A REAL WEDDING CAKE

[female]

ohh, so Wenn's fr Pine Garden as well! wat a coincidence. heres the contact: Wei Chan Tel: 6457 6159. its somewhere in ang mo kio. hes a nice chap, abit "angmoh pai".

hi soupie, i tasted the brownies at the bakery itself, and i think its better than the Pattisier's. i did manage to taste the cake in the end by swiping somebody else's, if u can believe that! the yam was delicious too, not too sweet.

hi silver, i had 200 guests, but like i said before, its like not enough, coz there werent much left. but we had chendol dessert too, so by rite, shldnt be that hungry anymore, so i really dont know wat happened.

general tip: becoz these cakes are made of fresh cream, they cannot be too tall, or else, cannot support the weight. the super-high dramatic ones u see in magazines are often made of Marzapan sugar, a kind of solidified heavy coating, hence can do a lot of fantastic decoration. but the coating taste like shit, and is expensive.

 

[soupie]

female, i always thot fresh cream can't stack this way.. but the height of ur cake or wenn's cake is good enuff for me.. actually it's wat i'm looking for! not going for super high with lots of tiers cakes which i find is passe already..

yeah.. marzapan sugar dun taste nice which i dun think it's worth it to have delicious cake covered with marzapan sugar.. so happy that fresh cream can have the same effect too hehe.. but just have to be careful when moving the cake around..

 

[silver]

Hi female,

Thanks for ur trip!

 

[dabee]

hey gals:

all your wedding look fanastic.
i really love the idea of having a wedding cake. but after my gals commented is a waste of money and mine is a poolside sit-down chinese dinner, the hotel said might be quite "messy" if i going to have a real wedding cake, might melt blar blar blar.... BUT after hearing what you gals commented, I really wan a wedding cake. would it be weird if my diner dun serve dessert but the wedding cake? can anyone brief me about the serving of the cake to my guests? the hotel staff would cut and guest would queue up at a corner to collect????!!! many thanks

 

[soupie]

dabee, i think it's better that u still have the hotel dessert plus the cake.. the wedding cake serving would be quite small per pax.. so unless u're going to cater a considerable size for each pax (like the 1 pc cake that u buy from bakery) which will take a bigger cake and of cos more costly.... i dun think the hotel would deduct much if u wanna take out the dessert.. so unless they are willing to deduct considerably.. then can consider replacing the dessert with cake completely.

i guess it's better that u get the hotel staff to cut and serve the cake to each table since u're having a sitdown dinner.

 

[female]

hi dabee,

melting cake is the biggest disadvantage - u hv to keep track of time. a fresh cream cake can be left outdoors for at most 2 hours (mine was an outdoor evening thingy).

u hv to get the hotel to serve - its too much work & u'll be too busy. naturally, the hotel will resist, coz more work for them mah.

i feel that since urs is a chinese sit-down dinner, dessert is still impt, coz not everybody, esp the elderly, like cake. plus, like soupie say, u'd need a big cake to adequately feed all. for mine, the caterer just placed a platter of tiny slices on each table (we served chinese dessert beforehand).

btw, in western culture, the couple will keep the top tier & freeze it. they will then take it out & eat only on the 1st yr anniversary. weird rite. yucks.

 

[alhana]

Hi DaBee

In my case, we didn't serve the cake to the guests. I had a buffet-style dinner, and there was already different types of cakes available on the buffet line. So what we did was cut the cake, pass it to the hotel staff, and they helped us divide it into big portions (the portions took up ard 4 or 5 avg sized cake boxes) to take home. When we chked out, we collected them and gave some to close relatives and kept the rest. As not everyone wld like to eat cake (esp after a 8 course chinese dinner), u may wanna think abt doing this. At least u'll get to taste ure own wedding cake

Hi female,

I think the freezing can only work for certain cakes like fruit cakes. They still taste really good after being frozen for a looong time

Not sure if it'll work for other types of cakes tho. And u have to pack it properly so it wun absorb moisture n raw food smells (ewwww)

 

[mtmtmt]

My hotel absorbed 5 kgs for me, plus charged me $35+++/ kg for the remaining 15kg ie. = total 20kg for $600 nett, served to 400 people with top tier for me to freeze for anniversary tradition.

