My cake saga...

I don't have a wedding cake.

I am getting married in 2 1/2 months and I have yet to find a cake in Charleston that makes me happy. I have bakeries in the DC area that I love like:

Pastries by Randolph

Heidelberg Bakery

Firehook Bakery

Bittersweet

So if you're getting married in the area, definitely check those places out.

My dilemma is that I think I might be too particular about what I want. I want a three layer cake, iced in butter cream, ivory colored. First and biggest layer is white cake, second is carrot cake, and last and best layer is pumpkin chocolate chip. The white cake from Heidelberg and Randolph are my favorite. Bittersweet and Firehook make my fave carrot cake. My boss's wife makes the best pumpkin chocolate chip cake. I cannot find a baker in the Charleston area that has combined two of the three desired cakes flavors or who makes cakes like the bakeries listed up top. I am a little bummed.

So today while browsing the wedding section of The Daily Candy I came across ideas for "Cake Alternatives." I thought about their suggestions...

One idea was to serve mini-cakes. There is a baker in Charleston who makes really cute petit fours that I think would be a near alternative to a large cake or even cupcakes. So that might be an alternative worth looking at.

The other option suggested was mini-donuts.

(image found on: http://melissabagley.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/new-wedding-trend-donuts/)

While I am never one to shy away from donuts and I think there is a definite cuteness, even chic-ness to this (as seen in the delicious pic above), I just don't know if I want donuts in lieu of a wedding cake. I love donuts....I am in love with cake. There goes suggestion # 2.

The third suggestion was wedding pie. Next to cake I think I love pie second. We are having a fall wedding so maybe some Thanksgiving themed pies would be great. I thought mini pies would be cool:

But those really look like they work better as wedding favors. No pie for me.

The last suggestion was having an ice-cream sundae bar. Again, this is more an alternative to a coffee or candy bar, or in addition to those things. So as much as I love the idea of all these alternatives, I think in the end I want a good old traditional wedding cake. Wish me luck as the search continues!

What do you think of the alternatives? Have you found your cake yet?

Creating the menu

First of all, I've gotta say, our tasting was incredible. Simply, incredible. No other words.

Aside from the stuff that we picked out, there was much more to think about than I initially thought. The combo of food - hors d'uerves v. entrees v. appetizers v. salads. Desserts v. wedding cake. One bite hors d'uerves or two? You don't want anything too messy. Or something that might drip.

So here are the pictures. Everything was delightful. Seriously, I can't say enough great things about it all.

Passed Hors D'uerves. My favorites? The stuffed Cherry tomatoe, the mini beef wellington, the chicken saltimboca and the spanikopita.

First course: Lobster Ravioli, Mushroom Ravioli, Lobster Bisque. Favorite and likely option: Mushroom ravioli.




Salad choices: Caprese salad (delicious!), Boston Bibb Salad, Mixed Greens salad, and chefs choice: Ceasar salad - though an excellent display, it's still a ceasar salad. Likely choice: Boston Bibb. It had an amazing dressing that was light and refreshing. The caprese was delish also though. Tough choice.



Entrees: (top to bottom) chilean sea bass was a win. Will definitely be on the menu. They gave us a couple of "duets" to try which are more expensive and though everything was REALLY good (filet mignon w/maryland crab cake and then some sort of chicken with stuffed shrimp) they're a little out of our budget. The salmon was ok. But the chicken and sea bass were definitely winners.

As far as dessert goes - the cappuccino cake was the winner out of these (chocolate truffle being too heavy but delish no less, and the petit french pastries just being though tasty, kind of m'eh.) though we're likely going to not pick any of these since we probably won't serve two types of cake for dessert.

So kids, there you have it. My five course lunch on Friday. Goodness I can't wait for the wedding!

Tasting Ahoy!

As of tomorrow, it will have been one whole year since fiance and I got engaged. A whole year! As of today, we're exactly three months out from getting hitched. Man, I don't even want to think of all that's left to do.

