Cakes and Desserts

To cake or not to cake?  That is the question.

Sounds lame, I know.  But this has been at the forefront of my wedding planning madness lately.  For those of you who may not be in the know or planned a wedding in recent years, the cost of wedding cakes is astronomical to say the least.  Sure, your baker will try and (ironically) sweeten it up for you--saying it's only $2.50-$4.00 a slice.  You think to yourself (for a brief moment)--Ok, well, I'd pay that in a restaurant or as a treat at a bakery.  Not too bad--could be worse.

And then you remember your guest list has 100 people.

Holy crap.

That my friends, suddenly becomes a dessert worth a car payment, a month's worth of groceries (or more), or (in my case) more than my wedding dress.

And remember, that while the pictures will of course, live on--this cake will be around for about seven hours.  If it sucks.  I don't want to think about how much that cake is worth in a dollars-to-minutes ratio.

There I was, freaking out.  I'm not paying that.  I won't.

And then a lightbulb went off--I could bake it myself.

For those of you that might not know, I'm an amateur baker.  Amateur being the key word, I've still been known to put out some impressive baked yummies from time to time.  But in my limited layered-cake experience let me tell you... Those suckers are tough!  I never even considered doing the good old-fashioned all-white three round layers.  Way too easy destroy/burn/drop/annihalate, etc. et. al.  About a zillion scenarios of me crying in my wedding dress--cake covered or no--being to play in my head.  On repeat.

But... cupcakes are in.  They're hot.  Everyone's having them at their wedding--Rebecca Romijn, Carrie Underwood, Donald Trump, the list goes on.  And they're not so bad on a baker.  Sure, I'd have to decorate... 100+ cupcake tops.  But there's little to no chance of it not getting enough rise, sinking, sagging, tipping over, falling over, getting fallen into or jumped through... Literally, I've had nightmares.

But I've also read articles that just suggest that it might not be cheaper in the end, or at least, as cheap as you think.  I set out to at least make an honorable attempt.

On my shelf here, I am now the proud owner of 500 Cupcakes, described as "the only cupcake compendium you'll ever want or need."  Now, that has yet to be determined (I need a solid paycheck before I can rush out and get all the bulk materials I'll need to get a crystal clear idea of how much each cupcake would be worth) but it's a least a good book to leaf-through.  We're talking everything from Vanilla yuzu to Triple Fudge.  It even has a decent muffin section (the owner couldn't decide if he'd offend anyone by excluding the oft-devoured 'breakfast' cupcake).

Before I get started on the test-kitchen phase (much to my roommates and besties eager anticipation).  I want to get some feedback...

What kind of cake do you guys want to eat?

I'm really turned onto the Curry Chocolate recipe, Pistachio, and Pineapple-coconut flavors, and I have half a mind to just throw caution to the wind in favor of these three flava-flavs (oh yeah, I did).  But.. I want to know what you think!

Other close contenders:
Pomegranate Sponge-cake with vanilla sugar topping
Pumpkin cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting
Grand Marnier with Vanilla bean frosting and raspberry filling

Out,
-L

Busy, busy, busy...

As my brilliant, beautiful, and oftentimes hilarious Maid of Honor, Ariel Petersen says--
"THIS IS A WEDDING."

Things are happening!

Since we last spoke we have a venue, a caterer, a menu, a florist, an officiant, bridesmaids dresses, and we're in the process of negotiating with a band.  Holy flying monkeys, Batman--things are really coming together!

I can hardly contain myself these days, fantasizing about inane things like garter colors, thank-you cards, and funny wedding photos.  But I guess the biggest thing about it all is that for every thing I get done... there are still tons more to do, things I haven't thought of, or things I want to DIY (and may not find the time for)...

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it might be time to outsource.

So... diligent (bored) readers... what are your skills?  I want to take inventory and stock of friends who might want to help out, give a nice homemade (and much more intimate) gift, or just show support!

Does anyone know how to sew?
Does anyone want to help me make invitations?
Does anyone that will be coming to the wedding play guitar?
Do you have some strange talent or know-how that you think I could use?

Then you just get back to me! =)


Out,
-L

Regist(e)r -ing, -y, -y Info, the Whole Nine

So the Registry wasn't all the way done...

BEHOLD--

Now it is.

Special thanks to the go-getters that already ordered! Holy crap, are you guys on the ball or what?!

Planning, more planning and... Something unexpected

So at this point in the wedding planning process, we find ourselves saving our pennies for our venue.  Our way over budget but killer venue.  Make no mistake--we can handle it, and really, the Boulevard Brewery in KC is perfect (with lots of extras like tables, chairs, audio/visual equipment that make it worth the extra cash).  But that means a lot of other wedding planning details have to be pushed back until our budget recovers from the temporary strain...

Hence, late at night I find myself thinking of stuff to plan that is--free.  Ceremony planning, color palate brainstorming, research, research, research, and beginning to (manually) price the cost of making cupcakes vs. a cake (which, for some ungodly reason, I've become determined to DIY).

But something magic has happened!

My fabulous Maid-of-Honor, Ariel Petersen heard about a bridal store in Hamilton that was going out of business a couple weeks ago.  Due to her crazy (some might say, truly heroic) school schedule, we were only able to finangle the two-hour round-trip on the last day the store was open.  Gazing over the racks of taffeta and toule, I figured we'd get Ariel in some bridesmaids dresses (just to get a good idea for cuts and styles), look at some super-cheap accessories and I would try on anything that I even remotely liked from their meager wedding dress selection.

Ladies and Gentlemen, hours later--I HAD A WEDDING DRESS.

Not only that, but after struggling between two dresses for almost an hour, breaking for lunch and coming back... I had a very cheap wedding dress.  I certainly didn't plan on buying anything!  But let me tell you--this dress is just like Dennis... "the one"!!!!!  Who's excited?!

More later,
-L