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Sweets Table

Knottie2017523 Knottie2017523 member
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in Wedding Reception Forum
ok so neither my FI nor I are huge cake fans. So we are doing more of a sweets table. So far we do have a cake (serves around 100), a few pies (serving around 50 I think), we were going to do cookies and maybe cupcakes. 

What other things could be included in a sweets bar? We are expecting around 200 guests.
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Re: Sweets Table

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    JaxInBlueJaxInBlue member
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    Brownies/blondies, cheesecake, truffles or chocolates, donuts, danish or other pastry, fruit.

    I think the key though is going to be to make sure you have enough to account people taking a couple of items - ie: I might grab a brownie, 3 or 4 strawberries, a truffle and a chocolate chip cookie.  I don't think its advisable to just have 200 servings total.  It's likely you need 1.5 or 2 servings per person, or more just to be safe.

    I just had cake so I can't be more helpful there but others probably can.
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    banana468banana468 member
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    glasgowtolondon said:
    Get enough cake to feed all 200 guests. After that, have whatever you like. But people want cake at a wedding. 
    I'm sort of on the fence with this.   People want cake at a wedding because that's the default dessert.   But if I had the option of other desserts I may go for them vs. cake.

    I think you may get a lot of feedback if you post in the Ohio / Pittsburgh boards to see how brides do a cookie table and see how they work for offerings vs. cake. 
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    OurWildKingdomOurWildKingdom member
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    edited April 2016
    banana468 said:
    glasgowtolondon said:
    Get enough cake to feed all 200 guests. After that, have whatever you like. But people want cake at a wedding. 
    I'm sort of on the fence with this.   People want cake at a wedding because that's the default dessert.   But if I had the option of other desserts I may go for them vs. cake.

    I think you may get a lot of feedback if you post in the Ohio / Pittsburgh boards to see how brides do a cookie table and see how they work for offerings vs. cake. 
    Two of my cousins and my brother and SIL both had Viennese tables (just a fancy word for sweets tables) and cake as well. At one cousin's wedding, the sweets table was more popular than the cake, but that cousin had five different cake flavors with fondant instead of icing. At my brother's wedding and my other cousin's, a lot of guests had both.

    SIL is half Italian, so their sweets table had cannoli and a few other Italian desserts, and my paternal grandmother and I baked a lot of the sweets for the other two weddings, so those were definitely contributing factors.

    BTW, I'm from the Cleveland/Akron area.

    I guess my advice is to have enough cake for 200, in a crowd-pleasing flavor (you can always send it home with guests), and make sure you have enough on the sweets table as well.

    Regarding pie: another cousin had 4-5 different kinds of pie, plus a cake for cutting. The pies went fast, but they had a small wedding (maybe 50 guests), and my cousin did the baking herself except for the cake.

    ETA: Whatever you have on the sweets table, make it memorable: local, regional, or ethnic specialties, you and your FI's favorites, anything seasonal. If your caterer doesn't do desserts, ask them to recommend a bakery, or ask around on your local board.
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    SP29SP29 member
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    I don't think that a B&G must necessarily have cake- I think it's fine to serve something else instead- cupcakes, pie, whatever. I also think it's different if we're talking cake + small sweets like cookies, brownies, squares, etc; then yes, if cake is your main dessert, enough for everyone. But if you are offering a sample of different cakes, different pies, large tarts, essentially many items that are a substantial serving on their own, I don't think you need 200 pieces of cake + the rest.

    But I think what is important OP, is that there is enough for everyone. I don't think you necessarily need to have 200 slices of each item you are offering, particularly if you are having many items, but there needs to be enough that if cousin Sally wants pie, it isn't gone (I don't think 50 pieces of pie is enough for 200 people).

    You need to figure out what are your dessert "mains" and what are the "sides". To me, a main would be cake, pie, mousse, large tart, etc where as a cookie, brownie or square is not. Since you mentioned cake and pie, I would have 125-150 of each, then do your sweets table as an additional 2-3 pieces per person.

    Expect guests will take a piece of cake or pie (maybe both!) as well as a cookie and brownie.

    Options: cake (possibly a variety of flavours/types- I'm thinking various grocery store cakes vs. a baker making one large cake, but up to you), pie (again, various flavours), mousse, parfait, fruit over ice cream, ice cream sundae, torte, various tarts (could be large or small), brownies, cookies, lemon squares, nanaimo bars, brittle, various chocolate barks.
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    glasgowtolondonglasgowtolondon member
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    banana468 said:
    glasgowtolondon said:
    Get enough cake to feed all 200 guests. After that, have whatever you like. But people want cake at a wedding. 
    I'm sort of on the fence with this.   People want cake at a wedding because that's the default dessert.   But if I had the option of other desserts I may go for them vs. cake.

    I think you may get a lot of feedback if you post in the Ohio / Pittsburgh boards to see how brides do a cookie table and see how they work for offerings vs. cake. 
    Sure, but if you have a cake to cut formally I don't understand why you'd get one that wouldn't feed all guests. From the OP it sounds like the cake is 'wedding' cake.
                 
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