But today, we kind of celebrate. Celebrate this one year of being engaged/three months till the big day with a tasting at our reception venue! Our tasting is a three hour long tasting, with three hor doerves, three salads, three appetizers, three entrees and three desserts.

I don't think we'll need lunch OR dinner today just so you know.

What are we tasting? ...

Hors D'oerves

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes
Garlic and Herb Cheese

Mini Mozzarella and Cherry Tomato Skewers
Basil and Extra virgin Olive Oil

Spanikopita

APPETIZERS

Lobster Bisque
En Croute

Mushroom Ravioli
Sautéed Chanterelles
Parmesan Cheese

Lobster Ravioli
Sherry Lobster Cream Sauce

SALAD

CHC Mixed Greens
Raspberries, Kalamata Olives,
Crumbled Goat Cheese,
Roasted Walnuts
Red Wine Vinaigrette

Vine Ripened Tomatoes
Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and Basil
Balsamic Vinaigrette

Boston Bibb
Walnuts, Raspberries, Tear Drop Tomatoes
Lemon Vinaigrette

MAIN COURSE

Pan Seared Filet of Salmon
Lobster Sauce
Mushroom and Tomato Risotto

Cilantro and Fennell Crusted Breast of Chicken
Israeli Couscous
Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce

Sesame Crusted Striped Bass
Orange Ginger Sauce
Sticky Rice

DESSERT

Cappuccino Cake
Chocolate Truffle Cake
Array of Mini French Pastries & Petit Fours

Expect pictures and the final menu next week! Did I mention we have a cake tasting set up for tomorrow???

Top Chef: Season 5 Premier at Good Stuff Eatery

This post is long overdue, but as many of you know, I'm still trying to play catch-up on my posts. Now, if you haven't realized by now from all my posts on food, I'm a little infatuated with anything culinary and the epicurean lifestyle. (I'm only getting started on register for all the kitchen tools I will actually be using and have expressed a need for in the last 2 years.)

Naturally, I am a major fan of Bravo's Top Chef. You can imagine, therefore, my excitement when Chef Spike Mendohlson opened Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill this summer - so excited, that I went there twice after its opening week: First, my new co-workers drove me there all the way from Ballston to try out the place and check out the space. Second, I met my former co-workers there after a reception on the Hill. It was wonderful and I won't even tell you about how giddy I became when I spoke to Chef Spike as he expedited the orders while I waited in line. He's very charming. Let's leave it at that.

So, of course I watched the premier of Season 5 of Top Chef in style last Wednesday at Good Stuff Eatery ! Spike invited me via email (and the rest of his restaurant's subscribers) as he was on Twitter for the show. Lauren and I arrived super early to fend off the non-existent lines (I mean, it was packed. I wouldn't recommend going ;). We sampled Ryan's Milky Way milkshake (divine). Then we shared the famed Toasted Marshmallow milkshake.

This little beauty was, seriously, a girl scout campfire in your mouth-minus the fire and the mosquitos. Somehow, you could taste the toasted outside of the marshmallow in the milky ice cream concoction - almost like you were slurping off the outside of the marshmallow and it turned liquid in your mouth. Heaven. Milky, marshallowy, heaven.

At 11 PM, Chef Spike offered beer on the house to all of us watching the show (they normally close at 11 M-F), but the premier went until 11:15 PM - super special. It was aroud this time that I summoned up the courage to ask him to sign my Top Chef cookbook that Lauren gave me for my birthday.

And, like the gracious host he is, he greeted all of his guests at the door. I will definitely be back for future showings - but I definitely recommend that you check out his place if you haven't. I'm not sure if the restaurant caters yet, but this would be a great little site to show your visiting friends and family that is unique to D.C.

Ray's Hell Burgers

Recently we dined at Ray's Hell Burgers in Rosslyn for a quick Thursday night date. It was delicious!! The space is small, but the burgers are larger than life! Check out how thick that Swiss Cheese is!
The meat was cooked to perfection and they have several exotic combinations from which to choose.

