apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

What is the deal with sweet overload at weddings these days? I just went to a wedding where there was a candy table (for guests to munch on immediately post dinner as suggested above), wedding cake (very rich), and then as the night went on, tiny milkshakes passed by the catering company. Sure it was extravagant and fun, but I had a total food hangover in the AM -- so much sweet and rich! I would think a cookie bar would be a way to combat that, but not if served alongside cake, ice cream, wine, etc.etc.

I'm getting married in September and I went to a catering fair a couple months ago that featured a cookie buffet. And you're right. The cookies were a lot better than the cake. I'm not sure if cookies will replace a cake, but they're a nice compliment to them. I decided to go with cupcakes and cookies. Two trends at once!

If a family loves to bake, why not?

I really dislike a lot of wedding cakes I've had, often with not delicious fondant or other "hard" icings/decor made for holding up in hot/humid weather. We went for the tried and true cupcake (carrot cake) for our own wedding, which was delicious, cost effective, and just fine (though now I wish we'd just had a selection of our favorite fruit pies made by the fam).

Rather than thinking about "trends," (like cupcakes, cookies, mini milkshakes or what have you), I'd rather see people host parties with meaningful food and local specialties, like peach cobbler in GA, or Mexican fruit ices for a Californian, or in this case, local cookie recipes. Then it's delish, often cheaper than fancy cakes, but also imbued with the personality of the couple and the flavor of the region.

An eastern Ohio/western Pennsylvania native myself, I don't think I've been to a regional wedding that didn'thave a cookie table! It's the area's answer to hors d'oeurves!

That's the dirty little secret of the baking industry: wedding cakes are just awful. They have to be made days in advance, sometimes weeks (and frozen), and so are dried-out and half-stale by the time your wedding day rolls around. I have tasted precious few wedding cakes that I have actually enjoyed. There are exceptions, certainly; but you get what you pay for.

I applaud the idea of a cookie table; give the guests something palatable to eat, and give them a styrofoam cake to look at! ;)

On a related note, I'm planning on replacing my birthday cake this year with an ice cream sandwich bar: set out a variety of cookies, a few ice creams, and some toppings, and let the guests have fun putting them together. It will either be excellent or a hot mess. Maybe both.

http://www.abreadaday.com

Not cookies, but the last wedding I went to was a Boston groom-New York bride wedding: they had Yankees & Red Sox cupcakes, and Hoodsies (which for those not familiar, are little ice cream cups that are similar in size to cupcakes, half chocolate, half vanilla), and for a family that's had almost 30 weddings in the past decade, this was by far the favorite dessert!!!

I agree with Jeni_Rae...the cookie table is a mainstay at Western PA weddings. It gives friends and family a chance to do a little something special for the wedding day that is always loved by guests.

In my experience, the cookie table has never replaced the wedding cake, and I don't really see it doing so in the future.

At our wedding nine years ago, we and our guests enjoyed a variety of pies in lieu of a big, fancy cake. One of the grandmothers baked us a little 6" rhubarb pie (my favorite) with "S heart B" baked onto the top crust (a heart shape, not the word itself... in case that wasn't clear). It was placed at the center of a round table, and then other pies baked with love by many aunts and grannies were arranged in a swirl around it. We still did the traditional cake-cutting thing, but with our little pie, instead. Trends had nothing to do with it. I love pie. A lot of people love pie. And our family sure seemed to enjoy it. Especially being able to take their pick of many different choices.

Maybe I just like cake too much... but nothing about this says "event of a lifetime" for me. I like cookies, but I've had as many awful cookies as cakes, and would much rather pay for a simple, unadorned wedding cake than a few plates of cookies. Though a table full of artfully arranged double-stuff oreos might just sway me :-).

I insisted that my wedding cake actually taste good and it did, to the open (and pleased) surprise of many guests.

But...we also had chocolate chip cookies in a nod to my father, who always said one of the reasons to have children was so you could teach them to make your chocolate chip cookies for you.

Buh? Our wedding cake was fantastic. If you don't find a good baker, of course it's going to be awful. I'd say find someone who can do a good job, whatever you choose to have them make for you. Better good cookies than bad cake, right?

eprewitt, I wouldn't buy a cake from someone who didn't bake it at most the day before. Weeks in advance? There's a baker who needs to find another line of work, seriously. Ugh.

At our wedding almost two years ago, we didn't have cake. Neither one of us really like wedding cake, so we didn't have one. We had a very informal reception (city park, grilling, kickball), so it fit perfectly to have some cookie trays (also great for all the kids present), as well as a "cake" made out of Twinkies.

