Wedding Blog

Today the bees are sharing their cake costs! Check out all the rest of the bees’ budgets featured in our Real Bee Budget series!

~~~

Mrs. Cookie’s Cake

Cake: Chocolate cake with raspberry preserves, white fondant, and blue royal icing
Cost: $500
Served: 65 (hardly any left over)
Bakery: Blue Moon Bakery
Location: Silverthorne, Colorado
Topper: $5 at Target

“After our initial baker backed-out on us a month before our wedding, I was just happy to have cake at all. But Chief Ben Reil at Blue Moon Bakery stepped in and saved the day. He made us a chocolate cake with raspberry preserves covered in white fondant and decorated with blue royal icing. Unfortunately, with four other weddings that weekend, he couldn’t deliver the cake to our venue. The cake was modified from our original design so that my parents could pick it up and also so it would survive the trek up the mountain on a windy gravel road. The cake toppers were salt and pepper shakers that I found at Target.”

——————————-

Mrs. Cupcake’s Cake

Cake: 3-tiered lemon pound cake with lemon curd, buttercream, and fondant
Cost: $700 (early 2008 pricing)
Served:180 (but in reality, could have served way more as we had a ton left over)
Bakery: Sweet Jazmine’s
Location: Berwyn, PA

“After Momma and Stepdad Cupcake got their wedding cake from Sweet Jazmine’s last February, we knew there was no question that we needed one of their cakes for our wedding, as well. They were very receptive to the fact that I had a design planned out, and they executed it perfectly. It was the most delicious cake I have ever tasted (no, really, it was!). We could have been disappointed that we had so much left over after the staff at the Desmond cut pieces a bit smaller than the bakery had intended for, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain — we had enough cake in our freezer to last us through the first three months of marriage! And, bonus: for our one year anniversary, Sweet Jasmine’s will be gifting us with a small lemon pound cake to enjoy! This is now standard for all of their wedding cake orders, so there’s no need to freeze your top tier after the wedding. Sweet!”

——————————-

Mrs. Tiramisu’s Cake

Cake: 4-tier buttercream
Cost: $800
Served: 200 with plenty left over
Bakery: European Bakery
Location: Falmouth, Maine

“We loved our 4-tier buttercream cake from the European Bakery. It was decorated with blue hydrangeas by our florist. Each layer featured a different flavor:
1. Vanilla cake with a filling of cream cheese frosting mixed with whole fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries
2. Chocolate cake with a filling of chocolate ganache and raspberry preserves
3. Lemon cake with a filling of lemon frosting mixed with whole blueberries
4. Lemon cake with a filling of cream cheese frosting and blueberry preserves (we saved and froze part of this top layer to eat on our anniversary)”

——————————-
Mrs. Flamingo’s Cake

Cake: 3-tier chocolate, marble, and vanilla
Cost: $375
Served:75 (for the sweet table)
Bakery: Les Fantaisie de Sophie
Location: Terrebonne, Qc, Canada

“I wanted a 3-tier, chocolate, marble, and vanilla cake. We got a small cake (75 large portions) to serve at the sweets table, since we already had a dessert included in the main meal. I designed the cake pattern myself and forwarded the design to the baker. She then used her magic to recreate the cake of my dreams. For the cake topper, I did some simple DIY. I used a vintage crystal glass in my stepmother’s cupboard and hung chandelier pieces along the rim of the glass. Then, we placed a candle in the center, and voila, a cake worthy chandelier.”

——————————-

Mrs. Avocado’s Cake

Cakes: Eight round cakes (Bittersweet Hazelnut, Chocolate Raspberry Rhapsody, Chocolate Truffle, Chocolate Velvet Torte , Chocolate White Chocolate, Lemon Coconut, Lemon Blueberry , Strawberry White Chocolate)
Cost: $319
Served: 70, with about two cakes left over
Bakery: Simply Desserts Seattle
Location: Seattle, Washington
Topper: Designed by Susan Lenart Kazmer, and on loan to us for the evening.

“We had to pick them up and deliver them to the hotel ourselves because this bakery doesn’t deliver, but the superb taste was worth the effort.”

