Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Let Them Eat Cake--Unless It Is Crappy Cake

Let Them Eat Cake--Unless It Is Crappy Cake

So I hate cake. Like I really dont like anything sweet except things like Pop Tarts or short bread cookies but most of the time I cannot do sugar for longer than a bite. It's a problem when you are planning a wedding because your supposed to have cake--for the guests, for the ceremony--its part of the package.

Still-- its a lot of money to spend when you're not really going to enjoy it. So I started to look for other ideas that I could live with but would still allow for those special moments. I fell in with this

It's a King cake--a traditional Madri Gras food and something I thought would be humorous for the day given the name and it being a gay wedding. Johnno didnt really care about this detail of the wedding too much so I was off and running. But since it is a season thing I was worried as to how we would find one--would we have to order one from New Orleans or could we find a local bakery in Seattle to make this happen? Thankfully our wedding planner was on the case.

She was able to find a local bakery to buy a sample from and we had it shipped down to us after the holiday. Now I usually only have a small slice once a year so the taste is familar but not super common so I wasnt sure if I would remember what I liked about it. And even though the cake is covered with icing it was also a bread with praline in the center so it wasnt full sugar top to bottom so it could work

And then the sample cake arrived.

I'm going to be nice and not post a picture of what we recieved--I'm sure it had been properly decorated and just had elements of it shift during the mailing. Johnno and I were both eager as we opened the box but what we recieved didnt look anything like a normal King cake. Imagine a loaf of coffee cake with some type of clear glittery glaze over it--nothing like even part of the above picture.

And the taste was just as disappointing.

Now I dont have King cake all the time but even I can tell when something was wrong with it. Dry, boring with way too much sweetness rolled on top. I almost cried as we ate it because of how bad it was--and Johnno did his best to solider on. But we both knew that it wasnt what we needed or wanted for our special day. And to try and send off for a sample of a proper cake sent from New Orleans was too expensive to consider.

So now we're at a loss.

We have to figure out how to move on beyond cake and to something new that could work just as well. Something that we both would like, that the guests would enjoy and be easy to make special for our day. I'm really getting open to suggestions.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Possible cake alternatives:
Croquembouche
Fruit tart paired with a fruit topping on ice cream or yogurt bar
Breakfast sweets
Cupcakes (not *really* an alt., I guess)
Cookies and/or pastries
Candy bar
Pies - displayed in a variety of flavors and sizes, it's neat looking
Macaroons (co fun and colorful)
Doughnuts (seen this done- it's super cute)
General dessert bar
Festival/Carnival theme - funnel cake, cotton candy, popcorn