Fruitcake with marzipan, no pillars in between so stacked directly on each other- 5 tiers altogether so quite tall. They ended up giving me between 25-30kg (depending on who you believe lah). I asked for no decoration- did my own: preserved red cherries on cream petals, strings of diamante and crystal figurines. Cost of decorations = $90. They returned the crystals to me... but they were misplaced during clear-up

my helpers all assumed the other helpers handled that

We cut the cake from top to down right through all 5 tiers so it didn't look like some pretty mock cake after we were done with it (frankly, I didn't trust that there's no mock layers inside so this satisfied me), ate the cherries off the cake. The hotel staff were pretty nervous taking down the cake (which the photog noted, further highlighted it was a real cake).

Each person was served a small slice, tasted good but of course not the BEST fruitcake ever (which ideally should have the dried fruits soaked for months in liquor and the cake all moist and brown with liquor...)

About the size of the usual wrapped fruitcake favours) without the marzipan- that's thrown away lah, just to give the white look and firmness. Leftover 4 boxes all distributed to our parents, and my top tier boxed up for us

Yah, fruitcake (which has liquor) is only recommended for the freezing tradition... anything else bound to give you poisoning, man.

BTW I had negotiated to have cake from OTHER vendors in my contract (to save costs since hotel cakes are notoriously over-priced), also visited and tried Pine Garden's cake but there were doubts over whether they could do a high cake as I wanted (they don't do fruitcake marzipan, which presents the anniversary freezing problem too). Also, my hotel was willing to absorb 5 kgs price and charged very reasonably for fruitcake (fruitcake usually quite expensive, but in the end I paid $600 nett for a 25-30kg fruitcake).

 

[female]

wah MTMTMT, ur cake is by far, the HUGEST i've ever heard

5 tier/25kg!! u put in a lot of effort for ur cake, got photo or not? and there i was, thinking 10kg was too much

but the overall price u paid is quite reasonable. the 1st place i went to (which is v famous) quoted $70 per kg for marzipan. ouch.

yup, Pine Garden dont do marzipan-anything, so the max height is prob like Wenn's or my cake.

 

[mtmtmt]

Hi female, we had alot of guests and better to err on the generous side than not enough. Been eating alot of fruitcake for breakfast and still not sian yet leh... maybe eating your own wedding cake just tastes better in your mind

Pine Garden actually promised me a tall 5-tier cake too in triple choc (which is soft, they wanted to try using cardboard layers between each tier) but I wasn't so sure I wanted to take the chance.

Price-wise, if you talk about simple vanilla spongecake- PC (being a HDB neighbourhood set-up) was only marginally cheaper than my hotel's quote for vanilla spongecake? When talking to my hotel chef, he firmly refused to do my 5-tier cake in vanilla spongecake cos too soft in his opinion to hold up.

 

[silver]

Hi gals,

I am like Dabee considering to replace real cake wif dessert but looks like I really ve to think twice now...

Dabee,
I was considering to get the staff to cut n serve individual table as dessert...

MTMTMT,
Wow your cake is huge!

female & soupie,
Wouldn't it be too much to ve dessert + cake cos I realised that ppl dun even take dessert cos they are already full by then?

 

[mtmtmt]

Hi silver I had TWO desserts ie. I didn't remove the dessert I had all along.

It was a sweet clear soup, not filling but with hao-yu-tou (good significance- Happiness til Eternity?). Really small slices so you get the yummy-but-not-overfed feeling. Served at same time as the fruitcake slices so no time wastage either.

Then again maybe if can save abit of money by removing 1 dessert, why not? (Didn't occur to me... duh, very last-minute!)

Do note that some people like to run/ beat the crowd by missing dessert, so don't be too disappointed if that happens (mine we tried to minimise by finishing early for weekday... mum also kept telling people must stay for fruitcake haha).

 

[soupie]

silver, my dessert is similar to MT's.. it's a clear sweet soup... something like chng tng.. with dates, nuts, longan etc etc.. so i think it would go nicely with the cake.. but really.. dun expect to have a considerable serving for each guest cos it would take a very big cake if there are more than 200 guests.

MT, hey i think it's a good idea to tell the guests abt the wedding cake... guess it's something refreshing and guests would stay to have a taste instead of all rushing off

 

[dabee]

hey Soupie Female MTMTMT Sliver

Thanks very much for your suggestions!

Will pester my husband regarding the cake again. hee hee hee

good night. *yawn*

 

[mtmtmt]

I agree with soupie, a slice about the size of the fruitcake FAVOURS you receive is good enough, not birthday cake slice lor.

Don't waste giving more- excess can bring home and slowly consume yourselves/ your family too. As for cake size it's personal preference

choose as you please, I wanted bigger but all real with no mock to fake the volume.

