddings opt for cake (old people are diabetics, families want to peace out, young people are too drunk… oscar).
the trend
a lot of people are doing high end cupcakes. i’ve had kara’s cupcakes before, and they’re hellllllla good, and wouldn’t mind that. except it’s trendy and cutesy and we’re at a wedding for christ’s sake, don’t we have enough of that already? i mean, im in a dress, what more do you people want? just fyi, cupcakes can run about $3 per, which is way cheaper than cakes, usually, and more manageable.
update on how we’re doing with finding a bakery
funny story. i recently bought a book almost entirely of checklists for me to do in order to properly plan for a wedding. i flipped through it this week and sort of panicked as i began to see all the work to be done and we’re only 6 months out (!!!). so in my panic i emailed two bakeries and they called me the next day. i scheduled a consultation with one, only to find out their cakes start at $6.50 a slice! i wanted to cancel, but felt embarassed as i’d basically be saying “we don’t want your stupid expensive cake”. long story short, they had to cancel on us, so everything worked out. for your reference: the french bakery in lafayette.
the other bakery starts at a much more reasonable price (as far as ridiculous wedding cakes go)of $5 a pop, and we’ve scheduled a tasting for tomorrow afternoon. i’ll post more on that experience afterwards. needless to say, i’m excited to get this ball rolling and check off some more boxes in that fucking book. for your reference: montclair baking.
leslie’s take home lessons
so. what have we learned over the past couple days?
1. cakes are not so important for me. honestly, it’s a fun tradition to cut the cake and such, and we’re going to do it, but the cake is more for show than anything else. i don’t anticipate many people will be going for seconds, so i’ve decided to sort of half ass this effort.
2. cakes are crazy expensive. with this and #1 in mind, we’ll probably get a small-ish, nice looking cake for about 75 people, and an additional sheet cake for another 75 people….maybe. grand total of servings: somewhere around 150. we’re inviting close to 200 people and anticipating about 175. i expect, after counting all the older filipinos, only 100-150 people will be interested in eating the thing, so might as well low ball it.
3. judge a bakery by it’s website. i didn’t really discuss this above, but it’s important enough for me to talk about. seriously, if you have a business and don’t have a decent website in this day and age, what the fuck are you trying to do? i don’t have time to actually visit bakeries and flip through photos of your work, or poll miscellaneous people about bakeries they’ve heard of other people using for their weddings. no. sorry. i need your info, i need all of it, and i need it when i want it - that is to say at 1am on a tuesday. looking at various vendors for different parts of the wedding, this has become much more apparent to me.
the end.
