Wedding Blog
Will someone please make 325 mini cardamom cakes for us to use as wedding favors? Even mini bundt cakes like these on Style Me Pretty would do.
I think people might think I’m crazy for taking on this project. Good thing my mom and future mom have graciously volunteered to put their ovens to use and help me with my baking extravaganza!
Let’s do some calculations shall we? 325 cakes divided by six cakes per pan = ~55 pans. Since we can fit two pans per oven at a time, that is ~27 batches. With three ovens, we each have to make 9 batches of cakes. That actually doesn’t seem too bad, if you ask me. Hopefully the moms will agree!
As far as packaging goes, I would love to buy some clear boxes so the lovely little cakes can be on display at each place setting. I’m not sure exactly what size box I’ll need just yet, but they’ll probably be around 3×3x3 in size. Clear boxes at Uline are $93 for 200, so I would need 2 boxes, which would cost $186. This seems a bit pricey to me.
A more affordable option would be these pinstripe kraft boxes, which are $14 per 100. Buying 400 of these would only cost me $56. That sounds much more reasonable, don’t you think? We can add a pretty ribbon and a little thank you tag, and everyone would have a little surprise waiting for them at their seat! Add a name to each card, and we’ve got our seating cards.
This has been a very productive little brainstorming session, now hasn’t it?
Are you considering fresh food favors? How are you working things out to assure freshness on your wedding day?
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oooooo I love cardamom! My Swedish grandma makes a braided cardamom bread, is that similar to your cakes?
How close to the wedding are you going to make these? This would be such a fun treat especially with a little carton of milk!
What a cute idea. Love it! The photo actually sorta reminded me of a glazed French cruller donut (mini). The cake idea is obviously more classy, but maybe someone who doesn’t have baking elves might be able to use crullers instead! 
Love that idea! WE almost did mini-pies for our dessert (an old family recipe from a friend that loves me enough to share) but couldn’t deal. But we are doing small jars of local honey from a friend who makes their own–should be a fun project (and MESSY!) but I love the local angle, what can I say??
But now I want your mini-cakes1
I would love to do a fresh food favor- it’s such a cute idea! Sadly though, a derstination wedding doesn’t really allow for something like that.
I’m using that type of box for my homemade favors! I plan on maybe adding a stamp to the top, as well as raffia or ribbon and a recycled tag.
I would love to also do a fresh favor. Like Lillidy I was wondering how early are you having to make these? And how time consuming is it to make these? I really would love to do something like this.
Miss Mascara, this is a very cute idea! I’m sure you’ve already thought of this but most favor boxes are not food safe and probably are not lined with a wax coating, so you may have to put your little cakes in a cello bag or other type of wrapping, otherwise your boxes will start to show grease marks from the cakes. Especially if the temperatures are warm on your wedding day. Just a thought!
I think it’s a great idea but melanie had a great point about the oils seeping into your box. But jeez a mini cardamom bundt cake as a wedding favor is awesome!!! Can you put up the recipe so I can make them to eat? I am having madelines in cello bags with a tag as a favor, but I am buying them I don’t have anyone to make them for me and I am soo not going to do it!!
Oooo, are you going to use a yummy-looking glaze on them, too?
I love this idea! Good luck with the baking!
We are having a “cookie buffet” as favors for our guests.
I’ve asked a few family members to bake their favorite recipes for us. Luckily everyone is really excited about this!
My mother and I will be making most of them a few days before the wedding! Really looking forward to it!
We made 400 buckeyes and 400 bourbon balls for our wedding favors to reflect where we grew up in Ohio and Kentucky - it was a huge undertaking but we continue to receive compliments four months later! We topped off the black boxes with red paper poppies and black satin ribbons, adding to the workload, but the idea of homemade favors just adds a special touch! Good luck!
We are doing cake balls (cake mixed with icing, rolled into balls and dipped into chocolate) as our favors. A cousin of mine makes them and she is making them as our favors. We are putting them in Chinese takeout boxes with a label on top.
I would be SOOOOO impressed as a guest at your wedding! Fresh cakes for everyone?? You’re the next Martha Stewart!!
what a great idea. i agree with pp about the food safe-ness of the boxes. you can try nashvillewraps.com or mr take out bags to start. or finding wax paper/cake rounds. also, you should be able to guestimate the measurements by measuring the opening of the pan and the height when you flip it over.
good luck!
I would LOVE to be a guest at your wedding and scarf that delectable cake down after a night of dancing… and drinking. Ha!
The small bundt cakes are great. I am actually making the same things or should say I am helping my mother. Target has some really great pans and they come in different shapes. http://www.target.com/Nordic-Ware-Garland-Bundt-Pan/dp/B0001XRPIQ/sr=1-5/qid=1237209138/ref=sr_1_5/179-7091531-5120161?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&rh=k%3Acake-pan-mini&page=1
Personally (as someone who’s planning to bake all of the cupcakes for her own wedding), I think it’s a wonderful idea!
