Posts Tagged ‘Food’

Jan 2011

When we re-launched the APW How-To series, one of the first things on the menu (pun intended, I am totally hilarious) was to get a How-To bake a wedding cake post. It couldn't come from me, since my version of how to bake a wedding cake is "Find local bakeshop that will quote you something under $500. Order." So we turned to the lovely wedding grad Vilija of Love, V. Her husband baked their (stunningly and simple) cake, and her Lazy Girls How-To is excellent (and never boring).

Baking a wedding cake is not something that we undertook lightly. When my husband told me he wanted to bake our cake I was skeptical at first, but he had the time, the baking skills, the desire and was convincing. If you are contemplating baking your own wedding cake here are some things we learned and some tips we have to make it through the process.

Start early! We cannot stress this enough. This will give you enough time to get your equipment, find a good recipe, to bake test cakes and to practice your frosting skills.

Get a good recipe – baking is science and other people have already figured it out. It is just a matter of finding a recipe you like. We highly recommend the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Not only is the recipe tasty, but the section dedicated to wedding cakes has instructions including a timeline, equipment and pictures that make the process less intimidating. You can determine how much cake you need using one of many online calculators. We baked a two tier cutting cake and a sheet cake for our 100 guests.

Having the proper equipment is key. Knowing that we were undertaking a wedding cake, my mother gifted us with a stand mixer. We wouldn’t have succeeded without it. Even considering in the cost of buying a stand mixer, we calculated that we still saved money by baking our own cake. Make sure to purchase and practice using your equipment. Most of our aluminum baking pans came from restaurant supply stores and were fairly inexpensive, yet high quality.

Here is a short list of supplies we found invaluable: Continue reading How To: Bake A Wedding Cake

Posted in: DIY & DIT, How To | 95 Comments »

Mar 2010

How To Self Cater Your Wedding, Part II

When I got this email about self-catering from reader Mandy, it came with the disclaimer, "maybe this is stuff everyone already knows." And when I started reading it over, I thought, "No, but this is stuff everyone *should* know." This email takes me back to the no-nonsense vibe of the church kitchens of my childhood, or to peeling a 10 pound sack of potatoes with my cousins in England as we helped prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 70 people. By which I mean to say, if real life wedding planning is about hauling and lifting? Self catering is about endless peeling and cleaning and scrubbing. It's not glamorous work, but it is rewarding as h*ll, for those of you that take it on. And, no matter what anyone tells you, it can be done (but ONLY if you *want* to do it - don't guilt yourself into this one, no how, no way). Now, Mandy:
Back in December, we drove down to Georgia to attend my fiance's aunt's wedding. It was a second wedding for both his aunt and her new husband (they'd both been widowed years ago) and the entire thing was taking place on the same day as the annual family Christmas gathering. There were about sixty or so people at the reception, and around thirty-five of those came back for a second meal after the reception when the actual family Christmas party started. Needless to say...this translates to a LOT of food. And no joke, the bride cooked nearly all of that food herself, with some help from her sisters (and me, towards the end). So for those of you who think that it just can't be done...it can be done, single-handedly, by a woman in her sixties in a tiny kitchen. Granted, some of us are attempting to self-cater weddings with double or even triple that amount of guests, but I still find inspiration in remembering this particular experience, as well as a few guidelines I plan to follow when we do this in a few months. I don't normally like to break things into dos and don'ts, but it seems like the best way to simplify all I've got to say. Also, please note that I am not an expert, and no advice can cover every situation. This is just what I learned from helping with a self-catered wedding...plus a little bit of knowledge gathered from years of helping prepare large amounts of food for large amounts of people, otherwise known as "my family is huge and loves to eat a lot." Continue reading How To Self Cater Your Wedding, Part II

Posted in: Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

Mar 2010

How To Self Cater Your Wedding, Part I

So. As promised, we are going to begin our foray into discussing self catering your wedding. I've gotten approximately a billion posts from y'all on the subject, and over the next few weeks I will be treating you to a few at a time. Before we dive in though, I wanted to outline my basic rules on self catering. Seriously kids, these ones are important:

Is this cooking for large groups thing something you enjoy? Do you throw dinner parties? Do you, um, know how to cook? If the answer to these questions is not yes, PLEASE STEP AWAY. There is nothing wrong with a cake and punch reception. So pick up the phone, order some cake (and maybe an ice cream cake or two? Yum!) and buy yourself some punch and bubbly. Done. Your wedding is not the time to A) Take on a massive project that makes you feel like gouging your eyes out, or B) Learn to cook. Continue reading How To Self Cater Your Wedding, Part I

Posted in: How To, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Aug 2008

Walking The Tightrope

We got back from a meeting with a delightful cooking wedding elf this weekend, and I climbed straight into bed and pulled the covers up over my head. After a while a squeaky shaky little voice piped up from under the covers:

"Why is everything so expensive?*" I said plaintively.
David, of course, did his bit to calm me down, "Well, we live in a expensive area, and we're doing our very best."
"Oh." Said the squeaky little voice. Then I thought for a while, "Maybe we could just have a little wedding and just invite 40 people or so?" I offered.
"Well, that would really hurt the feelings of a lot of our close family members and friends that we couldn't invite." Continue reading Walking The Tightrope

Posted in: Life, Meg's Thoughts, Planning, Planning, Weddings | 9 Comments »

May 2008

Wedding Budget Wendsday: Use What You Love

This blackberry gin fizz recipe from Martha Stewart Weddings was what first gave me the idea to incorporate blackberries into our wedding. Basically my thinking went like this. "Blackberries... yummmmm. Mint... yummmm. You know where you can get the best blackberries and mint? August in the Bay Area. Hey! That's handy!" Now we are probably not going to serve this drink, because no one needs gin in the morning (not for any good reason). But we will incorporate blackberries and mint in other ways.

I've been thinking lately that the best way to make a wedding budget friendly, and ecologically friendly to boot, is to have your wedding in a place that you love. Whether your venue is a park, a cathedral, or someones home, you shouldn't have to do a ton of decorating, since you don't want to cover up why you like it in the first place. (Much like your partner, right? But that's another post.) We really love the Bay Area, so we are working to incorporate in-season fruits, vegetables, and flowers into the wedding. There is no real point in having lilies shipped across the world, when we can use pink jasmine, and then every summer, when the jasmine blooms, it will remind us of our wedding day.
Continue reading Wedding Budget Wendsday: Use What You Love

Posted in: Budget, Meg's Thoughts, Personal Thoughts, Planning, Weddings | 9 Comments »

Apr 2008

Family Style, and trends…

So, we've been thinking about serving our food family style instead of buffet style, because most of all we want our wedding to be a big celebration of our various communities, all under one roof. And what is more communal then passing around food? It's funny though, because family style food is suddenly *the* trendy way to go with weddings, so we're grabbing on to the cultural zeitgeist a bit, which doesn't bother me at all when its such a good idea.

What does tickle me is that family style seems a bit trendy in a 1970's The Dinner Party sort of way... (though we were thinking, achem, plain plates).
Continue reading Family Style, and trends…

Posted in: Meg's Thoughts, Planning, Weddings | 4 Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘Food’

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