Wedding cakes and desserts

Drew Foster11 said:Yeah... I see Jack & Jill's van driving by all the time, so you'll have to tell me—how much does all that cake actually weigh? If I were doing a cake and dessert spread for 120 people, I’d probably be looking at closer to 150 pounds of sugar. When I was checking out the place in downtown Chicago, some woman there asked what kind of style I wanted and said it would cost $667, which honestly seemed like a steal. P.S. Has anyone ever heard of those bakers from Columbus who are always setting up shop at the local wedding expos?

Wait, you're recommending the pros from Columbus??? Personally, I wasn't a fan of their work...

Even my mom—who basically lives for baking—wasn't exactly sold on that Pro brand from the local bakery. Even though they’re way cheaper than the big names, we ended up going with a different pastry shop instead. That said, the people eating them seemed happy enough. I can't really weigh in personally, though; I've never been a fan of dry desserts.

Fear, I have no clue where you’re from, but I actually went down to that little bakery in a Small town in the Midwest—you know, the one run by Kitty—to ask about pricing. They told me $23 it’s a certain rate per pound if I order more than twenty pounds, plus $3.25 a set price per person for cake, though they calculate a pound of sweets as serving six people. Honestly, since I'm looking at a guest list of around 240 to 280 for this wedding, those numbers look absolutely insane to me—just the cake alone would run me $2,500!! I don't know, tell me if I'm just losing my mind or if those prices seem crazy to you guys too.
On the flip side, the restaurant owner offered to handle everything through his partner bakery for $3 per person, which includes the cake. Now I'm totally stuck—I can't believe there isn't a cheaper way to do this. What has your experience been like with wedding catering costs?

I don't know, personally I wouldn't go over $20 kilos for that...

So, I was thinking along the same lines about hunting down enough supplies for $20 maybe 65 people—since we're talking massive quantities here—but then my friend mentioned she was told to prep 1.20 kg of treats for just 12 guests. Meanwhile, these guys are telling me to calculate by the pound per six people? Honestly, I have no clue what their math looks like. John, how did they break down the serving sizes for you? How many treats per person were you supposed to pull?

Drew Foster11 said:I don't know, personally I wouldn't go over $20 kilos for that...

Down $23 below, you should ask what kind of pastries they actually serve... if you're looking for a bargain, just go to Ben Pro... they are $18... but honestly, the treats were terrible, just awful!

steelfox15... it really isn't worth ordering from the restaurants... we asked the owner if there would be any leftovers to share, and he said sure, but he didn't mean actual dessert boxes—he basically meant you can have whatever scraps are left on the trays, which just isn't enough for me... have you heard what the prices are going to be for next year??? 😲

My aunt once hosted a crowd of 150 people and managed to walk away with sixty pounds of leftover dessert

So, what’s the damage looking like for next year? And when you say "for the little guy," what kind of price tag are we actually talking about here? I wasn't exactly planning on splitting cookies with everyone—I was thinking more along the lines of renting out the hall or just hosting the whole thing at my place back home.

Fear, was she actually trying to eat her weight in cake there? I honestly can’t figure out the math on how much dessert we actually need for a group this size without ending up with enough leftovers to feed a small suburb.

steelfox15 said:Fear, was she actually trying to eat her weight in cake there? I honestly can’t figure out the math on how much dessert we actually need for a group this size without ending up with enough leftovers to feed a small suburb.

Yeah, she gave some to me, her bridesmaid, her close relatives, and all that.

steelfox15 said:So, I was thinking along the same lines about hunting down enough supplies for $20 maybe 65 people—since we're talking massive quantities here—but then my friend mentioned she was told to prep 1.20 kg of treats for just 12 guests. Meanwhile, these guys are telling me to calculate by the pound per six people? Honestly, I have no clue what their math looks like. John, how did they break down the serving sizes for you? How many treats per person were you supposed to pull?