Have you looked at papermart for boxes? I don’t know if these are tall enough, but they are definitely cheaper http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=16687&SubGroupID=16688&ParentGroupID=18997#16688
Or these, which are round (like the bundts!), cheap, and a little bigger than the last (but they do have a gold circle on the bottom). http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=16650&SubGroupID=16651&ParentGroupID=18997#16651
What a heartful and beautiful way to thank your guests!
And if it also serves as seating cards - more the merrier to you!
Good luck and let us know how it all turns out!
We served a ton of sweets at our wedding (we got married on “the sweetest day) so we made about 20 pounds of sugared spice pecans, 25 full-size bundt apple wedding cakes, 60 loaves of various sweet breads and 2000 fresh-made cookies. The time breakdown depended on what could be frozen and what needed to be fresh. The cakes and breads are easily frozen ahead of time without affecting the freshness, flavor or texture (in fact allowing them some time to “mature” made the flavor even better!). My best advice for the cakes would be to make them ahead of time (approximately a month in advance), freeze them on large cookie sheets (out of the bundt molds) and then place them into large airtight ziplocks and store them frozen in this until you need them. We took all the breads and cakes out of the freezer the day before the wedding and everything was perfect the day-of. The cakes were frozen individually in large ziplocks and the breads were wrapped in saran wrap then foil. The cookies and pecans were made the weekend prior to the wedding. We made the cookie dough a few months in advance and then my mom, sisters, fiance and MOH formed an assembly line with me and we baked all the cookies in about 4-5 hours. The sugared pecans I made on my own. It can be a bit tough making it really close to the wedding day if you have a lot of other preparations and its very stressful finding yourself down to the wire in terms of time and you’ve got 150 finished and another 150+ to go…
Ahha! Here are boxes that look like the same ones that uline had, but at only $16.13/50 boxes. That way, they are cheaper per piece AND you can order just as many as you need (in multiples of 50, instead of 200).
http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=16493&SubGroupID=16494#16494
Mmmm those look so tasty! I would love to get one of those at a wedding Great idea!
@Cole B: I think cardamom cakes are similar. I made a cake for one of my BM’s that is Swedish, and she said it tastes just like that bread!
@Lillindy: I think we’re going to make them about a month before and freeze them. We are going to bake some soon and do a test run to make sure they still taste okay after freezing, but I don’t think it will be a problem.
@Melanie: Good call on the grease marks. You actually reminded me to buy some food safe liners, thanks!
@Firefighter_Prazs_Girl: It probably takes about an hour or so per batch (plus baking time) to make these. Spread over a week or two, it should be doable!@Vic004: I would love to share the recipe with you but unfortunately my mom would kill me if I gave it out 
You can find similar ones from Williams Sonoma.
@elizabeth: Thanks for the links! I wish I would’ve seen your comments before I ordered them from Uline! But I think I’m starting to like the kraft boxes more.
This is exactly what I’m doing, except using my grandma’s key lime bundt cake recipe. Perfect for our Florida beachside wedding! :o)
If you haven’t yet purchased the baking pans, be sure to check the dimensions of the individual cakes. It took me a while to find ones that would fit in the 3″ cube boxes. After hitting the bakeware aisle at four major stores, I ended up finding 2.75″ diameter cake pans on Amazon.
We’re still deliberating on packaging. I’m leaning toward the eco-friendly kraft boxes, but am still entertaining this idea from Martha. http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/photogallery/boxed-favors?lnc=cf8c139b22b1d110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=lpg_favors-and-gifts&lpgStart=1¤tslide=10¤tChapter=1#ms-global-breadcrumbs
As craftypants just kind of mentioned, I was going to ask if you’re going to be providing some kind of recycling at your reception. Is it possible? 325 cardboard boxes that won’t be kept/used and will be trashed just seems like a staggering waste.
I think the idea is totally cute! I don’t mean to bash it (though it probably sounds like I am)! It’s just a lot of waste for 3 seconds of looking nice and it’d be great if you could figure out a way to achieve both
These look so yummy! We baked ( er… mostly my mom) fresh chocolate chip cookies for our favors
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Mrs. Mascara, Chicago/Upper Michigan
Age and Occupation: 25, Biomedical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Process Engineer
Engagement Date: July 27, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Catholic ceremony, reception at local armory
About Me: A lover of Mr. Mascara, crafting, baking, Gossip Girl, diet soda, and all things wedding. A Yooper girl somehow displaced in the Chicago suburbs, planning a wedding from a distance, and counting down the days until I marry my best friend.
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