Wedding cakes and desserts

Nathan Cox25 said:Our first version was basically a parfait—we scrapped it because they were worried about the weight distribution. They told me the bottom layer needed a double biscuit base just to stay upright on the stands. So, yeah, you can build it however you want now.

So, it turns out a parfait cake layered on top of another cake is totally doable, provided the base layer has two sponges. Woohoo! Thanks, Nathan Cox25!😉 I just hope the staff at the Marriott doesn't try to get smart with us regarding the setup...

I'm crossing my fingers that you actually manage to talk them into it

David Thomas362, we’re doing the parfait thing too—basically just a cake stacked on top of itself without the fancy stand. Personally, I think it looks way better. We’re going with chocolate parfait for the very bottom layer. I actually checked to see if that was doable, and they said yes—they just insisted the bottom sponge has to be chocolate to keep everything sturdy enough. 😉 basically: sponge-parfait-cream-sponge 🙂

Thanks, everyone!😘

I wanted to get your thoughts—I heard that the Musk bakery out in the suburbs of Sacramento makes some pretty great pastries. Their price is around $22/lb (which is actually a steal compared to what I pay back on Manhattan. Over here, they go for 85-$30/lb 😲 😱)
I’m planning to head over there this Monday to give them a shot, so I'd love to hear if any of you have tried them before...

I used them for my wedding, and honestly, I have zero complaints. Great value for the money, delicious desserts, they showed up right on schedule, and we didn't even pay until after the reception was over. Highly recommend 👍

Daniel Smith8 said:I used them for my wedding, and honestly, I have zero complaints. Great value for the money, delicious desserts, they showed up right on schedule, and we didn't even pay until after the reception was over. Highly recommend 👍

Thanks so much—I'll touch base on Monday once I've had a chance to settle in and share my thoughts. 🙂

Honestly, my crew keeps making these parfait cakes using only stands... and I have to say, it looks a bit tacky. I realize it’s just a cake, but it’s going to be the centerpiece of the evening for a while 😢

I think it looks tacky too. It’s got that vibe—kind of like being at my own mother's wedding or something. So yeah, we're crossing that off the list immediately. Though, if they made you cupcakes, would every single one be a total disaster?

Nathan Cox25 said:I think it looks tacky too. It’s got that vibe—kind of like being at my own mother's wedding or something. So yeah, we're crossing that off the list immediately. Though, if they made you cupcakes, would every single one be a total disaster?

I'll ask them, though I suspect they don't offer that. We're going to sample some cakes, and I'm just hoping there's a flavor out there that hits the spot—maybe even something that looks like a cake on top of a cake. 🙏

David Thomas362, maybe give mousse a shot. It’s similar to parfait, but I find it much better—more compact. Back when we were catering an event in Chicago, we served mousse on the ground floor and had two layers of parfait upstairs.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have to check with them first. I’m not entirely sure they’ll grant my request, since they seem to stick to a specific set of options. Here is what they have available:

If you're looking for a layered cake option, you can choose from:
- Dobos style
- Walnut cake
- Hazelnut cake
- Chocolate cake
- Sachertorte
- California Dream – hazelnut and almond

For tiered cakes, we could do any of the ones listed above, or perhaps one of their parfait cakes:

- Strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate
- Banana Split (chocolate cream and banana)
- Wild berry
- Vanilla/chocolate combo
- Blueberry vanilla
- Black Forest

Local pastry chefs just refuse to modernize or invest in those sleek, hidden supports...

I make parfaits on my top floor—it's a five-story setup—and I never have an issue because I use internal supports that stay tucked inside the cake. It looks like a masterpiece sitting on itself, totally seamless...

They’re just stuck doing things the way they did them a hundred years ago instead of moving forward.🤷

It’s the same deal here—we’ve got two different flavors tucked inside a single aisle, separated by nothing but a small display rack.
It won't even be noticeable.

So, we’ve decided to just have the wedding venue handle all the desserts—honestly, it's purely because I don't want the massive headache of hauling trays of sweets from one venue to another... I see you guys list everything by the pound, but our restaurant told us it'll be $10 per guest, so I'm trying to figure out if we're getting ripped off or what the price gap actually looks like.
If we provide our own ingredients for the treats, it's $5.00 per person.
That $10 covers 15 bite-sized dry pastries and about one and a half creamy ones (that's how they calculate it, anyway), plus they throw in 15 little pastry boxes for people to take home—so that's 60 boxes total, which is apparently baked into that price.
Basically, we’re looking at $10 times 200 guests (plus those 60 little dessert boxes), which brings our total to $2000. That's how they do things around here, but honestly, I have no clue how that translates to pounds in your system 🤷 ....

How many people are we talking about?
We took 20kg for the ballroom—roughly 140 guests—* $25 / kg
Everyone will probably grab some extra to take home, but hey, if they want to pay, let them. We didn't want them hauling the dessert trays out of the hall ourselves.
Mind you, we hand-picked the selection—everything from creamy fillings to dry sponge combos. There’ll be a little bit of everything on every table.

So, it says right there in the post—it’s for 200 people.

Honestly, it feels way overpriced to me.
Between the finger foods, the cake, and the treats we’re taking home, our total order is going to be much smaller than this one without the cake.

Nathan Cox25 said:How many people are we talking about?
We took 20kg for the ballroom—roughly 140 guests—* $25 / kg
Everyone will probably grab some extra to take home, but hey, if they want to pay, let them. We didn't want them hauling the dessert trays out of the hall ourselves.
Mind you, we hand-picked the selection—everything from creamy fillings to dry sponge combos. There’ll be a little bit of everything on every table.

I'm expecting about 120 kg of desserts to arrive around 8:00 PM.$0.00

I guess it’s just easier for you to get a cheap slice of pie than it is for me 😁