Let me begin by saying I LOVE to bake. My peanut butter frosted brownies, peppermint buttercream and ganache chocolate cakes are the baked goods of legend. So naturally, I always fantasized about wedding cakes. What larger, more bad-ass cake is there than your wedding cake!? Not to mention I used to live down the street from Charm City Cakes, made famous by Ace of Cakes. Let me just tell you, there are few things worse than having a few beers at Dizzy Izzies across the street and coming out to see the masterful confections through the windows. If you check out CCC’s prices, you’ll quickly see there is no way we could ever afford one of those cakes. EVER. Plus it turns out we’re not wild about fondant.
Who wants a Hogwarts cake–I do!
We met with a couple of fantastic bakers in Baltimore and in Columbia. The cakes don’t seem that expensive, but it’s still money to be saved. In my mind though, anywhere we can save money is fantastic, so my mind began to wander.
(except 3 layers, with only the scroll from the invitations on the corners, and orchids on the top)
What about cupcakes? Are cupcakes less expensive than cake? Mr. D’orsay loves cupcakes, but I’ve never been a huge fan of baked edges, so cupcakes don’t usually wow me. I do adore these cupcakes, but ours would probably be the classic whipped buttercream frosting kind.
Or what if I bake several cakes a la Miss Cheese for a sweet cake buffet?
Also, the pro cake (and I imagine the cupcakes) will mimic the scroll theme featured on our invites. My cakes? Not so much. Maybe, emphasis on maybe, I could add a monogram or fresh fruit.
What about a profiterole cake? We LOVE cream puffs and maybe these will cut the costs down a bit?
But these can often look a bit… um… phallic to me…
After I saw Mrs. Bubblegum’s post I won’t be trying to do a tiered cake. I am listening to my mother’s cautioning though, and am probably heading towards the pro cake/cupcakes/cream puff cake.
So my desperate plea to those of you in MD/DC is to tell me your favorite place for cream puffs, as I’m too far away to try any!
What do you think? What kind of cake/dessert are you having and how did you reach your decision?
We’re doing cream puffs instead of a wedding cake. I don’t remember one being in DC, but Beard Papa is great!
Sis Doctor is doing cupcakes for us. She rocks! Cream puffs sound great too, though.
we’re doing cupcakes – i never eat wedding cake because i don’t like filling in my cake (it’s a texture thing). my fiance isn’t a big sweets eater either but he’ll eat cupcakes when i make them. plus i think it’ll be a little more fun and our wedding is going to be more on the casual elegance side anyway so it fits (i can see where cupcakes wouldn’t work for a fancy wedding). plus with cupcakes you can do a ton of different flavors.
although the cost isn’t much cheaper than a cake you can save because you pay by the cupcake and it’ll be so much easier to estimate how many will be eaten… oh and you can avoid the cutting fee at most reception venues too!
Oooh, peppermint buttercream….I’ve never had that and it sounds fantastic! Care to share your recipe?
we had a croquembouche that was beautifully done and not as phallic looking as the picture above. 
call around to the best french bakeries in town and many of them will make one. we saved several hundred dollars by doing this, instead of a traditional wedding cake. it was a hit!
PM me if you want to see pictures!
We are having a wedding cake – but agreed that, while we found most cake places to be about the same, the delivery fees were WILD! $50+ to drive our cake somewhere? We ended up just having our caterer do our cake.
why don’t you make the cakes then have a pro decorate them? I found people willing to do this, since I am on a gluten free diet. The icing is usually GF, but most bakers didn’t want to bake a GF cake, so you can be sneaky about it if they aren’t initially sold. 
That way, you don’t have to worry about both taste & style; you can just pick the one with the best deco. style…
I’m totally making the cakes! A la miss cheese, too!
My sister is going to help me make them! We’re going to make this one – http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/06/pistachio-petit-four-cake/
this one – http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/hazelnut-brown-butter-cake/
I’m going to make a pie (he loves him some pie!), sis is going to make a fluffy almond & lavender cream-frosting SMALL tiered cake (like, bottom layer is 10″), and we might buy our fave cake from a local bakery ( papa haydn http://www.papahaydn.com/) – fleur de sel! mmmm.
Those robot cupcakes are so cute!!!
You are making me hungry describing your cake skills. Yum!
We’re having cupcakes with 1 tier of cake on top. I love all of those fancy cakes, but because of the high cost per slice, we decided to go with cupcakes. Unfortunately, they’re not as cute as those robot cupcakes!!
The cake/ cupcake combo lets us have the cake design we want, yet keeps the cost down.
I am just starting on the cake frontier as I am recently engaged, but I was actually wondering about your mention of peppermint buttercream frosting. Can I get the recipe? Peppermint is my all time favorite!
were doing a dessert buffet with cookies, fruit, petite fours, mouse cups, etc. Hower, I still wanted some sort of cake to cut and put a toper on. So we’re getting three small non wedding cakes from a local bakery. They will all be different but the same size and will be set up on different height cake stand and the middle one will have a topper. Bonus: since they aren’t “wedding cakes”, they are SUPER cheap.
I wish I could recommend a place for cream puffs, but I was in Baltimore earlier this year for a football game and to visit family and my sister and I made my dad drive us by CCC, jtis.
@Miss Taffy: Ditto, those Robot Cupcakes are too cute!
I also LOVE the idea of a cake buffet – FH and I are thinking of doing a tiny two tier cake for cutting as our “wedding cake” and then doing a cake buffet also, I’ve already started collecting cake plates
According to my coworkers, one goes to Vaccaro’s for, and I quote, “fatty fatty pastries.”
How adorable are those robot cupcakes? We ended up going pretty traditional as well… 3 square tiers… I detest fondant too. and OMG you are that close to the Duffster? Jealous!!!
Patisserie Poupon in Baltimore makes a killer croquembouche. (The branch in DC is not good!) I’m a pastry chef (well, aspiring) and I have high standards for baked goods, and Poupon always meets my very high expectations.
Down the road in DC we decided on cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (www.georgetowncupcakes.com). We’re having three flavors – I just spoke to them this morning. The shop recently won the Washington Post contest to see who has the best cupcakes in the Washington area. The only problem is that we’re getting married in Ocean City – three hours away. We’re going to appoint someone to pick them up for us on Friday afternoon and we’ve been assured that they last for about 36 hours – so Saturday night should be fine. Fingers crossed.
Oh – we have about 90 people coming to the wedding and we bugeted about $300 for a cake. The cupcakes come in at $29 a dozen – or $232 for 8 dozen.
My mom used to make cakes semi-professionally and agreed to make one for us. Neither the groom nor I are much on cakes, but I can’t imagine not having a wedding cake. Thus, we are having a smallish one and having other dessert options. We do both enjoy a good cheesecake and are planning to serve various cheesecakes and have a toppings bar.
The robot cupcakes are cute! Have you seen the giant cupcake pan? http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=1&SKU=14969829
Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UK Age and Occupation: 24, nonprofit communications Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shop Engagement Date: August 10, 2008 Wedding Date: August, 2009 Venue: Oakland Manor About Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
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