Our Cake Buffet

Next on my list to post about is cutting our cakes…but how can I do that without paying tribute to the cake buffet first?!? I can’t, I tell you, I just can’t do it!

Making the decision to have a cake buffet instead of just one cake with two or three flavors was like doing simple addition in my head. You know the kind – like knowing that 2 + 2 = 4…those little math problems that you don’t really even have to think about to get the answer (not the ones that require use of fingers and possibly toes to get there!). I thought to myself about what my favorite cake flavor might be, and what kind of cake that B would like best…and I have to admit that the list was long…really long.

Not that B was contributing much to the list…his favorite cake is hands down Red Velvet. And the only other request that he had made was to include German Chocolate cake for his Dad. My side of the list? Not NEARLY that short! I immediately (without pausing to consider if my fingers were ready for counting) had strawberry, Italian Cream, white with raspberry filling, chocolate, Red Velvet and Carrot. (Yes, Mom, that’s a new one that I’ve developed over the past few years.)

So you see how the math led to the cake buffet, right? Right. Plus, at the time I was reading a lot on weddingbee.com and there were SO many other brides providing me with LOTS of inspiration on the cake buffet front…so it was a done deal. B didn’t even argue on this one!

Just to make it a little more special, I decided that I would have all the moms in our lives bring their favorite cake plate to serve one of the cakes on. Since we were having more than just three cakes (that’s the number of Moms that we have between us) I also extended the invitation to my Maids to have them also bring a cake plate that was special to them. MOH at some point suggested asking those bringing cake plates to also bring serving sets if they had them, which was a BRILLIANT thought and just goes to show that my thought processes stopped at the cakes!

I bought a length of black velvet on sale at a fabric shop off of Harry Hines Blvd in Dallas – favorite fabric shopping place of all time! – and the table was given some height by standard cinder blocks from Lowe’s/Home Depot. We had planned on taking these back after using them – don’t hate on me for being frugal! – but I think that we’ve actually still got them. For what, I don’t know…but they’re in the garage, and that’s B’s domain.

So here’s a shot of the set-up… And another shot at night, since I think that it shows up a little better… And just to showcase our baker, Michelle with The Sweet Stuff out of Kyle, TX here are some close-ups of the individual cakes.

More of a traditional wedding cake style…I think that this one was Strawberry… A newer design of just swirls that sort of mimicked our invites and other paper goods…this one might have been Italian Cream Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting... A standard German Chocolate cake… This one was a Chocolate cake with Raspberry filling and chocolate icing with Chocolate Ganache on top…I’m not swearing that I know what Ganache is…but it was yummy! This is one that B saw in her book of cakes when we went in for our tasting and he HAD to have it! And just to remind you about one of my little projects…here are the tent cards that I made for the cakes telling our guest the cake falvor and frosting information… And now, the crown jewel…the most beautiful of all of our cakes…our two-tier wedding cake… It was Red Velvet with Cream Cheese icing and Michelle took our exact scroll that was on all of our paper goods and copied it onto our cake. Not only that, but she also copied the monogram that I had designed, which was SO cool to me.

I had originally wanted to do a cake topper out of the monogram but ran out of time figuring out who to do it, where to get it and how much would it cost. This was free, included in the cost of the cakes, so killing two birds with one stone was worth the price of my sanity by that point!

All in all, I was thrilled with the work that Michelle did on our cakes. We were able to pick up the cakes the day before the wedding and store them onsite in our Reception Hall refrigerators and just placed them on the cake stands the afternoon of the wedding, allowing them to warm up a bit before cutting and eating. Michelle was easy to work with, had great prices and I’ve used her for two birthday cakes since having our wedding…you know that has to speak volumes for what I think about her cakes! If you're having your wedding at Texas Old Town, or anywhere South of Austin...I would highly recommend using Michelle for your cakes. Here's a link to her site.

Another tip for future brides doing cake buffets…have extra cake stands. One of the moms only had one cake stand, but one or two of them brought two (or even three) stands. Since we ordered multiple cakes in same flavors, it was nice to be able to “stage” the cakes in the kitchen on their stands ahead of time. That way, when the German Chocolate cake was all gone out front, someone just had to run to the kitchen and grab the next one without having to worry with swapping cake stands. Just a thought for you!

Now that we’ve all admired our cake buffet…and our tummies are growling…let’s get on to the meat of cutting cakes. Did we smash cake in each other’s faces??? You’ll have to hang in there to find out!

**All photos courtesy of Christina Carroll Photography

Need to catch up? Here’s some links:
Girls’ Spa Day
Bachelor/Bachelorette Party
Setting Up the Venue…
Practice Makes Perfect…
Rehearsal Dinner
5 Minutes is All that I Need
A “Quick” Stop at the Hair Salon
A Sneak Peek at the Venue...
Arriving at the Venue...to Stay!
Getting Dressed
The Maids Pose for the Camera...
Oops - I’m Out of Order!
The Boys Smile and Say “Cheese!”
It’s Show Time!
Here Comes the Bride!
Becoming Man and Wife...
We’re Man and Wife!
Family Pictures
Now THAT’S Love!
The “Group” Says Cheese!
Now It’s Just Us...
It’s the Smallest Things...
Here Comes the Bride! And Groom!
Raise Your Glasses...