Cake!
December 17th, 2007 @ 1:14 pm by Mrs. Milkshake
I’ve always assumed some Asian bakehouse would create a lovely cake for my wedding…ie Anna’s Cake House in East Van, Michelle’s Bakery in Kerrisdale, or Goldilocks on Broadway. I’m sure they all make contemporary, Martha-worthy cakes, but everything on their websites looks like it’s from the 1980’s. And Bon Ton’s window display cakes in Kitsilano have a layer of dust on them like they truly are from the 1980’s.
Anna’s Cake House gave some helpful dimension information though:
“Have the tiers step up in constant increments (ie: 6 - 9 -12 where each tier widens by 3 inches or 8 - 11 - 14, NOT 6 - 8 -16 unless that is the look you are trying to achieve)”
Enter: Cupcakes (and my BM’s new kicks). Although I prefer “muffins” made from Betty Crocker cake mix topped with real whipped cream, and buttercream is terribly-sickly-sweet, Cupcakes does cupcakes and cakes.
I think they mentioned their wedding cakes start at $8 per slice….which, even if it has fondant I’m sure is the plainest cake with a few strips of grosgrain ribbon. So 8 x 100 = $800.
But, they also have “regular” buttercream cakes which are actually quite cute… and affordable (see pricing, below)!!
Okay, so following Anna’s dimensions rule - if i did 7, 11, 13″ cakes and tiered them myself, it would run $185 and feed about 112 people with 2″ slices (although their wedding cake looks to break the even increment rule with a four incher on top). And I realize tiering these cakes could be disastrous, so even buying three vintage milk glass cake stands and having three 11″ cakes would still make Martha proud.
Look how pretty their cakes can be in this price range - they had a mini fridge in the store that had a few of these very same cakes and they really were true to these prices. Now I imagine there are equally talented cake makers out there that don’t have the overhead of a store located on both Denman and Broadway.
My MOH is an excellent chef in her spare time, and perhaps has become even more accomplished since recently becoming vegan (anyone that can improvise with limited and unconventional ingredients and pull off anything tasty has my respect). I can vouch that her vegan baking could pass for the real, butter-laden/cream-laden thing, and she intends to make her own wedding cake. I thought it was too much to expect her to a) make me a cake on top of her MOH duties and to b) deal with dozens of eggs and cups and cups of dairy.
I’m undecided about the cake thing, but we’re considering making some really perfect fondant for a styrofoam cake that has one “real” layer on top to ceremoniously cut into, and having some inexpensive sheet cake to serve the guests.
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7 Responses to “Cake!”
Actually, no, this is the scariest part of the Anna’s site.
mmm…I heart Cupcakes…I love the sweetness of buttercream…yum-o!
sarah: LOL! ew! what’s with all the egg talk? - fishing a raw egg around his pants? he’d better be lying on the ground or something because otherwise it’d just drop right to the ground. and…raw eggs in the mouth…can we say salmonella?
We did a cake buffet, with about 10 different cakes from a local bakery, and people LOVED it. It cost us about $600 for 200 servings in NYC!
Oh please, please don’t order a cake from Cupcakes. At least, not without tasting it first. I made the very embarrassing mistake of ordering a cake from them for a coworker’s birthday lunch at work, and most people only ate a bite or two out of politeness. They are sickly sweet and the cake itself is really dry and fairly flavourless. One of the worst cakes I’ve ever had, and honestly I think even their regular cakes are overpriced. You can get a tastier cake for half the price at a grocery store. I hope at least you don’t order from them without tasting first to see if you agree with me!
Incidentally, I went to Cupcakes for my consultation recently and found the cupcakes to be way too sweet for my taste. Also, we weren’t allowed to pick which cupcakes we wanted to try, which was a bit disappointing!
For the price, I think there must be better options out there…although I am still looking. 
Mrs. Milkshake, Seattle/Vancouver, BC
Age and Occupation: 23, Pharmacist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Pharmacist
Engagement Date: May 2007
Wedding Date: August 2008
Blogging Since: December 6, 2007
Venue: Victorian Mansion
About Me: Despite the fact that I’ve invested many long years of my life studying the sciences in college, I’m glad to be out of there and I would never do it again! I’m super artsy at heart - I run an indie craft site, I grew up shooting and developing my own film, doing jazz and ballet, and the whole gamut of art classes. I’ve been called a Jane of all Trades… but I was also told many years ago not to make my passion my career because it’d suck the fun out of it. Hence my choice of day job. We live in Seattle but are having our wedding in Canada to be fair to all our family and friends.
Wow, I didn’t think I could go through an entire site of wedding cakes and not like any of them, but Goldilocks managed to have no desirable cakes for me. And my favorite part of the Anna’s website is the “site last updated June 24, 2006″ note.
We were lucky to get exactly what we wanted, for cheap, from the woman who does all the family birthday cakes. Otherwise, yeah, the sheet cakes in the back room idea looks really attractive.