Wedding cakes and desserts

velvetwalker742 said:As for the plating situation, I honestly haven't a clue; we opted for that dessert table setup instead, which turned out to be a brilliant idea. Everyone just grabs whatever catches their eye onto their own little plate, and it works perfectly!
I'm not entirely sure where you're located, but they usually charge for delivery based on distance. It cost me $233 to get everything to our place. However, the guy I spoke to at the bridal expo mentioned that anything within 31 miles is free of charge, though I suppose that depends on where you are. Your best bet is to just call and ask. One piece of advice, though: whatever you settle on, make sure you confirm everything via email and for heaven's sake, do not delete those threads until the whole thing is over! We had a bit of a misunderstanding once, and if it hadn't been for that paper trail, things would have gone south quite quickly...
We had 100 guests, and we ordered (roughly speaking, I'm just throwing numbers around here) about 25 kilos of pastries, over 100 of those little cups in various sizes, roughly 3kg of chocolate-covered fruit, about 3kg of chocolate pralines, and a cake. All told, including delivery and the decorations, it came to $1633.
And everyone keeps raving about those pralines, yet I didn't even manage to try a single one. Not even the fruit! 😢

25 pounds of pastries🙄
Were you handing those out to people individually or was it all just set up on a buffet table?

Everything was laid out on the table and, honestly, we polished off almost everything!! I somehow managed to walk away about four or five pounds heavier after Sunday lunch!! 😁

velvetwalker742 said:Everything was laid out on the table and, honestly, we polished off almost everything!! I somehow managed to walk away about four or five pounds heavier after Sunday lunch!! 😁

velvetwalker742, here's the breakdown 😉

-$300 (15 lbs of pastries $20/1lb)
-$167 (100 assorted mousse cups)
-$250 (3 lbs of pralines $83/1 lb)
-$150 (3 lbs of chocolate-covered fruit $50/1 lb)
-$400 wedding cake
-$133 decorations
-$233 delivery to Naperville
-----------
= $1633 🙂

There was actually even less cake physically there—otherwise we would've had at least 10 lbs left for the next day if all 100 guests loved sweets as much as I do 🙂

I'm not totally sure what they charge for their pralines and fruit pieces—I just put down the lowest estimates possible—but over at Horak's, you're looking at $97 per kilo. As for any cake with custom decor, $400 is pretty much the baseline price you'll see at any bakery.

rowdyjackal922 said:velvetwalker742, here's the breakdown 😉

-$300 (15 lbs of pastries $20/1lb)
-$167 (100 assorted mousse cups)
-$250 (3 lbs of pralines $83/1 lb)
-$150 (3 lbs of chocolate-covered fruit $50/1 lb)
-$400 wedding cake
-$133 decorations
-$233 delivery to Naperville
-----------
= $1633 🙂

There was actually even less cake physically there—otherwise we would've had at least 10 lbs left for the next day if all 100 guests loved sweets as much as I do 🙂

Your math is completely off, dear... and honestly, I don't know why we're nitpicking every little detail, but fine, I went through my emails to find the actual figures.

30 kg of pastries x $20 = $600

3 kg of pralines x $50 = $150

20 mousse cups x $2.25 = $47

30 mousse cups x $1.75 = $50

70 mousse cups x $1.00 = $70

cake for 120 people = $400

delivery to Naperville = $233

setup/arrangement = $133

total = $1683

We eventually scaled back the pastry order by 5 kg and added some fruit instead, while bumping up the count on certain mousses, which brought the total to approximately $4,900.
I believe the chocolate-covered fruit was $23/kg...

Here is a quick, amateur snapshot (you can only see a small portion of the table):

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I’ve got a winner in my hands, too. 😁

It’s IMAKO, that bakery out of Davenport! 🙏🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

Listen, folks, everything—and I mean absolutely everything—was devoured!
We ordered 60kg for a banquet of about 200 people, and honestly, the servers were telling us they couldn't even keep up with how fast people were eating them. 😲 By the time we were done, we only had two little boxes of pastries left over for ourselves. 😲
Every single pastry has its own distinct flavor profile; you don't get that artificial, mass-produced taste you find at a grocery store. They were sliced perfectly, too. Just incredible.

