Wedding cakes and desserts

Man, I’m telling you, my cake is massive—enough to feed like 80 people! It’s two whole tiers and costs $333 😲, and honestly? It’s nothing even special.

Maybe she just accidentally added another zero to the total?

Unfortunately, it wasn't 😁
It’s a bit pricey since she handles everything from scratch—even the desserts. She doesn't just buy pre-made crusts or anything like that 😬
I even managed to snag a little discount 😬
A pound of treats is $30. And honestly, I'm not about to gamble with dessert from some random town far away...

The other options were pretty mediocre and $5.00 cheaper... so whatever, most people at my weddings end up inhaling sweets like crazy anyway 🤣
That's why I cut corners on the silly stuff, but when it comes to the food? Not a chance.

My bad, I was actually thinking about the one priced at $170. Your quote makes sense to me. It’s definitely a bit of an investment, but if it's locally made...

Mine for 30 people was $200 plus $33 for delivery. Honestly, I’m scratching my head over how they managed to price that one for 170 people so low... 🤔

Edit: Henry Moore2, I was actually eyeing that naked cake—it looks incredible—but I ended up going in a different direction in the end. 🙂

I’m still totally stuck on what shape this cake should even be... I’ve got all the flavors picked out, but the actual structure? Zero clue. Maybe something super simple, I don't know...
Does anyone have any cool ideas or suggestions?
It’ll basically be two tiers, and I want the top one to stay completely plain since I’m doing a special decoration for it later.

For the color palette, I'm thinking beige, baby blue, gray... something along those lines.

Mine is going to look something like this View on pinterest—except I’m thinking two versions: one in gold and one in white. It’s probably going to run me about $200 😉

This setup for 170 people and $283 feels suspiciously like San Francisco to me. If I’m looking at the most budget-friendly way to host 180 guests, it looks like it'll run me $733.... And that's being generous...

I ordered a cake for 160 guests that ended up costing about $200.
Everything gets significantly cheaper once you head out of the city center. We picked up our cake and pastries from a small family-run bakery in a rural area just outside of Gary; they run a local farm and a small shop right there. I’ve actually mentioned them on this forum before, and I even recommended them to someone else who told me she was thrilled with the results.
The cake itself was simple—chocolate with frosting and some red accents. If anyone is interested, I can post a photo of it.

Mark Lee4 said:I ordered a cake for 160 guests that ended up costing about $200.
Everything gets significantly cheaper once you head out of the city center. We picked up our cake and pastries from a small family-run bakery in a rural area just outside of Gary; they run a local farm and a small shop right there. I’ve actually mentioned them on this forum before, and I even recommended them to someone else who told me she was thrilled with the results.
The cake itself was simple—chocolate with frosting and some red accents. If anyone is interested, I can post a photo of it.

... I don't know, but even when I bake at home, I rarely spend less than $33... so these prices for that many guests seem completely unrealistic to me... 🤷

driftingwolf4 said:... I don't know, but even when I bake at home, I rarely spend less than $33... so these prices for that many guests seem completely unrealistic to me... 🤷

It's actually possible! Look, these are businesses buying in bulk, not some random guy grabbing one thing from $2.75. They get different pricing and quantities than a regular household! Sales reps always have deals, like "buy 10 lbs of beef, get 3 free." A friend of mine runs a shop and sells Budweiser for $4.99, even though that's basically her wholesale cost! She says if she moves 10 cases, she gets 2 free, so she still makes a profit. It’s the same deal for them! But seriously, there's no way you charge $333 or more for a cake unless it's literally made of gold.

The cake comes with all the paperwork, and just so you know, I skipped the fondant and went with whipped cream instead. Fondant is way too pricey and, honestly, tastes pretty gross 😁. Between my time and the ingredients, the cost is basically a wash. I was originally thinking about doing a Milka chocolate theme, but I switched it up to strawberries—I doubt it'll change much on the final bill.

If you're in the neighborhood, check out Daniel Sweet in Columbus; they make some killer homemade desserts.

I decided to go this route, but customized mine with orchids and a pink ribbon.

