The wedding cake was $1,200.00, the result of 2 full days of the baker’s art and skill. It was so breathtaking that many commented that it was a crime to see it cut, as the bride and groom edged out their tiny piece from the back, feeding each other bites to scattered applause from the guests and the flare of camera flashes. And in fact, if you happen to be the type of person who reflects upon this sort of thing, it did seem rather barbaric, this wanton destruction of its glorious, delicate beauty, matter-of-factly hacked to irregular pieces in a matter of minutes, reducing it to a wasteland of crumbs and plastic-like shards of fondant. With the exception of a few children who had been anxiously awaiting the sugar of this moment, 90% of the guests immediately lost all interest in the marching rows of cake slices advancing across the serving table; and the focus of the celebration moved on to the couple’s champagne toast.
The following night at the same venue, the ritual was repeated. This time the cake was spotlighted on its own round table covered in a beautiful damask cloth that fell to the floor. Again, the fragile intricacy of its beauty was a joy to behold. And again, the newlyweds carefully worked their small slice onto a plate, while the guests craned their necks to catch any twinkle of mischief in the couples’ eyes that might foretell whether they would be genteel and feed it to each other gently and tenderly, or kick off their celebration by laughingly throwing dignity to the winds and smashing it in the general vicinity of the other’s face. Again the cameras flashed and the guests laughed and cheered. As the couple moved on to their champagne toast, a pair of attendants moved with quiet efficiency to the sides of the cake table and wheeled it into the kitchen for cutting. By the time the couple had finished their arm-entwined toast, plated portions of precision-sliced cake were beginning to be set out on the serving table.
In each case, one of those camera-flashes resulted in one of the most key and treasured photographic memories of the occasion. But the second memory can be treasured for about $1,000 less.
Why? It’s a fake! Don’t believe it? Don’t believe nobody noticed? Well, it’s true. While Aunt Doris was in the kitchen slicing 3 delicious sheetcakes, each serving at least 40 people (remember, many will not want cake anyway), Aunt Marian had tossed out the waxed paper that had held the couple’s pre-sliced piece of cake, and was swathing the gloriously-iced masterpiece in bubble wrap before sliding it back into its shipping crate for return to the rental “bakery” in the mail the following week. Where’s the photographer now? Because this would be something to see!
On wedding blogs, it seems that many feel a faux cake is a terrible affront to tradition. I think it’s a very clever way to have the tradition and eat it, too. Still others say, well, if you can’t afford a REAL cake, why not just admit it? Why not get a clumsily-decorated grocery-store cake if that’s all you can afford? Why go to so much effort "just for show?" Well, aren’t weddings essentially “just for show?” Because if they’re not, then everybody who’s ever walked down the aisle needs to admit right now that they would be no less married if they’d simply gone to City Hall. The cake is a major focal point of any wedding, so it’s not unusual that a bride might have visualized something spectacular for her special day–and if this helps her afford it, why shouldn’t she have it?
We’re recycling everything these days–how many wedding gowns get a second life from Craigslist or a consignment shop? Are those brides any less beautiful? As to the cake, why should all that artistic labor be wasted? Why shouldn’t several brides proudly display these masterpieces of culinary art, which are no less fabulous the 4th or 5th time they are trotted out? The same people who turn up their noses–would they not rent 200 dinner plates, stemmed water goblets, and 15 banquet-sized tablecloths? Do they think their guests think they own this stuff? No; it’s a given that it’s rented; what’s the difference? Do their groomsmen not rent their tuxes to give everyone a uniform look?
Why does everybody care so much what somebody else does that they need to pass judgment and condemn? How many of them have even researched “fake cakes”? These things aren’t made of Play-Doh and a glue-gun. Of course, when confronted by the idea of a fake cake for the very first time, nobody is going to imagine themselves at a “cake-tasting” session, saying, “I’ll take the styrofoam and latex.” Apples and oranges!
So I’m not saying every bride MUST have a fake cake; what I am saying is, many a bride is cutting every possible corner these days to get as much wedding as possible for her dollar, and these cakes can give you a designer-quality look at literally a fraction of the price: $80 and up (plus shipping) for rental, or if you have one made custom just to your specifications, about $250-$300 to purchase (then stick it on Craigslist afterwards).
