Thousand dollar wedding cake

A friend of my mom's sent over a few slices of cake from her son's wedding tonight. Mom said that her friend had told her the cake cost them a thousand dollars. Literally $1,000. There were three flavors of cake. German chocolate, pistachio, and devil's food.

Now I know this was a big wedding and the cake would have been huge and had to have fed hundreds, but I'm still thinking that it's going to be sooo good because who would pay $1000 for so-so cake? And it wasn't so-so. It sucked. My Betty Crocker from the box is so much better. The fondant tasted like store bought pre-made wilton's fondant, of which I am not a fan. Under the fondant was frosting, but it was extra sweet (maybe to make up for the fondant?) and there wasn't much of it. Between the layers of cake were flavored frostings or ganache. Only they didn't have much flavor. It was more like a change in texture and color from the cake. But they didn't affect the flavor at all. The cakes themselves were moist, but nothing exciting flavor wise. And I know I'm a picky eater, but my parents thought the same thing. We all three thought that dinner had been better than the fancy dessert.

Now I am not ungrateful. I thought it was so sweet of my mom's friend to send us cake. But seriously, the woman was robbed! Store boght mixes are better and when I follow Chelle's advice... it was 100 times better. So Chelle and Kelly and any of you considering what to charge for a cake... have at it because there is a desparate need for good cake out there.

I'm not surprised at the price of the cake at all.What I am surprised about is that it sucked.I mean usually you have tasting before you book your wedding for the cake and the food to make sure it doesn't suck. Especially if you've never had their food or cake before. At least that's how they do things around here.

I forgot to add, I have no idea how the cake looked pre-slicing. It may have been expensive due to size or to having lots of fancy piping or something like that. But it just tasted bleh. We only could figure out the pistachio was pistachio because it was green. You could not tell from the taste.

Some people,even with the chance of tasting, can't tell good from bad.. still a waste of wedding money. Sounds like the b/g were going for "beautiful" which for 1000 bucks, I hope it was ... can you say suckers?

Wow, I have yet to taste bleh wedding cake,that's just so sad,and so wrong!

lol Dee

I've heard that duffs cakes, are not that good, nor are some of the other 'famous' bakers.

They rely more on beauty and art to get them the money, and no cake leaves duffs place for under a grand.

I would die if I thought my cakes were not worth going back for. But alot of folks just dont have a clue.

and honestly, at a high end bakery, with fondant and special flavors, chances are, for that grand, they got maybe a 200 slice cake. Thats NOT alot, concidering a 10 inch round 2 inch high cake yeilds 30 slices.

I'm glad yours are turning out so good Karen,

Come to think of it, I didn't do a tasting for my own wedding cake. We had an at home wedding and only decided to get married a month before the wedding. We wanted to get married the day between our birthdays (which are only two days apart) and we didn't want to wait a year and have to put up with a year of our moms going crazy with wedding plans. So everything was last minute and we were just glad to have a cake. I remember the bakery thought I was nuts because I wanted a three tier cake with birthday candles around the bottom two tiers. They also thought it was strange because I didn't want those pillars for cake separators. I just wanted the cakes stacked one on top of another. Nowadays that's how most cakes are but 20 years ago I had to convince them to do it.

Yeah, 1K is nothing for a wedding cake, but they should have tasted it first.
My wedding cake was probably in the $1500-2K neighborhood, because 1) my mom was the biggest snob ever, and her friends son had a 1300 wedding cake. 2) we had ALOT of people. 3) it was all fancy and crap....it did taste pretty good though. Also, I wasn't paying for it, so I didn't care.

I do know if one of my girls wants a cake that cost that much they are paying half!

One thing I like about the show Cake Boss is that they talk as much about how the cakes taste as how they look. They talk about using fresh quality ingredients, real butter and cream, and hundred year old recipes. I want to eat his cakes, not just look at them.

I didnt get a tasting either. I ordered it from the grocery store- just like the dummy theyhad on the shelf, except with yellow roses and green leaves. (colors were yellow and green)

I have had requests for tastings. Even for birthday cakes. BUT, after I explained how much that would cost in addition to the cake, and mutual friends convinced them they didnt need a tasteing, I gotout of it.

If I do get a wedding (not sure I want one- honestly- I will do a tasting. But I'm not going to start making all the differnt cakes.

You can have white/yellow, strawberry, choclate, or peanut butter. I have no desire really to broaden my horizens. I have too much other shit to do. LOL


I agree about cakeboss, BUT I also have to wonder, on their 'fancy' cakes, not the pasteries and such they sell, but the run of the mill cakes, do you notice how they can just flop the cake around, throw them this way and that, ? I wonder how moist they really are? I bet his pasteries and all are wonderful- but have a feeling his other cakes are just dense white cake. nothing fancy.

OH and something new to try. add carmel icecream topping to your butterream.

OR powdered coffee creamer. the vanilla carmel gives your BC a coffee/vanilla/ carmel taste. it tastes like a sweet latte..

I've gotta find his store,I'd love to try one of his cakesss

I think they are more like Pound cake....I hate pound cake

I don't like p/cake either.If I find the store and taste ,I'll let you all know how they are.

LOL!!

yeah, I think they are pound cake. I like pound cake cooked in a loaf pan, greased with sugar, then turned out and cut hot or , warmed in the microwave with butter melted on top of the slice. LOL

I like pound cake! But it doesn't really say wedding to me.

I think he also keeps the cakes in a cooler and that helps a lot with how rough you can be with them.

This thread is making me hungry but all there is to eat is that crappy cake.

oh God,it's already one-third butter and one-third sugar LMAO!!!

I was shocked at cake prices 25 years ago when I shopped. DH and I paid for the wedding ourselves. If I recall correctly, prices were starting at around $2.25 per serving, with a "serving size" being 1" x 2" x 2" ...or something ridiculous like that. NOT what I would think of as a serving, so you'd have to order a cake with twice the number of servings that you really wanted.

We ended up finding our baker through a friend who got married before I did. This was an older couple (in their 60's, probably) and they baked, sliced, and prepackaged each slice in paper boxes with clear windows that people could take home with them. They had fillings in between each cake layer....sooooo good! Then for the wedding reception itself, they used cake forms that they would frost and fountain up with your choice of style. When choosing, we went to their house and watched a slide show. We just had to choose something that was believable for the number of people at our wedding. Only the top tier (to be saved for the first anniversary) and a specific area (for taking cutting the cake photos) were real cake!

We should all look for photos of our wedding cakes and post them here.

I have heard that before,I have no idea where,that sometimes the cake is fake .It's unbelievable

OK, here's my fake cake. It was '85, and we were both 25 yrs old. People still say it's the best cake they ever had at a wedding. They did not do fondant back then, it was all buttercreams.

OMG,how beautiful Lori! And I could never tell that was a fake cake! never in a million years!

Ms Lori! I do declare! you are in more campaigns than I am now! LOL

agaphmou wrote:OMG,how beautiful Lori! And I could never tell that was a fake cake! never in a million years!

It looks extremely fussy to me now. But tastes have changed in 25 years, and that was what was done back then.

wedding cakes are meant to be a bit busy

you were a beautiful bride!!

I think the cake is beautiful, Very 80's!

I will see if anyone has a copy of a picture from my wedding. As far as I know there are none. people really didnt carry camera's back then like they do today.

One day I might contact the photographer and see if she still has the negatives.