——————————-

Mrs. Lemon’s Cake

Cakes: Chocolate with mint cookies, Lemon with lemon curd
Cost: $1300 (included additional sheet cake, orchids, & delivery)
Served: 150
Bakery: Marina Sousa at Just Cake
Location: Capitola, CA

“Just Cake was the only “preferred vendor” that our reception venue offered, and any other cake that was brought in would have required a $4/slice cutting fee. However, once we visited Marina’s shop for our tasting, there was no doubt in our mind that we wouldn’t go with anyone else. She helped us design the cake in person, and it was the showstopper of the reception not only for its looks but its amazing sugary smell.

Our main cake was chocolate with mint cookies and chocolate ganache, and our additional sheet cake was Meyer lemon with lemon curd, lemon mousse and ollaliberries.”

——————————-

Mrs. Cherry Pie’s Cake

Cake: Vanilla-huckleberry cake with buttercream frosting and mini cherry & huckleberry tartlets
Cost: $500 for 100 servings of cake
Served: 90 plus a ridiculous amount of leftovers
Bakery: Polebridge Mercantile
Location: Polebridge, MT

“We were quite limited in our choice of cake vendor. Literally we could ONLY use the Polebridge Mercantile because other bakers in nearby locales (Columbia Falls, Hungry Horse, Kalispell, Whitefish) assured us that a cake baked outside Polebridge would suffer terribly a trip down the narrow, extremely bumpy dirt road that is its only point of access.

We didn’t mind. The Polebridge Mercantile bakery is legendary for its baked goods, and cake is no exception. Their prices were also exceptionally reasonable, with cake less than $3 a slice and 5-inch tartlets slightly more. Our cake was just as delicious as it looked, perhaps even better! The buttercream was fresh and soft and the huckleberries gave the vanilla cake an amazing and unique flavor. I don’t think I’ve ever had wedding cake as good.

While I would have preferred smooth icing, and I could have done without the plastic “columns”, control over cake design was something I was definitely willing to sacrifice to avoid coming off as a “Big City Bridezilla” to our Polebridge people. And looking at the photos, I think it came out beautifully…

In order to incorporate the Mister’s favorite desert (cherry pie!), we also ordered a bunch of 5-inch tartlets from the bakery in both cherry and huckleberry. They were set out on vintage crates on our dessert tables.”

——————————-

Mrs. Eggplant’s Cake

Cake: Layers 1 & 3 were Hazelnut cake with Grand Marnier filling. Layer 2 was mocha cake with hazelnut filling
Cost: $500 for cake, $40 for delivery, $50 to our floral designer to add flowers
Served: Including sheet cake, 140 (but we cut the pieces smaller to feed 185)
Bakery: The Cakery
Location: Burlingame CA

“Originally, I decided to have a chocolate fountain in lieu of a cake. But, as the wedding got closer, I changed my mind and wanted a cake ,too. Since it wasn’t in the budget, Mr. Eggplant said I could only spend $500 for a cake. The Cakery was the only bakery in the area that offered a three-layer cake with fondant work for $500 (and with cake that actually tasted good). At that price point, most other bakeries would only do buttercream work. We purchased less cake than we needed since we already had a chocolate fountain and had the serving staff cut the pieces slightly smaller to accommodate our 185 guests.”

——————————-

Mrs Corn’s Cake

Cake: Chocolate bourbon cake
Cost: $555
Served: 120 plus the top tier for us to take home.
Baker: Jennifer Luxmoore at Sin Desserts
Location: Newport, RI

“Mr Corn only eats Angel Food cake with Fluffy White Frosting (from a box), so I originally planned on making our cake but then figured that would be way too difficult to try and pull off in the days before our wedding. So I started to contact cake vendors in Rhode Island to see if anyone would be willing to make an Angel Food Cake wedding cake. Only one person got back to me and said that although she didn’t have an Angel Food Cake in her wedding cake repertoire, she did have a light sponge cake that she thought would be a good substitute. So off we went cake tasting… and low and behold, Mr I-only-eat-Angel-Food-Cake and I discovered her amazing, AMAZING, chocolate bourbon cake. Pretty much the antithesis of light and airy Angel Food cake!! Our guests LOVED this cake… I still, two years later, get compliments on how great the cake was. And we even took part of it to Italy with us on our honeymoon and it was still great. A year later… it was ok… which is why I totally support getting an anniversary cake rather than saving the whole top for a year :)”

——————————-

Mrs. Deviled Egg’s Cake

Cake: Mostly fake DIY fondant-covered cake. Layers 1, 3 & 4 were Styrofoam and layer 2 was white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. The guests were served sheet cakes (chocolate with chocolate mousse filling, white with cheesecake mousse filling and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and apricot filling.)