These elegant cakes show that they are certainly a valid consideration for taking a slice (pun intended) off the price. And if your cousin recoils in horror when you tell her, ask yourself if her engagement ring isn’t probably a cubic zirconia anyway. Let them eat cake!
by Clairsie Dotes Factoidz.com
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Fake Wedding Cakes: Budget Minded Brides Can Have Their Cake and Eat it Too!
Wedding cakes come in all shapes and sizes, from the traditional three tiered confection to elaborate designs that feature bridges, minature lakes and multiple sections. Like everything else, the cost of a wedding cake - be it a round three tiered beauty or a major work of art - has soared to record highs. Even a simple, traditional three tiered cake can cost a minimum of $200 to $250 dollars. Elaborate cakes can cost much, much more.
There is a solution, however, so that brides can have the wedding cake of their dreams and eat cake as well. Faux or fake wedding cakes are the answer and these cakes are becoming increasingly popular. Most fake wedding cakes have a secret compartment where an actual slice of cake can be placed for the bride and groom to share. A simple sheet cake can be bought to serve guests a slice of the special wedding cake at a much lower cost.
Unlike actual wedding cakes, fake wedding cakes are made of soft foam and are frosted with an icing like substance that is made from gum paste and fondant. Although it is similar to real cake icing (and is edible in case someone swipes a lick or two), no one can tell the difference just by looking. Fake cakes can be custom designed to suit the bride's individual tastes and although renting cakes is a more recent idea, faux cakes have been available for sometime. Before, however, brides to be had to shell out the money to buy a fake wedding cake, something that no one would ever have another opportunity to use. By renting rather than purchasing a fake wedding cake, brides get the benefit of having a beautiful cake to show off at the wedding reception but by saving money.
Faux cakes can be rented from many bakeries and new companies, many of which are online. Or, if fake wedding cakes haven't yet made it to the bride's home area, many brides are renting display cakes from a local bakery for the occasion. Fake cakes can often be custom designed to match the bride's color scheme or tastes with anything a real cake can be decorated with including pearls, flowers, and candles. A custom fake cake may cost a little more to rent than a standard rental faux cake but the savings can make a great deal of difference to wedding couples.
Switching fresh for articial is not new for brides. Today, it's much more common to find brides carrying a silk bouquet of flowers rather than fresh flowers because of the cost. Just as silk flowers look as lovely as real flowers but cost less, a fake wedding cake can do the same.
Couples can put the savings toward their honeymoon trip or making a major purchase for their first home.
Few if any wedding guests will notice that the cake is not real and every invited guest will still enjoy delicious cake from an inexpensive sheet cake that can be cut into pieces.
Brides to be, mothers of the bride or groom, and wedding planners should consider this inexpensive option to create a dream wedding and reception with a lower cost by choosing a faux wedding cake over the real thing. It's one way that brides can really have their cake and eat it too!
By: LA Byline associatedcontent.com
There is a solution, however, so that brides can have the wedding cake of their dreams and eat cake as well. Faux or fake wedding cakes are the answer and these cakes are becoming increasingly popular. Most fake wedding cakes have a secret compartment where an actual slice of cake can be placed for the bride and groom to share. A simple sheet cake can be bought to serve guests a slice of the special wedding cake at a much lower cost.
Unlike actual wedding cakes, fake wedding cakes are made of soft foam and are frosted with an icing like substance that is made from gum paste and fondant. Although it is similar to real cake icing (and is edible in case someone swipes a lick or two), no one can tell the difference just by looking. Fake cakes can be custom designed to suit the bride's individual tastes and although renting cakes is a more recent idea, faux cakes have been available for sometime. Before, however, brides to be had to shell out the money to buy a fake wedding cake, something that no one would ever have another opportunity to use. By renting rather than purchasing a fake wedding cake, brides get the benefit of having a beautiful cake to show off at the wedding reception but by saving money.
Faux cakes can be rented from many bakeries and new companies, many of which are online. Or, if fake wedding cakes haven't yet made it to the bride's home area, many brides are renting display cakes from a local bakery for the occasion. Fake cakes can often be custom designed to match the bride's color scheme or tastes with anything a real cake can be decorated with including pearls, flowers, and candles. A custom fake cake may cost a little more to rent than a standard rental faux cake but the savings can make a great deal of difference to wedding couples.
Switching fresh for articial is not new for brides. Today, it's much more common to find brides carrying a silk bouquet of flowers rather than fresh flowers because of the cost. Just as silk flowers look as lovely as real flowers but cost less, a fake wedding cake can do the same.
