The beautiful people at Donsuemor sent me a sweet challenge: In exchange for a sample box of their madeleines, they wanted me to think of all the ways you could use them in a wedding. Now am I really going to think of ALL the ways? Er, I think that would get a little more offbeat than I want to get. But I can think of plenty of fun wedding-y things to do with Donsuemor madeleines! (Which, I should add, are excellent. Madeleines are actually my favorite cookies, so I have pretty high standards. And La Paloma? She is still sad that we ate through the samples.)

Omigosh. Madeleines on a wedding cake. It’s like two of my favorite things are rubbing up against each other in some sort of delicious dance. I can’t decide if I’d tried to get cake and cookie in a single bite, or if I’d eat the madeleines first. Donsuemor has five kinds of madeleine, so brides and grooms shouldn’t run into flavor fatigue.

(more…)

You can’t deny that wedding cake tends to be a bit fussy, with lots and lots of detailing. Wedding cake isn’t just wedding cake anymore – it’s a centerpiece and it’s expected to be a wedding showstopper with as much personality as the bride’s gown. But what if you’re just not a fussy kind of chick and you’re part of a very unfussy couple? I recommend looking into more modern wedding cakes, a la these beauties from Sweet Sweets Cake Art.

Aren’t they just gorgeous? But you definitely can’t call them fussy or busy (even if they might stop the show, just for a moment). For a more thorough look at just how the wedding cake became what it is today, I recommend checking out Wedding Cakes and Cultural History by Simon R. Charsley. It’s a bit of an academic read, but so deliciously thorough.

Some couples take wedding cake smooshing for granted, and what’s worse, take it for granted that their better halves share their opinions on wedding cake smashing. A little icing up your nose won’t hurt anyone, of course, but it sure can do a number on the bride’s makeup job, indelibly dye a white wedding dress, or cause the groom to lose the security deposit on his rental. Every tried to get icing out of an updo?

And even though some brides and grooms don’t care about their clothes of makeup or hair, those same people may simply not want a handful of wedding cake smashed into their faces. Not at a wedding, not ever.

Look like fun? Maybe, maybe not. If they’re both into it, then dandy. I went looking for opinions about wedding cake smashing on message boards and elsewhere, and reactions to it ran the gamut from childish to hilarious. One reaction I found compared wedding cake smooshing to a slap in the face! I wouldn’t go that far, but I will admit that I asked The Beard NOT to smash and did not smash cake on his face. My stylist was in attendance, and I think he would have felt compelled to redo my makeup. Plus, getting dirty just isn’t my thing.

So personally, I won’t advocate for or against wedding cake smashing, but I will recommend that all brides and grooms – even those who consider themselves very easygoing – bring up the subject in advance of the reception so they and their new spouse will be on the same page when it comes time to cut the cake.

Photo by David Christensen

Omigosh omigosh omigosh, how amazing and inspirational is this travel inspired dessert buffet created bySweets Indeed and featured on the Amy Atlas Events blog? I think it has everything in the whole world that I like, from a casual, almost-but-not-quite rustic design to its incredible whimsy and prettiness. Oh, and sugarsugarsugar*, but that goes without saying.

On the Amy Atlas Events blog, Amy herself shares a few tips and tricks that will help the DIYers out there create an incredible dessert buffet. Speaking as someone who recently discovered that she likes designing the look and feel of events, I’d wager that something like a candy buffet or dessert buffet would be a relatively simple project. Much less stressful than, say, baking a wedding cake or sewing a wedding dress.

*my drug of choice

When I first laid eyes on this amazing wedding cake from The Caketress, I’ll admit that white asparagus was the first thing that came to mind.

But after taking a closer look, I think I’m in love. I’m a huge fan of fondant-covered cakes because it’s such a versatile material to work with and The Beard even likes to eat it (many people don’t), but I think the idea of using rolled white chocolate as a cake covering is so fun and so clever. People will actually eat it! It looks interesting! And you’re definitely not going to see it at every wedding you attend!

So I love it all… this cake, the whole idea of using rolled chocolate this way, dipping things in gold, and, oh, white chocolate. I love that, too. How about you? Where do you fall in the fondant vs. chocolate non-debate?

Not a fan of cake? How’s this for a wedding reception stand-in: Jelly. Or whatever we call it in the U.S…. Jell-O? I’ve always thought of jelly as being stiffer stuff than Jell-O. Leaf gelatin sets more firmly, and apparently Vege-gel jelly sets even firmer (but has a bit of a taste to it). You may be thinking, uh, Jello-O, what now? But hear me out. Jelly wedding cakes are gaining ground and might just be the next big wedding cake alternative.

Brides and grooms have to do it right, though. Chemical cherry? No, thanks. Think upscale – champagne, lychee, and less common fruits make elegant flavor starting points. And while you can have a stiff set jelly wedding cake that looks a lot more like a traditional wedding cake than you might expect, the fun of something like this is breaking out of the mold. You can have individual jellies presented on cupcake stands (like the one above from Bompas and Parr), jelly parfaits, amazing jelly squares with thin layers in different colors and flavors, or a molded jelly shaped to look like almost anything. Get creative, and have fun. As long as you *like* jelly, that is.

Cheesecake? No, cheese cakes. As in big old wedding cakes made of cheese and nothing but cheese. And not just any cheese, but really fancy cheese that yours truly thinks tastes a lot like a dismembered toe that’s been left in the sun too long. But I understand that the world is full of cheese enthusiasts or else why would there be roughly 10000000 varieties of cheese? Anyway, we’ve mentioned cheese wedding cakes here before, but I don’t recall that we’ve ever shown you any and I happened to run across these lovely specimens from The Cheese Shed.

While I’ve read here and there that wedding cheese cakes are a growing trend or trendy or a trend on its way out, nearly all of the shops specializing in them that I’ve found have been in the UK and I don’t know anyone (nor have I heard of anyone through acquaintances) who’s had one. That said, if the idea appeals, I can’t see that it would be too hard to DIY provided you live near a nice cheese shop and are just a bit handy when it comes to decorating things.

(more…)