Of Crepes, Donuts and Wedding Cakes
Sara from Roseville writes:
I am getting married in August and the biggest thing about a wedding with my family is the food. Being that neither of us are nuts about wedding cake, we decided to have mini Bismarcks frosted in our favorite flavors instead. I’m excited about that idea, but there’s still a little part of me that would like to do the traditional cake thing after dinner and then bring the mini donuts out with coffee later. However, just now as I was sitting down reading my latest Martha Stewart Weddings, this cake stole my heart:
http://www.ladymconfections.com/millecrepes.html
The problem of course is that it’s a bit expensive (especially shipping from NY) and we’re getting married in Tofte in the middle of summer. Do you know of any bakeries (or creperies for that matter) in the Twin Cities or north of here that do anything similar. Or do you think I’d be over doing it with both donuts and a cake?
Dear Sara,
Congrats on the upcoming wedding! That’s lovely. And that’s adorable about the mini-Bismarcks; I just finished a big donut story for the magazine so I have to ask: Who’s doing your donuts?
As to the question of crepes and cake, there’s really only a few creperies in town, and, in my opinion, they don’t do anything special. I’d skip them. Looking at the link you sent, I’m seeing that the bakery you fell in love with basically promises a stack of 20 six-inch or nine-inch crepes, interleaved with custard. These crepes are actually pretty small, which leads me to ask: Do you know how easy crepes are to make? My mom has an electric crepe-maker she’s had since at least the 1980s, you basically dip the hot, non-stick surface into a bowl of batter, lift, wait forty seconds or so, and poke it, at which point it peels off as a perfect crepe. It makes making pancakes look like a high-wire act. I’ve seen my mom make crepes while smoking, talking on the phone, yelling at kids, and opening the sliding door 800 times for assorted dogs and cats. Alternatively, you could get a real crepe pan (the kind you heat on the stove and pour batter into) and master that. Seth Bixby Daugherty, the former chef from Cosmos, once told me stove-top crepes were the first food his 10 year old daughter learned to whip up on her own. It’s not that hard! After all, Parisian street vendors do it; it’s not like making a soufflé. Or, at least it’s not any more difficult than making a dirty water hot dog on the streets of New York City.
My advice? Register for a crepe pan and a crepe cookbook. Make yourself a crepe-cake for one of your showers, or as a groom’s cake. This will get you A) your cake and B) the ability to make them for the rest of your life. They could even be something you have for your anniversaries for years to come.
And enjoy your wedding!
Posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 in Permalink
Comments may be edited for length, clarity, or appropriateness.
Reader Comments:
My husband and I weren't nuts about traditional cakes either, but our wedding was so nontraditional that my mother practically insisted on us having a "real" wedding cake. In hindsight, I'm glad we had the wedding cake.
The photos of us cutting the cake together make our wedding photo album just a bit more classic. Also, at our cocktail reception, we never got a chance to eat the fancy hors d'oervres we ordered, but we did have a few pieces of cake passed to us. It was the only food we ate at our wedding!
I filed this recipe away from the NY Times when I saw it back in 2005:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/magazine/15FOOD.html
I haven't tried it yet, but you've reminded me that I need to...
Wow -- the miracle of the internet! That is so awesome. Thank you for posting that, it is the exact recipe! I am just blown away. That is how to do it. Asked and answered. This whole computer thing, I see this going somewhere...
I like creative non-cake options, but I wonder... Do donuts or crepes freeze well enough for eating on your first anniversary??
Wait, what's this crepe maker you dip in the batter?!?! I'm a master of the swirl method in my nonstick fry pan (boy howdy does it impress the ladies!) but I'm beyond intrigued by the thought of just dipping a pan in the batter and coming up with a perfect crepe.
Google: Electric crepe pan and a bounty of small appliances will be revealed unto you! Like this one:
http://www.chefsresource.com/newvilelcrep.html
But if you can already make them in your nonstick fry pan, why clutter up the house with more gizmos? Doing it your way definitely adds bragging rights, it would be like trading in your sweet manual transmission muscle car for an automatic transmission grocery-getter.
As to the photography and freezing aspect: Hmm. I loooove the wedding photos from the series involving my big ultra-traditional cake, wouldn't trade them for the world, but while we froze the cake-top we forgot to eat it until 18 months later and then...blech. Nothing's more personal than weddings, so to each couple their own. Unfortunately, how to know what will make you happy in your memories is hard to predict!