The Canadian style actually beat my grandmother's recipe. 😂

They didn't even charge us for the delivery. 🙏

We picked up the cake from Sugarland and I am absolutely floored! I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical about how it would actually look once we got it, but my jaw hit the floor when I saw it in person. And the taste? Beyond incredible.
We ordered enough for 260 guests, and there was barely anything left over—I honestly couldn't believe it until I started chatting with everyone about it. 👍
Here are some photos 😍

60 kg for 200 people? That sounds a bit light to me—I was always told you should budget about a third of a pound per person...
Did you actually serve them out in portions, or did everyone just dig in right there in the hall?

Everything was devoured! We had placed our order quite some time ago for 320 people 😲 but a lot of folks ended up being no-shows, and we completely failed to realize we could have adjusted the weight of the food 😂

Sarah Reed7 said:Lido or Vince? 😁 I'm looking for some advice on cakes and pastries. Specifically, I've got my heart set on a Black Forest cake. Thanks a million for any help you can give! 🙂

I’d go with Lido, hands down. My partner and I used them for our wedding catering and we were seriously impressed. No regrets at all.

The recommendations for those "Kasnar" pastries and cakes were a solid ten out of ten.😍...I mean, the guests at the wedding practically cleared the table; they went back for seconds before the first round was even over.😁

stormyhound8 said:The recommendations for those "Kasnar" pastries and cakes were a solid ten out of ten.😍...I mean, the guests at the wedding practically cleared the table; they went back for seconds before the first round was even over.😁

We’re thinking about grabbing our dessert spread from there. What kind of cake did you guys end up going with?

hiddenlynx22 said:The price is still sitting at $22/lb.
When we went in to finalize our dessert order, the lady there actually brought out a little sampler plate for us to try. Personally, I thought they were pretty decent.
I'm not entirely sure how they calculate the cake costs, though. Ours was made with fondant, three tiers high, with a different flavor for every layer, serving about 120 guests—it came out to $333.
The cake looked something like this (note those little decorative curls on it):

Delivery to the venue is already included in that quote.

I’ve been scrolling through all these killer reviews for Candy Shop regarding weddings, but man, they’re all ancient history. Anyone actually ordered from them lately? Was it any good? They're on my shortlist, but I really need some fresh intel before I pull the trigger.

We ordered our cake from the local Candy Shop. We actually went big and got three different flavors for a crowd of 160, though only about 120 people showed up—not that anyone noticed! Needless to say, it was a total hit, with everyone raving about how incredible it looked and tasted. 😍
The whole thing was covered in frosting, yet it held up perfectly even when it was +40 C evo outside. 🙂

Here it is:

http://imageshack.us/a/img594/2851/1166kopiraj.jpg

As for the cookies, we had some classic gourmet ones, and I honestly can't recommend them enough; they were easily the best treats I've ever had. 😍

Simple and gorgeous. Ours was pure white, too 🙂

Frank Perez96 said:I’d go with Lido, hands down. My partner and I used them for our wedding catering and we were seriously impressed. No regrets at all.

All credit goes to Lido. Honestly, they provided the most incredible desserts I have ever had at a wedding!
The flavor was exquisite, the presentation was flawless, and they were simply divine.

northernpanther18 said:All credit goes to Lido. Honestly, they provided the most incredible desserts I have ever had at a wedding!
The flavor was exquisite, the presentation was flawless, and they were simply divine.

We actually went with them for their cakes and desserts last year as well, and everyone was completely blown away, so consider this another glowing recommendation from my side.🙂

Hey there...
So, I had some pastries and cake tonight from Unknown in Philadelphia and honestly? Just underwhelming. No offense to anyone who actually likes this stuff, but if you think this is good, you clearly haven't had a real dessert in your life. The cake was basically just a mountain of margarine. If you’re looking for a proper chocolate mousse or a real ganache, you can't just swap out 60% of the cream for margarine. It simply DOESN'T WORK!!!

I get it, we're all trying to watch our pennies and grab the cheapest treats available, but I wouldn't pay even $6.75 a cent per pound for this... sorry, but that's just how I feel. 😢

I tried their cakes at a wedding expo and they left the exact same impression on me—or more specifically, that’s how they tasted. They're pretty average, though. Honestly, you can find their packaged treats in Walmart if you want to test them out for yourself before making a decision.

I've had those Unknown pastries at weddings too. Honestly, they're just okay—not really my thing... though I have to say, the presentation on those glass trays looks pretty sharp. A friend of mine also had those little dessert shooters with different creams, and people went absolutely wild for them.