Photos here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slast...=photos_stream

PS. It might actually be worth it to just have them deliver it to you.

Mark Lee4 said:I ordered a cake for 160 guests that ended up costing about $200.
Everything gets significantly cheaper once you head out of the city center. We picked up our cake and pastries from a small family-run bakery in a rural area just outside of Gary; they run a local farm and a small shop right there. I’ve actually mentioned them on this forum before, and I even recommended them to someone else who told me she was thrilled with the results.
The cake itself was simple—chocolate with frosting and some red accents. If anyone is interested, I can post a photo of it.

I'm totally with you on that. Prices are absolutely insane lately; don't let them rip you off.

We were also looking into whipped cream because we aren't fans of Tic Tacs, and this is what the prices looked like for us (though mine seemed reasonable, your quote actually caught me off guard). Regardless, it’s great that you managed to find such a good deal!

Yeah, and let’s be real, that wasn't even the budget option.

I actually know this one lady who makes incredible, affordable fondant cakes, but she just couldn't swing a Ferrero cake for 100 people on my timeline—it was way too much work $167. https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...1d&oe=55F7A937

To is short and sweet... Cashner's pastries. For the wedding cake, we went with an ice wind flavor and a chocolate one... Our guests were actually asking if they could pack some to go, but since we had already ordered extra pastries from them to include in our thank-you favors, we didn't divide them up. The cookies were absolutely fantastic, too. I can't recommend them enough!
We picked out the design for the wedding cake ourselves, and when it finally arrived, it completely blew our expectations out of the water.. 👍

Time to talk cakes and desserts! 🙂

For our wedding, we went with a massive three-tier cake featuring three distinct flavor profiles—Snickers, dark and white chocolate, and hazelnut Nutella—all wrapped in fondant. The total came out to $583. Honestly, I was leaning toward a whipped cream frosting instead—it would have been much more budget-friendly, and if I'm being totally honest, I'm not even the biggest fan of fondant—but our baker gave me some really solid advice. She pointed out that since we were getting married during the summer, fondant is a much safer bet; whipped cream can start to melt or lose its structure pretty quickly if things get even slightly warm during transport.

As for the dessert spread—we had 18 tables with 12 guests at each, and we placed one large platter of assorted treats on every table (roughly 3.3 pounds per tray). We brought the sweets out right after the main course was finished. There was actually plenty of dessert—we even had a little left over—so, in my opinion, if you plan for about 0.25 to 0.3 pounds per person, you really can't go wrong.

silverorca40 said:Time to talk cakes and desserts! 🙂

For our wedding, we went with a massive three-tier cake featuring three distinct flavor profiles—Snickers, dark and white chocolate, and hazelnut Nutella—all wrapped in fondant. The total came out to $583. Honestly, I was leaning toward a whipped cream frosting instead—it would have been much more budget-friendly, and if I'm being totally honest, I'm not even the biggest fan of fondant—but our baker gave me some really solid advice. She pointed out that since we were getting married during the summer, fondant is a much safer bet; whipped cream can start to melt or lose its structure pretty quickly if things get even slightly warm during transport.

As for the dessert spread—we had 18 tables with 12 guests at each, and we placed one large platter of assorted treats on every table (roughly 3.3 pounds per tray). We brought the sweets out right after the main course was finished. There was actually plenty of dessert—we even had a little left over—so, in my opinion, if you plan for about 0.25 to 0.3 pounds per person, you really can't go wrong.

I agree. We did 10 ounces per person, plus an extra 6 pounds just in case we needed to refill platters throughout the night; we had 130 guests total. We also opted for the fondant cake. In this heat, it's definitely better than relying on whipped cream...

I hate it when there’s no dessert sitting right on the table at a wedding😬

I am quite interested in setting up a dedicated dessert station. Based on your own experiences, would you recommend arranging it before dinner service begins, or waiting until after the main course has been served? I find the idea of having it ready from the start appealing, yet I have some concerns regarding how the creams and other delicate components might hold up if left out on the table for several hours. The wedding is scheduled for November, so we won't be dealing with summer heat, but I still want to be cautious.