I looove mini-anything to be served at our wedding reception, especially later on in the evening after many of the guests have been dancing the night away. I'm not sure if we'll try to do something like sliders and grilled cheese or more breakfasty - like Early Risers (fried egg and ham or bacon on an English muffin or bagel) and mini French Toast. I have a theory that sliders will be the cupcakes and mini-grilled cheese will be the new sliders. But until then, I will still enjoy them all.

Where are you getting your reception menu inspiration?

A Heart Attack in Waiting

We got an email from our planner at our reception hall (well, restaurant) yesterday. He started the email by saying "this is worst case scenario, we can talk about all options next week."

110 people. Open bar, roaming appetizers, and steak for entree's for $13,000. I did have the heart attack as our planner suspected I might. But then I thought about it and in all reality isn't that horrible. Especially considering I know people who have spent $50k on weddings.

Unfortunately, my budget is much much smaller than that. I'm blessed with a father who's giving us a decent chunk of change, unfortunately that chunk is not even half of the $13,000. I have a mother who is trying to help, future in laws who want to help and well...Fiancé and I are just trying to pay down debt and save. The two aren't exactly helpful...but it's what we got and we've gotta make like Project Runway and "make it work."

We managed to look at the proposal last night, the options we were given, and knock it down to around $4500 not including tax and gratuity. Not too shabby. Of course we're also knocking a chunk of our guest list down, inviting about 100 people instead of 120 and expecting about 75 because about 90% of our guests are from out of town. This is down from an original guest list of about 150.

Earlier in the week, I was about to have a major bridezilla moment if I didn't get that proposal, considering we expected it back in September. Luckily, I kept Bridezilla GP in the box and tamed myself. Glad I did because despite the fact that the planner has been slightly MIA over the past month and a half he's a good guy and wants to make this into exactly what we want. Awesome. It is entirely doable, we might not have a lot of appetizers, but we've been at weddings where the appetizers were all devoured, at weddings that had a sushi chef, various carving and pasta stations as well as a stir fry sous chef - while it's all lovely, I could barely eat my meal after that and was so stuff I could barely dance. I don't want that at my wedding, maybe a nice cheese spread, maybe. Knowing my family, they'll all be crowded around the bar anyhow. But for me it's an extra $2,000 that well...to be honest, we can't really afford.

My family members from Vermont aren't exactly... super classy. Many of them are borderline...hillbillies, bless their hearts, I love them to death but they are. My family (either side fyi), have not had the classiest of weddings over the years. For example, of the weddings that I've been to of family members; one of my cousins wedding was in her mothers back yard with my younger cousins getting drunk in the basement (I was 19 and no, I was not in the basement, I was driving). Another cousin's wedding, which I was a flower girl in at the age of 4, ended up with two family members in a fist fight. My grandmother's wedding in 2001 (yes my maternal grandmother remarried at the age of 70) had my uncle and cousins doing jello shots. So I don't think appetizers are a deal breaker in whether my family has fun or not. Fiancé's family is a bit more classy than mine, but I think the FMIL would rather invite ten more of her friends (that the room won't fit) than have appetizers - if it came down to that option (which it won't). I'm not a scrooge here, or even a "bridezilla." I just know that my family, at the very least, will likely all be getting down on the dance floor with their Miller Lights not enjoying the baked brie or crab dip during the "cocktail hour."

What about you all? Are appetizers - roaming or a spread - a necessity at your wedding or just an added cost that you don't want to deal with?

Chocolate looooove

I'm no where near deciding what we want for our reception food, but I've always loved the idea of a creative dessert bar - more interactive than say cute hurricanes filled with jelly beans and chocolates. Yes, I know. Martha does wonderful settings of them, but I feel like the guests will appreciate something more interactive - and the tastier the better! Behold, Exhibit A:

Photo Cred

Vosges Haut-Chocolat is has added a special events division. How fun are these adorable shooters and truffles? I lurve anything mini or in shooters. Tres chic! They also make chocolates in exotic flavors, like chili peppers and spices! And they can do tastings and pairings. Mmmm.