Couples can put the savings toward their honeymoon trip or making a major purchase for their first home.
Few if any wedding guests will notice that the cake is not real and every invited guest will still enjoy delicious cake from an inexpensive sheet cake that can be cut into pieces.
Brides to be, mothers of the bride or groom, and wedding planners should consider this inexpensive option to create a dream wedding and reception with a lower cost by choosing a faux wedding cake over the real thing. It's one way that brides can really have their cake and eat it too!
By: LA Byline associatedcontent.com
Friday, January 8, 2010
A Guy's Take on Display Cakes
Fake Cake At Your Wedding? Are You Seriously Considering It?
by Donald Pennington Factoidz.com
Fake cake at a wedding seems like an odd predicament to a backwoods boy like me. Where I’m from it was at weddings that most of us ever got cake anyway. It was at a wedding that my cousin said loudly "Yes! I do want to have my cake and eat it too. What’s the point of cake if you’re not going to eat it?"
Which is exactly the point we’re beginning to look at right now in regards to fake cake for weddings: You’re not actually getting to eat them. Sitting there across from you, at the reception hall’s north wall, is a baker’s version of "My Love/No You’re Never Gonna Get It," by En Vogue . . . but the point is that what looks like it might be good to be eaten–alas, ’tis not to be. It is fake cake at this wedding.
But all is not lost. That yearning for apple cinnamon rum flavor is not in vain. You’ve been a good boy, you sat, you stayed, and as the wait staff first serve the couple, of course, then the remaining slices of wedding cake come out to the other guests, your tail is wagging!
So since you’ve reached your near carb-coma-dream-state that you so doggedly pursue, you finally come to understand the fake cake across the room might have served a purpose. After all of the dancing is done you finally get a chance to talk for a minute with the groom…and even he’s smart enough to refer you to the new Mother-in-law (or in-love).
You find yourself totally enamored with the secondary woman-of-the-hour: the Mother of the Bride. Sure. She’s talking her ear off so fast you can imagine the warble you might hear were you under water, but it’s hers to brag about. She put this wedding together . . . she and her maternal in-law (in-love) across the room. She put it all together.
"Oh! The fake cake? I’d love to tell you about it," she says. So as you listen, you come to realize the amount of knowledge on this one individual subject alone tells you, that your buddy just married the internet. Good to know it’s good info. She carries on:
Fake Cake Facts Number One:
The fake cake is brought in on a rental or purchase basis (depends on who you use) and the couple/planner has the caterer serve much less expensive sheet cake from behind the scenes. Most weddings are planned by family. Most families are broke. Weddings need to be done as cheaply as can be for the sake of the new marriage itself.
Authentic wedding cakes can run into the thousands of dollars! Fake cakes can be thrown together in any design for no more than maybe $50 to $100 if they’re professionally decorated. The caterers are always willing to create the myth of the illusion for the guests.
Fake Cake Facts Number Two:
Fake cakes can be ordered as a huge multi-tiered structure, with all of the details, including what looks like a pre-cut slice. Brilliant! Sometimes a customer using a fake cake chooses to decorate the cake themselves too, to add to the authenticity of the thing since the mother in law (in-love) can honestly claim to have decorated it herself.
Fake Cake Facts Number Three:
Frosting swipers need to be caught fast! As soon as one of ‘em feels the Styrofoam or plastic of the fake cake itself, come on it doesn’t feel like cake we all know, they’ll ruin the secret for the whole family. In times past it would also be embarrassing. But these days, the family would get a round of applause for saving the money! Still, let the guests enjoy the illusion. They brought gifts. Let them enjoy themselves.
That is…everybody but the frosting swiper zooming in on your fake cake! Some fake cakes look pretty tempting. How do you think I learned it was fake? That frosting was nasty!
Fake Cake Facts Number Four:
If you’re making your own and you need to frost it with real frosting, add a ¼ cup of salt to each standard sized, store bought frosting containers that you use of frosting and mix thoroughly. The salt helps prevent spoilage of the frosting as salt is mostly microbiologically unfriendly. It might last so long the cake might get a second usage of it.
Fake Cake Facts Number 5:
Of course, the best option around was, to simply purchase a $10 "recipe" book on how to make your own fake cakes for your wedding. This way, there’s still a strong sense of involvement, and ‘labor of love’ going into the making of your daughter’s wedding fake cake.