Fun and casual, and everybody was happy.

I've seen a selection of mini desserts, cookies, chocolates, for weddings. It definitely is an 'awful lotta sweet' and I'm a chocoholic so that's saying a LOT. So far brides/grooms in my area (California) seem to be highly committed to the fancy cake - or - more adventurous or dollar savvy favor cupcakes presented in a tiered fashion like a wedding cake (there's no cake cutting fee with cupcakes!).

Seeing some of the comments here... just like with every industry, as a consumer you need to know how to Specify a job, that's the only thing that protects you from someone cutting corners to make more money off what they quoted to you (i.e., flavorless and clearly frozen cake). If you ever buy a fondant cake, specify that a HIGHLY flavored buttercream be under the fondant layer because the buttercream is super thin under fondant, and have them bake you a sample and tell them specifically what you want changed from that sample. You can also, BTW, specify 'no frozen cake' in a contract. No daisies, no baby's breath, no fern (all "cheap fillers") in wedding flowers. Weddings are notorious for rip-offs opportunities especially when people are willing to pay over the norm for their 'dream' wedding. Be a smart, educated, consumer before you buy and you'll usually be happy with the results.

I sure hope that cookies don't replace wedding cakes!

There is a certain symbolism associated with a wedding cake that a cookie buffet couldn't replace -- the joint act of cutting a cake together is a powerful image and sign of unity, and feeding each other cake too -- sharing the sweetness of life, nurturing each other, and so on.

That said, I am a cake lover, and am hard-pressed to remember a wedding where we had good cake! The best cake we ever had at a wedding was the one we made for friends (Martha recipes).

For the most part, weddings cakes have been about the decorations -- so now, every time I see a pristinely decorated cake with elaborate gum paste flowers, and other such embellishments, my heart sinks. I look for slightly lopsided layers, wobbly buttercream, or real flowers (fresh or sugared); these are the signs of delicious cake.

I even ordered a birthday cake once from the most famed local wedding cake maker, and sure enough, it was as dry and tasteless (but beautiful) as the wedding cakes I'd eaten.

Czechs actually have another traditional wedding sweet besides the cake, the "svatebni kolace", or wedding sweet "buns" (there is no English translation for kolace -- pronounced ko-LACH, sing., or ko-LACH-e). They are very small open-face pastries made of a light sweet bun dough, and filled with either cream cheese with raisins, ground poppy seeds, plum filling or ground nuts. Traditionally, friends and family bake these tiny morsels. Here is what they look like:

http://www.svetsvateb.cz/files/1180642590.jpg

I'm a very picky cookie person (love macarons, and tiny delicate cookies, hate drop and bar cookies), but Czech Christmas cookies, because they are tiny and quite decorative, would be nice for a wedding cookie buffet. Here are some pics:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Vanocni_cukrovi_2.JPG

http://img.mimibazar.cz/foto/10/080102/10/j11685.jpg

My fiance and I are having a wedding cake... but I'm likely to go with the teeny local bakery that we love and just get something that tastes lovely rather than buy a beautiful decorative piece that I'd rather not eat.

at my wedding last year we went with ice cream cake. Had one that was chocolate with chocolate ganache and the other vanilla, also with chocolate ganache. And it was a hit, there wasn't one piece of cake left.

I also baked about 500 cookies to use as favors for my guest. Each guest got 5 different cookies in a box at their table setting. Most were gone by the time they left.

i'm with jeni_rae and bobbybonita. there will be a cookie table at my nwpa wedding, and it's how the aunts and grandmas (and, in my case, the bride) get to contribute to the spread when you don't have the option of going with an all-homemade dinner. we're still having a wedding (cupcake)cake - and pie, as the groom's cake. no one HAS to eat everything, so there's no risk of a sugar overload unless they're into that kind of thing, and there's sure to be something everyone likes.

and faith - i really like your family's style. looks like it was wonderful!

Every Italian-American wedding I've been to, including my own, has offered cookies in addition to cake. Why not?

mschatelaine, yes! We had a local baker from Oakland (who made us a sample ahead of time, as Rucy suggests), and she was happy to add real flowers to our cake, none of your gum paste, thank you. People raved about that cake for months. :)

Cookies Rock!!! I have seen several wedding where beautiful elegant cookies were served instead. Every kind of cookie imaginable and my imagination runs pretty high for cookies. No more smashing of the cake into each others faces. As a wedding planner I've seen more than my fair share of anger over that one. And cake fights. LOL
Gulf Shores Beach Wedding

I have never, ever understood the cake smashing thing. What a mean thing to do with the person you've just promised to spend the rest of your life with!