Wedding Cakes vs. Alternative Desserts
These days, about half of the weddings have a wedding cake. It has changed in the past 1-2 years and now most couples do alternative desserts vs. wedding cake and that's why we've decided to do this episode.
Lexie loves cake! She grew up baking with her grandma and fell in love with the art and design that goes into custom cakes. She graduated top of her class from the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education and then went on to study art, sculpture, jewelry, and floral design; which all play a crucial component in her ability to create anything out of sugar! She opened Sweetified in Southwest Florida in 2015 and has been featured in television competitions and even won the prize of making celebrity chef Cat Cora's wedding cake!
Give me cake with filling, skip the icing. If I had the option for anything, I would go for crème brulée or a key lime tart. Baker friends, please don't disown me. After 19+ years of planning weddings, I have seen wedding cakes go from being the main attraction, to disappearing with the trend of a candy or cookie table. Once that trend died, it went to cupcakes and then Megan & Harry got married and the 3 cake wedding cake was all the rage. Do you know what we're seeing now? Statement wedding cakes are back on the rise, but they're not standing alone. Enter the mini desserts!
So in this episode we not only do this vs. that but we also talk about:
Why cakes cost more than you think
How you could display your cake in the room (the size of the table)
Alternative options for desserts
Who should decorate the cake when there are fresh flowers to be added
When you should reach out to cake bakers/artists
Learn what makes a cake. The difference between a tier, a layer, a filling, and an icing.
Buttercream, Fondant, Ganache, Whipped Cream - these are the outsides that you'll learn about.
When Lexie went to culinary school, she went into the baking and pastry program, which was a personalized, traditional and classic baking experience. She says that cakes weren't that artistic and special a few years ago. The cake was the thing back in the day, no matter what, so let's talk about it first. You can get a cheap cake from a grocery store, but that all depends upon what you want your wedding cake to look like. If you want quality, you definitely want to work with a cake artist. Working with a cake artist can be expensive, but it's more than flour, sugar, and eggs. Some of the ingredients like heavy cream, icing, and buttercream filling are more expensive and if you want to add more specialty, e.g. chocolate, sugar flowers, etc. then it becomes even more expensive. Also, the customer is not only paying for the ingredients, but they're also paying for the baker's artistic talent which they spend years learning.
For Lexie, time is the major component of designing and baking a cake. If the cake is super important to you and you want people to feel like they had the best wedding cake of their life, then go for the best wedding cake in town. There are so many options that come when you have to customize a cake according to the couple's preference. Lexie says she takes into account the invitation card details, dress details, and theme details to make a cake just according to the vibe of the wedding.
When you go for an initial cake consultation with your cake designer, keep in mind what your baker is trying to tell you. For example, a cake can be 3-tiered and can feed 75 people or it can be 4-tiered and feed only 50 people, so it all depends upon how your baker will keep the proportions. While placing the cakes, keep them on a high surface so it makes the cake the star of the show and makes it more of a statement piece. Please do not shove your cake in a corner next to a fire extinguisher.
One of the wonderful things about working with custom cake designers is that if the cake is important to you, it will be wonderful. Lexie's cake had hidden a bottle of wine inside it for her husband as a surprise. According to Lexie, you can get a plain white cake from a bakery and place it on a beautiful cake stand and let a florist decorate it with flowers. Inside of a tier, there are different layers and fillings to choose from, which hold the tier together and most bakers will allow you to choose between different flavors.
When it comes to alternative desserts, Lexie has done a lot of fun things. The alternative desserts depend upon the weather and location of the place you're going to hold your wedding. Types of alternative desserts include mini bundt cakes, mini cupcakes, tarts, smores, brownies, chocolate-covered strawberries, ice cream bar. It is always nice to have a dietary restriction option for people who follow a gluten-free, dairy-free diet. It's a good option to have fruit there too.
Whatever option you want to have, depends on you. Whether you want a cake or alternative desserts, it's totally up to your preference, taste, and liking.
To listen to this podcast in it’s entirety, you can visit here.
Places to go and People to see:
Website: KellyMcWilliams.com
Instagram: @kellyamcwilliams @thisvsthatweddingpodcast
Lexie Verbruggen with Sweetified: Co-Hosts Website
Lexie Verbruggen with Sweetified: Co-Host Instagram
All Podcast Episodes: Here.