All of the photography in this post was done by Lauren Rae Photography. In case it isn’t obvious, they were completely incredible. If you’re in Atlanta, I can’t recommend them highly enough!
Two days ago, Hubs and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I felt like this was a great time to post about the sugar heaven that was our wedding.
I’m just gonna say this up front: I did not bake everything that was at our wedding. I’m sure no one that has ever planned a wedding is surprised. I’ve never been the kind of person to daydream about my wedding and I am a horrendous party planner, so I was out of my element just trying to remember my shoes and ring. I’m kind of surprised I remembered my own name that day, to be honest.
So I got by… with a little help from my friends. (Har.)
The wedding was super, super sweets heavy. Once again, no surprise. Favors? Edible. Centerpieces? Edible. Desserts? Abundant. Candy? Why, yes! Weight gain? Wedding food doesn’t have calories, duh.
So the plan was as follows: meringue tower centerpieces, a massive spread of mini desserts (we only had about 50 guests, so thankfully this was reasonable), and a ton of candy.
First, the miniature desserts. These were made by two friends and myself. My friend Sara, a very talented pastry chef, created individual cups of tiramisu and chocolate mousse. I still dream about that tiramisu.
My friend Yolanda, also a talented chef, happens to make a mean key lime pie and white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. I made sure to request miniature versions of both.
As for my desserts, I just kind of winged it. I made them while trying to finish decoration crafts, and I hardly even remember the baking process. I ended up with a passionfruit mousse roll cake and some green tea cupcakes. Pro tip: don’t be impatient and let your mousse set up some before you roll it… though knowing that tip didn’t improve my patience in that hectic week. We also bought some baklava from a local bakery, because what am I, a wizard? Ain’t nobody got time for that the week of their wedding.
When it came to our candy bar, we were serious business. German candies were provided by the family flying in from over the pond. We added sour punch straws, Andes mints, and candy bracelets. I also provided some homemade candy in the form of German candied nuts. They’re a common street food in Germany around Christmas, and I felt like I could get away with serving them in February. Even if I couldn’t, I just really love Christmas enough to not care. I mean, we also had candy canes. We are rule breakers.
Even our drink situation was decidedly dessert-y. In addition to normal beverages, our caterer provided us with tasty, tasty hot cocoa. I also made wassail and a German hot Christmas punch known as Kinderpunsch. The hot cocoa bar had a ton of whipped cream, various toppings, and also some peppermint and vanilla bean marshmallows I made.
Off-topic from the sweets for a moment… my caterers, Big Girls Catering, were incredible. They were creative, helpful, and collaborated with me more than I ever imagined. I mean, look at this. Mismatched china. Adorable teacups. TINY BABY CHICKEN AND WAFFLE APPETIZERS? They were pure magic.
Alright, alright. Back to the sweets.
I mentioned our centerpieces were edible. Each table had a colorful little meringue tower. I made the meringues and got the cones set up, but Yolanda was sweet enough to arrive early and adhere all the cookies to the cones with royal icing before the reception.
Next up, the favors! I made and aged some extracts for 10 months before bottling them in wee erlenmeyer flasks. I kept a couple for myself, and I can attest to it being some of the strongest, most delicious flavoring ever. The vanilla was so rich that it was practically pitch black, and you could use about half as much as you’d use with storebought. The lemon was equally strong and scrumptious. I printed out recipe cards, too, in case anyone was just totally confused about what to do with the favors.
And finally… the cake! Leading up to the big day, I had a ton of people grill me about my wedding cake. I think most people assumed I’d want a massive, opulent cake with every difficult technique under the sun represented. It was actually the complete opposite: I was all fancy wedding caked out. In fact, for a while I was set on not having a cake at all. I cracked about two weeks before the wedding and admitted that we should probably have something to cut. As a result, I baked this little baby (6″ and 4″) strawberry cake. I iced it homestyle with buttercream that still had big flecks of vanilla bean in it. The Katamari Damacy cake toppers were made out of paper, and I used a little resin rose and some tulle to make it wedding-y.
And that was about it! I was super pleased with the variety we managed to get in, and I’m pretty sure our guests went home and took long naps after all that food.
Seriously, though, that tiramisu. Swoon.
I’ll finish the entry off with one non-dessert photo… just to provide proof that we are definitely massive nerds.
Live long and frost more. <3
We love Katamari!! They are such cute wedding toppers! All of the little cakes look amazing. I would have never thought to put passion fruit in a swiss roll, yet that is one of my favourite flavours 🙂 I hope it was a magical wedding!
Thank you, it was a wonderful day! I love that my husband approved of using the Prince/Princess as toppers; he always goes along with my silliness.
I may do the passion fruit swiss roll recipe down the road, it had mango chunks in it and was heavenly!
Habe sehr herzlich bei ‘Kinderpunsch’ , ‘German Candies’ und den Weihnachtsnüssen gelacht! Das Dessert-Menü scheint ein Traum gewesen zu sein! Habe mich ertappt von meiner eigenen Hochzeit zu träumen bei den ganzen Leckereien ^^
Das hier war PURE Inspiration!
By the way: Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Ich hoffe ihr habt euren Jahrestag genossen <3
Vielen Dank! Es war sehr, sehr schön!
Hi Katharina,
I ran across your site when your Sailor Moon recipes were featured somewhere. I am currently planning my own wedding and would love to make those same Katamari cake toppers. Would you happen to have the file or be able to direct me to where you got the file so I can get crafting? Thank you! Your site is wonderful!
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I actually just altered a Prince template I found online for the Princess, but I couldn’t it on my laptop, so I made a new one for you! It should look the same. I put both files up here! I can’t take credit for the original, obviously! You can also just go in in Paint or Photoshop or what have you to change the Princess’s hair color to be like yours. I hope this helps!
Thank you! It does!
Hey! It’s almost a year later, and I finished my cake topper that was inspired by yours. Just thought I would share! https://imgur.com/a/yVa9z
Thanks for sending me the template way back when!
Oh my gosh, how CUTE! I love the addition of the Katamari! You made it like 10x better.