Ugh, the same question again... hard to say. I don't remember the exact numbers now, but I think it was maybe about half a pound per person. We didn't order a ton—we didn't even pass them out—and we still had leftovers for the neighbors for a few days.
I could check exactly how much we grabbed, but I'm at work and it's all back at my place.😉

If you aren't planning on sharing, don't overdo the quantities. You'll just be stuck with a mountain of food. This girl actually told me exactly what she needed since we're close, and it was perfect. She says people seriously over-order...🤷

Look, the reason I’m even asking is because you already mentioned you nailed that ratio last time. Just do a quick rough estimate and let me know—I'm guessing we're looking at maybe 6 to 9 ounces plus a slice of cake on top of that?

Drew Foster11 said:My aunt once hosted a crowd of 150 people and managed to walk away with sixty pounds of leftover dessert

Wow... that's an insane amount. We had maybe 190 guests and only took about 30 kg, which was plenty...🤷
Just so we're clear—we weren't slicing the cake into portions.😉

steelfox15 said:Look, the reason I’m even asking is because you already mentioned you nailed that ratio last time. Just do a quick rough estimate and let me know—I'm guessing we're looking at maybe 6 to 9 ounces plus a slice of cake on top of that?

I'm not angry 😉 ...it's just always been one of those impossible questions to answer...
If I remember right, I paid for $600 or something like that...so we're looking at maybe 55 or 60 lbs total...but I'll double-check. Hopefully I don't forget. It was honestly the perfect amount for us 😁 ..even one extra pound would have been too much. We actually ended up leaving a plate of food in the banquet hall for the catering staff later...😁

Yeah, I said 10 or 15 ounces per person plus cake...not counting the cake as part of the dessert count...

We actually source our desserts through a local restaurant, which they pick up directly from the Kašnar bakery 🙂
The math works out to about 3.3 pounds per table—assuming we have 15 tables with 8 guests each—and we can pack those little individual dessert boxes with either 7 or 10 ounces of treats.
It turns out buying the cake by the pound via the restaurant is actually more cost-effective than if we had just walked in and bought it ourselves. $25Just 1kg

I reached out to Taj & Ana regarding the wedding cake, and their quote for a group of 100 people was $300, whereas over at m & m, they told me $400...

Anyone else thinking about grabbing some cookies from Crumbl? Any thoughts on them?

In my experience, nothing beats the cakes from Magnolia Bakery...
I had some at a wedding recently, and that cheesecake was particularly striking 😍. They also served chocolate cherry cakes that had everyone raving. That bakery is located right in the heart of Midtown. I considered ordering from them, but I hesitated because I know Chef Gordon Ramsay does work over at Spoon, and I suspect his pastries are top-tier. We will sample the latter first, naturally. 🙂

So, ladies, I headed over to Whole Foods today and grabbed a couple of samples of all those little bite-sized treats just to test them out, and honestly? I have no idea what happened, but every single one was absolutely terrible...🤷
It’s just pure sugar; they all have the exact same artificial scent and flavor profile...
I'm genuinely bummed because when I had these about a year ago, they were actually delicious...
Bottom line, I'm done with this brand.☕

😢 ugh, they were basically my backup plan...

we're actually heading over to Sugarland this Saturday—my husband realized out of nowhere that his buddy and his wife host a little get-together there 😂 so we're going to swing by and see if we can strike it lucky 🙂

I’m telling you, I can’t stand any of them... honestly. Even that one lady who used to be absolutely amazing? She served this pale, beige cream instead of the rich brown stuff, and the pastry layers were totally soggy because of that sad excuse for a filling. It felt like the whole thing was underbaked. Plus, instead of that perfect, light, flaky crunch you expect from homemade treats, the crust had this weird, rubbery texture—kind of like those cheap, store-bought ones you find at a gas station rather than actual artisan pastry.
Anyway, I’m heading over to Piece tomorrow to pick some up and see if they’ve actually improved, but if they miss the mark too, I’m just going straight to East... Actually, I think I'll grab boxes from both tomorrow so I can compare them side-by-side. I really don't have the mental energy to obsess over every little detail anymore...