Cost: $115. This includes the cost of the Styrofoam tiers, the ingredients & supplies for doing a cake trial prior to the wedding, making the actual display cake for the wedding and the sheet cakes. For a more detailed post on the cost break down, click here.
Served: 165+
Bakery: Deviled Egg and Sister’s Crazy Fake Wedding Cake Making Kitchen and Costco (for the sheet cakes)
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

I jumped on the crazy train when it came to our wedding cake by deciding to make my own with the help of my sister. In order to make the cake without spending too much time working on it or stressing over it in the days leading up to the wedding, we opted to make a display cake with one real tier for the bride and groom cake-cutting and then serve store-bought sheet cakes to the guest. We did a trial run to see how it would work and to be sure we could pull off the cake for the wedding. The plan worked perfectly and I’m pretty sure the only guests who could tell it was a fake were the ones who either knew about it before hand or the ones who hung around ’til the end of the reception when the catering staff wheeled out my mostly intact wedding cake for me to take home.

——————————-

Mrs. Hot Cocoa’s Cake

Cake: “Cupcake Babies”
Cost: $350 ( or 3 for $5)
Bakery: Vanilla Bake Shop
Location: Santa Monica, CA

Photo Credit: Leigh Miller Photography, Luna Photography, and Della Chen Photography.

My insatiable desire for cupcakes is well-known: http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/01/30/i-love-those-cupcakes-like-mcadams-loves-gosling/. And these cupcakes were deeeelicious.

My mom and I hand-carried the cupcake display tower from China, where we got it on the cheap. I threaded velvet ribbon in various shades of purple, and it looked fairly respectable atop our dessert buffet display.

——————————-

Mrs. Bluebell’s Cake

Cake: Covered in very thick chocolate ganache, with different flavors on each level:

1. Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake: chocolate cake filled with chocolate truffle and chocolate buttercream
2. Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake: chocolate mousse and raspberries with layers of chocolate cake
3. Vanilla Cake with Strawberries & Cream: butter cake filled with fresh Vermont whipped cream and strawberries

Cost: $400
Served: 120, with tons left over. Our caterer sliced the rest and put it in take out containers so lots of people took some home and we had days worth of leftovers!
Bakery: Mirabelle’s Cafe (same as Mrs. Onion!)
Location: Burlington, VT
Topper: $2.49 a piece (but must buy at least 6) from Escape Concepts

Mr. Bluebell & I really wanted a chocolate cake, at least on the outside, and were completely blown away by the flavors at Mirabelle’s!! Literally the best cake I have ever had, wedding or not. And the ganache was to die for! I really don’t like fondant (plus it’s not vegetarian), so we were going to go with buttercream, but when they told us about the ganache, we were sold. Our caterer (Stone Soup) is located right down the street from Mirabelle’s in Burlington, so they offered to bring the cake across the lake for us at no charge. They also added the flowers (which I wasn’t crazy about). The toppers are Adirondack chairs since my great-great-uncle invented the Adirondack chair, and the wedding was in the Adirondacks!

——————————-

Mrs. Butterfly’s Cake

Cost: Free (Included as part of the catering contract)
Bakery: Twenty-Four Fifth
Location: New York, NY

——————————-

Mrs. Penguin’s Cake

Cost: $450
Served 100
Bakery: Ingrid Fraser’s Elegant Cakes
Location: Amador, CA

We chose our baker because she was local to our venue. Because the location was remote, anyone we chose in Sacramento proper would have charged us a good $60-$100 for delivery. Our baker lived very close to our venue, so she delivered for free, allowing us to put more money into the cake (by adding fresh raspberries and extra servings) rather than into delivery. The cake she made was very “European” and incredibly delicious!!! The toppers were made as a gift by a friend.