Miss 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.
Let Them Eat (Good) Cake
May 7th, 2008 @ 3:51 pm by Miss Milkshake
I have to admit, my driving motivation in wanting to be a “bee” was to score all your opinions on any unconventional ideas I could dream up. Surprisingly, the handful of things I’d wanted opinions on, I haven’t posted about yet! So hopefully you guys can help me out on the cake front. 
Even for the plainest of the plain cakes I had wanted - with impeccable fondant and without the painstakingly handmade edible flower, it would run me $7+ per slice… and we all know that fondant tastes terrible. After I got over the diy idea, I entertained the idea of having a fake tiered cake, and then serving much tastier sheet cake, at less than $2 per slice. Ever-an-anti-buttercream-person, I found I could get a whip cream filled cake (although custard was also an option, but I don’t know if I’m game for that).
But then when I thought about it, for an extra $1 a slice I could get the most amazing mango cake, made with those Phillipine atafulo mangoes (which should be considered an entirely different fruit than the run of the mill Mexican mangoes). It is the tastiest cake in the world, however, my only concern is that it is the birthday cake of choice for everyone’s summer birthdays on his side of the family (that’s me cutting my fab cake at my 21st birthday). So in a way it screams Chinese birthday cake, and while most Chinese birthday cakes are fabulous (I think it’s all in the real whip cream), a mango cake isn’t necessarily your run of the mill Chinese birthday cake I guess….
If they covered the whole cake in whip cream, so I just had a nice white cake on a retro milk glass cake stand…. maybe that would make it less birthday-y?
Another option, for just pennies more than the regular sheet cake would be tiramisu! What are your thoughts on untraditional wedding cakes? Did you/will you have one, or have you been to a wedding with one?
41 Responses to “Let Them Eat (Good) Cake”
I say go for the Mango cake! It looks divine- the only problem I could foresee would be that everyone would want to eat MORE of it 
Good cake is worth it- I’m still dreaming of the cake my sister served at her wedding.
My all time favorite cake that I’ve enjoyed as a guest was a beautiful ice cream cake. They had a small regular cake that they cut and fed to each other - and to take home for their 1 year anniv. But for the guests, we were treated with a three tiered ice cream cake. Absolutely fabuloso!
On another note, my girlfriend had NY cheese cake as her wedding cake. Also a memorable cake.
I say go for it! We are probably doing a cake/dessert buffé. In that way everyone can have just their favourite cake/dessert + we have a lot of guests with different food allergies that we have to take into consideration… Hopefully everyone will be happy with our buffé.
Yum! Go for the mango cake!!
I’m serving pies at my wedding. Go for the alternative!
I love the idea of a Tiramisu “cake.” You could have it made into a few pretty tiers for cutting but then have big dishes of it ready to go in the back. I’m personally not the biggest cake fan in the world (weird, i know), and I think tiramisu would be a fun twist. My fiance demanded cupcakes and we are having a local lady make them for …… 50 cents each! I’m doing a few other desserts with our caterer and then some big old pies. I want it to look like a fancy bake sale. Another idea is if your reception is at the victorian mansion then you could just have one small pretty, gorgeous cake for you guys to cut, but then get a bunch of small pastries and candy like a victorian tea time kind of thing.
I wanted a chocolate cake, but feared that not enough people would like it. We went with a more crowd pleasing brandy-flavored cake.
I’m personally not a mango fan, but if you think most of your guests are, I say go for it! It would definitely be memorable!!
And I just have to ask- where does one get a cake like that? Its LOVELY!
The FI and I are doing a traditional crouquembouche (spelling?) to honor my (soon to be “our”) family that are flying over from france. It looks super beautiful and the faces that my friends make when I describe a tower of cream puffs covered in a sugar “cage” are absolutely priceless! We’re not even really cutting it; instead we’re lopping off the top cream puff with my dad’s mexican saber which has been in the family forever. Traditions are meant to evolve, maybe your grandchildren will one day cut into a mango cake on their wedding day because that’s “how it’s always been done”! You never know!
We are going to do the traditional cake cutting for pictures, but our tower will be made of cream puffs…very off the wedding path, but I’m really love cream puffs! =)
It screams birthday cake because birthdays are a time for traditional cake and everyone in your family loves it. That pretty much guarantees it will be a hit. And, along with birthdays, weddings are another traditional time for cake. I don’t think it will be out of place at all.
I love the idea of a non-traditional wedding cake! Go for it!
My sister served three great cheesecakes at different levels and sizes at her wedding and I loved it.
I would have preferred to just serve pies at my summer brunch wedding, but the FI is more of a traditionalist that me, so we compromised: A simple, two tier, 50 slice butter cream cake for cutting (lemon cake, raspberry filling, and buttercream icing). And 5 pies (apple, strawberry rhubarb, lemon merangue, and blueberry, and peach). Mini fruit tarts and eclairs come with our brunch, so our guests shouldn’t be lacking in sugar at all. We’re only expecting around 75, so this should cover everyone along with some people who want to try both and it fits our microscopic buget (cake= $180, pies= $15 total, because the apple and strawberry rhubarb are his mom’s award winning home made ones). I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!
I don’t know if you’re in Vancouver or Seattle but Vancouver has a great chinatown and chinese bakeries offer great wedding cakes…same style as the mango…without the mango…”traditional” wedding cake…fruit whipped cream and all…for about $200 at around $1.50 or less per slice…and you could even make a deal!
Same goes in Toronto’s chinatown all the way at the other side of the country! Def. something to look into.
