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Wedding Cakes & Food Forum
kelseydjames
member
Cake or Dessert Bar?
Okay, so we're working on a smaller budget and can't decide if we should do one giant fancy tierd cake, or a tiny 2 tiered cake that only feeds a few people so that we have something pretty to cut for photos, and then have a dessert bar of things like pasteries, mini desserts, candy, etc.
I spoke to a baker in my area and she said she would do our cake for $300, which would feed about 150 people (Our guest list is 190, so this gives room for those who won't eat cake so we don't have a whole tier left over). If we did a dessert bar, we'd get all of the premade things from Sams Club and whatnot, and then probably make some of the things ourselves.
Spending $300 on a cake that a lot of people might not eat is a bit crazy, but I'm worried that the little expenses of a dessert bar when you add up ingredients, foils, stands, toothpicks, mistakes, etc will procceed $300. What do you ladies think? The reception is in a hotel ballroom on a Sunday afternoon.
I spoke to a baker in my area and she said she would do our cake for $300, which would feed about 150 people (Our guest list is 190, so this gives room for those who won't eat cake so we don't have a whole tier left over). If we did a dessert bar, we'd get all of the premade things from Sams Club and whatnot, and then probably make some of the things ourselves.
Spending $300 on a cake that a lot of people might not eat is a bit crazy, but I'm worried that the little expenses of a dessert bar when you add up ingredients, foils, stands, toothpicks, mistakes, etc will procceed $300. What do you ladies think? The reception is in a hotel ballroom on a Sunday afternoon.
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Re: Cake or Dessert Bar?
AKA GoodLuckBear14
This way, you're not paying as high a price per piece for the wedding cake...but with small diameter cakes (if you're doing round), then you still get the height of a big cake for pictures, etc.
Just double check that your venue has room to store the sheet cake.
I too look forward to the cake at weddings. I definitely don't think the dessert bar sounds very appetizing, but that's just my opinion b/c I like to bake and store bought desserts typically aren't as good.
Mrs. Blog | Ms. Bio
Good luck on what you decide
I am all about giving people options, what you like doesn't mean everyone else will.
Good Luck on deciding.
[QUOTE]I'm all for the dessert bar and think it would be a lot of fun to have family and/or guests bring a goodie on a nice dish, eg, lemon bars. How could anyone complain about the desserts when they made them :-)
Posted by nonicom[/QUOTE]
Please do not ask your guests to bring a dessert to your wedding to share with others. : /
[QUOTE]Okay, I should have been more specific. By Sam's Club, I mean the premade things from Sam's BAKERY, not the stuff out on the shelves.
Posted by kelseydjames[/QUOTE]
But it's still something anyone can buy at Sam's Club, and in my opinion not as special as a full wedding cake. I vote either for a big wedding cake or cupcake cakes. Sounds like if you want variety and something small and convenient, cupcake cakes with a small tier to cut is the way to go. You can get the cupcakes in a variety of flavours for everyone.
As for getting people to bring in food for the dessert I think that is probably a bad idea but it depends on your family and how they will take it. One thing you need to consider is that your venue might not allow you to bring in home baked goods. I know mine doesn't....they require my baker to be a professional.
My fiance and I were discussing that we would like to "shake things up" a bit for our wedding ... and possibly do a small, 2-tiered wedding cake and like 250 cupcakes for our guests instead of the traditional HUGE and usually very expensive cake. We have a lot of people with allergies, preferences and picky appetites so we'd like to appeal to the masses ... as well as the fact that WE ourselves can't choose just one kind of cake! Although, our cake to cut would probably be carrot with cream cheese filling. The wedding is a while away so we have time to decide ... but it's still a consideration!
With All the Trimmings
Planning Bio
However, I wanted to mention your underserving on your cake - you say you have 150 servings with 190 guests. I honestly think that is a really bad idea. Yeah you're probably right that some people won't eat it, but when it comes to something like this wouldn't you rather have left overs than have people you can't serve?? Can you imagine having to say "I'm sorry, we ran out of cake for you"? I would at least cut the margin a little closer, if it was me. We're having enough to serve all our guests, even though I am sure we'll have some left over.
Also, I don't know about where you're from, but it's a tradtion where I'm from to have the bride and groom hand out the cake personally to guests. I'm not spending my entire reception handing out cake!
Finally, and I'd like to ask the girls who are looking forwar to cake: have you ever been to a wedding without one? I sure have and you know what? I was too busy having fun to even notice there was no cake. I only realized that a few months later, when we were at another wedding and the bride and groom couldn't come dance because they were handing out the cake (which was fondant and didn't taste good).
I think it's really up to you in the end, but don't feel you "need" to have a cake. You should have what you want to eat for dessert (as you may have not eaten much during the day and will be starving.)
When I'm at weddings, I really do look forward to the cake and would sorely miss it if it weren't there. It's a highlight, and if done well, can help make the whole event come together both as a piece of artwork and as a dessert.
It would, however, suck to have to hand all the cake out personally. At our reception, we're going to just have the caterer put the plated slices on a table and let everyone get their own, since we're having 4 different flavors and we want people to choose the flavor they like best.
It's all a matter of taste. Some people really like the taste of Sam's Club or grocery store cake. Some people, like me, can't stand it unless it's made from scratch. All cakes are not equal. My FI and I even went to a tasting where the baker openly admitted to using the grocery store mix that bakeries buy by the drumfull and didn't make any of the fillings from scratch (also from gallon cans grocery stores buy) - and it showed. Her decorating was beautiful, but the cake tasted cheap.
Anyway, I guess my point is that a cake will probably be missed by someone if it isn't there, even if you don't care yourself, and that you can't generalize about all cakes, fondants, and what people will or will not care about based on your own preferences.