So, now that the Mother-of-the-Bride has explained eveything you could ever need to know about fake cakes that you could ever ask, you ‘get it!’ The fake cake was to save money. You can’t really blame a family for that in this economy.
by Donald Pennington Factoidz.com
Fake cake at a wedding seems like an odd predicament to a backwoods boy like me. Where I’m from it was at weddings that most of us ever got cake anyway. It was at a wedding that my cousin said loudly "Yes! I do want to have my cake and eat it too. What’s the point of cake if you’re not going to eat it?"
Which is exactly the point we’re beginning to look at right now in regards to fake cake for weddings: You’re not actually getting to eat them. Sitting there across from you, at the reception hall’s north wall, is a baker’s version of "My Love/No You’re Never Gonna Get It," by En Vogue . . . but the point is that what looks like it might be good to be eaten–alas, ’tis not to be. It is fake cake at this wedding.
But all is not lost. That yearning for apple cinnamon rum flavor is not in vain. You’ve been a good boy, you sat, you stayed, and as the wait staff first serve the couple, of course, then the remaining slices of wedding cake come out to the other guests, your tail is wagging!
So since you’ve reached your near carb-coma-dream-state that you so doggedly pursue, you finally come to understand the fake cake across the room might have served a purpose. After all of the dancing is done you finally get a chance to talk for a minute with the groom…and even he’s smart enough to refer you to the new Mother-in-law (or in-love).
You find yourself totally enamored with the secondary woman-of-the-hour: the Mother of the Bride. Sure. She’s talking her ear off so fast you can imagine the warble you might hear were you under water, but it’s hers to brag about. She put this wedding together . . . she and her maternal in-law (in-love) across the room. She put it all together.
"Oh! The fake cake? I’d love to tell you about it," she says. So as you listen, you come to realize the amount of knowledge on this one individual subject alone tells you, that your buddy just married the internet. Good to know it’s good info. She carries on:
Fake Cake Facts Number One:
The fake cake is brought in on a rental or purchase basis (depends on who you use) and the couple/planner has the caterer serve much less expensive sheet cake from behind the scenes. Most weddings are planned by family. Most families are broke. Weddings need to be done as cheaply as can be for the sake of the new marriage itself.
Authentic wedding cakes can run into the thousands of dollars! Fake cakes can be thrown together in any design for no more than maybe $50 to $100 if they’re professionally decorated. The caterers are always willing to create the myth of the illusion for the guests.
Fake Cake Facts Number Two:
Fake cakes can be ordered as a huge multi-tiered structure, with all of the details, including what looks like a pre-cut slice. Brilliant! Sometimes a customer using a fake cake chooses to decorate the cake themselves too, to add to the authenticity of the thing since the mother in law (in-love) can honestly claim to have decorated it herself.
Fake Cake Facts Number Three:
Frosting swipers need to be caught fast! As soon as one of ‘em feels the Styrofoam or plastic of the fake cake itself, come on it doesn’t feel like cake we all know, they’ll ruin the secret for the whole family. In times past it would also be embarrassing. But these days, the family would get a round of applause for saving the money! Still, let the guests enjoy the illusion. They brought gifts. Let them enjoy themselves.
That is…everybody but the frosting swiper zooming in on your fake cake! Some fake cakes look pretty tempting. How do you think I learned it was fake? That frosting was nasty!
Fake Cake Facts Number Four:
If you’re making your own and you need to frost it with real frosting, add a ¼ cup of salt to each standard sized, store bought frosting containers that you use of frosting and mix thoroughly. The salt helps prevent spoilage of the frosting as salt is mostly microbiologically unfriendly. It might last so long the cake might get a second usage of it.
Fake Cake Facts Number 5:
Of course, the best option around was, to simply purchase a $10 "recipe" book on how to make your own fake cakes for your wedding. This way, there’s still a strong sense of involvement, and ‘labor of love’ going into the making of your daughter’s wedding fake cake.
So, now that the Mother-of-the-Bride has explained eveything you could ever need to know about fake cakes that you could ever ask, you ‘get it!’ The fake cake was to save money. You can’t really blame a family for that in this economy.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Get Married Unveils the New Top 10 Bridal Trends for 2010 -- ATLANTA, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ --
Get Married Unveils the New Top 10 Bridal Trends for 2010 -- ATLANTA, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ --
What to know what is hot for 2010? Check out this article!
What to know what is hot for 2010? Check out this article!
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