I say go for the mango cake too! I think guests like it when they see something different at weddings (especially if it’s tasty!)
On another note, I’m asian too and prefer the whipped frosting on the cakes from the chinese bakery. I also love cake, but find most wedding cakes too sugary and dry. Well, a girl I knew in high school started baking cakes (she was on the cover of Seattle Metropolitan Bride and Groom a few months ago)…and she totally won me over with her cake.
If you want to try a local baker in Seattle…by the Olympic Sculpture Park…check out her website to set up a tasting (since you do such great vendor reviews and are also in Seattle). She has done cakes for a wedding in Canada too. Her website is http://www.cake-envy.com…not very impressive website, but she’s just starting out and her cake is DELISH…we chose the grean tea cake (I was skeptical, but it’s tasty and a striking green color) and the black chocolate cake (so moist…so good!)
I have no place in my life for fondant. Whip cream + cake = the best! I’m going the fake cake route so that I can have the look and the taste that I want.
oops…it is http://www.cake-envy.com
A friend of mine who got married in Vancouver had a mango filled cake. The cake was so delicious that I wanted more. If I had the option, I would go with the mango cake.
You could always do multiple cakes - some mango, some tiramisu, some more traditional flavors. That’s what my FI and I are doing - a “cake table” with several different, beautiful cakes to choose from. I just love cake too much to pick just one on our wedding day!
P.S. I don’t know if your background is chinese but like my FI because he is chinese he forgets that not all of our guests are… so he doesn’t realize that what he considers “normal” or “not wedding like” at a chinese restaurant or bakery would be totally amazing and a delicious experience (especially bakery goods) for everyone else!
It’s your day girl, and it sounds like you already know guests will like it! Yummy!
Yum Mango cake. Hmm, another option!
I want pie. FI wants cheesecake. I think we might have them both!
Tiramisu….mmmm…. Now I just wish FI didn’t want a “traditional” wedding cake, because I would so be getting tiramisu now that you’ve given me the idea.
@Monica: We’re doing a croquembouche too! It was the first and easiest decisions we made.
Choose whatever dessert you want! I saw a photo somewhere of a “cake” that was set up on a tiered cake stand. The top was a top tier to a traditional wedding cake (ie, round with fondant and little bride/groom), but the lower levels were something else. I think it was cupcakes, but you could do mango cakes.
fondant should be banned… it looks lovely, but tastes so terrible! as someone who has had pastry training, i’m more than a bit picky about cake. you should definitely go with what you like. the mango cake sounds delish!
we thought we were going to do a cake table, but it’s looking like a two-tier after all with different flavors. we’ve still got two tastings to go though, so you never know. our caterer offers a mission fig tart with marscapone and honey lavender that is incredibly tempting as part of a dessert buffet. such choices!
good luck and let us know how it goes!
The mango cake and tiramisu cake both sound delicious!
Be different- Go with the mango! It looks delish!
This part of the wedding is actually one part that I knew from the beginning I would not be doing in the traditional way. I’m not hiring a baker at all, but instead having my relatives make all of my favorite family desserts. My mom is making our “wedding cake”, which is my all time fave creation of devil’s food cake with layers of homemade whipped creme filling. My aunts, FMIL, and my sister are making the rest- Coconut cake, Rum Cake, chocolate covered peanut butter balls (I’m a choc/pb addict), mini chess and chocolate chess pies….and more but I can’t go on because it’s making me hungry!
Mmmm, I love mangoes! Go mango!
If we have cake (I’m currently a cupcake aficionado), it’ll definitely be something unique and fun. My guy loves confetti cake, so maybe we’ll find a reasonable (fancier) facimile!
TIRAMISU! It is unexpected, delicious, and who doesn’t love a good tiramisu?!? Oh and by the way, I am using for the biggest tier of my wedding cake, possibly even 2 tiers.
oh man, Philippine mangoes! I crave them so much… totally different than any other mangoes. mmm!
I hate fondant so I had a Chinese birthday-style wedding cake for my wedding. Of course it was in wedding cake form. It was SO good. Guests talked about the cake for a month afterwards. It’s not too sweet (strawberries and whipped cream) and very light. Another plus, it was CHEAP!
I like untraditional cakes, but apparently he does not. He wants something fancy to sit as the focal point in the middle of hte reception. So that is what we will do.
I must say I love the idea of a mango cake. Much better then your normal wedding cake. It’ll be different, and taste way better.
Also if it’s something that you like a lot and eat often (b’days etc) then it’s a representation of you and really deserves a place in your wedding
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its a gorgeous cake…let your guests eat boring wedding cake at other people’s weddings!
bring on the mangos!
My MOH is making my cake! She has professional culinary training and makes the best food I’ve ever tasted, so I can’t wait. I’m glad she’ll be making something that looks beautiful but like a person made it—the uber-fancy wedding cakes look too perfect to me. I can’t wait to design it with her.
I agree with the ladies who have been saying to go for what you want. Personally, we’re having a little cake for cutting (with buttercream icing because I love it…no fondant thank you very much) and then fruit tarts and, yes, tiramisu (FH’s favorite dessert!) for people to also choose from…
Definitely taste should be the priority over anything else, in my opinion.
Where is that mango cake from? It looks awesome! Deliciousness!
this mango cake is from Michele’s Bakery in the Kerrisdale area of Vancouver
yay for “untraditional” wedding cakes!
My ongoing cake debate has been whether to have regular sized cakes at each table, instead of some sort of monumental cake… And I’m trying to talk my sister into cheesecake for hers, because she’s a total cheesecake addict–yum!