Dabee, your contract allows you to bring own vendor cake? If yes, alot more options

and can always bargain with hotel too to absorb some kilos/ price since holding banquet with them.

Am very satisfied with my cake, cutting such a big cake is once in lifetime, next time I where got chance... unless lucky enough for liushi dashou (60th birthday) ah? Hahaha. By which time relatives dunno who liao, peers also half foot elsewhere, want to muster such a big guest list very difficult

 

[wenn]

hi every1

just came back from my short HM....

hi female,
yah, my cake's from Wei too! in fact, will be going down later to return him the glass plate that held my cake. we took it home by mistake

 

[female]

hi wenn, hope u had a gd HM. issit that green glass plate??? it sounds silly, but that plate actually helped in my decision coz i kept thinking "ah, the color will match the flowers". vain rite

silver, mine was chendol dessert, which i wld think is quite heavy, that's why the cake serving was small, more like a token bite. or, like MTMTMT, u can serve the other way round: light desert, bigger slice of cake.

just to emphasize again abt time-keeping when u hv real cake. we were late in cutting by an hour, which means it has been outdoors for about 3 hours. apparently, my caterer had a messy time cutting it coz it was starting to melt already. but it still looked ok, just not so pretty when sliced.

 

[soupie]

if it's in hotel.. won't melt so fast eh? wat abt the lighting on stage.. will it cause the cake to melt also?

 

[female]

yup, if its in air-con, wont melt so fast. but direct lighting/spotlight will be very bad. anyway, i was referring to fresh cream cakes. if yours is the marzipan type, no problem at all. the sugar coating is like armour.

 

[silver]

Hihi...

Ok will talk to my bf dan decide on dessert n cake. I ve actually spoken to my dinner venue mgr saying that I would like to replace ice craving & dessert to real cake. Now waiting for their reply.

Female,
So you ve the cake there even b4 ur dinner start?

 

[wenn]

hi female,
nope, mine was just a big square piece of glass. but looks good as there were extra rose petals on the glass plate. i think i've seen a photo of ur cake b4

 

[female]

hi silver,
so the restaurant itself is doing the food isst? dunno why, i keep thinking you're catering. have u had a sample taste of their cake? if u're gonna replace the dessert, the cake better be good, or else the guests will find more things to complain (on top of the usual "place very far" "hard to find" etc).
yup, my cake was on "display" fr cocktail onwards on coz want to show off that its real mah. we were supposed to cut it immediately after solemniz but the JP was 45mins friggin late, plus some VIP late also, so cut later.

 

[girlfriend]

hi pple,

my coordinator recommended a bakery near world trade centre nxt to prima revolving restaurant. Does anyone know what name is it? She couldnt recall the name of the bakery too. She juz know that itz located somewhere along that stretch.

For around 330 guests, many kgs do i haf to order? Anyone knows?

 

[girlfriend]

hi pple,

my coordinator recommended a bakery near world trade centre nxt to prima revolving restaurant. Does anyone know what name is it? She couldnt recall the name of the bakery too. She juz know that itz located somewhere along that stretch.

For around 330 guests, many kgs do i haf to order? Anyone knows?

 

[silver]

Hi female,

Ya rsyc will cook the food. They ve the chef mah. The mgr has not get back on whether can exchange to real cake or not cannt finalise anything now...

 

[bride0712]

Wow, some of really had a good deal. I'm paying almost $700 for a 3-tier cake with only a 12" base. Boo hoo hoo!!!

 

[cody]

Hi girlfriend,

At the time i was researching for a real cake, 1kg can only serve about 18people max (small slices).

 

[girlfriend]

Hi all,

I found a website one someone who specialize in wedding cakes.

On the website, the cakes look heavenly.. not sure about the price though

 

[fairybride]

hi girlfriend,

Could u share the website with me? Thanks!

 

[girlfriend]

hi fairbride,

i think i cant type the website out, it was "banned"..

if you r interested, drop me a mail.

click my nick for my email.

 

[fondant]

Hi girlfriend
Most wedding planners recommend catering 1 kg of cake for every 10 guests but I guess it all depends on how large the slices are!

People have mentioned Pine Garden's wedding cakes previously, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I've tasted their cakes and they were really yummy! You can view their wedding cakes at http://www.photoshow.net/redir_ss.php?show=BqYCYoLsc

If you like what you see, just ring Wei - he's their Business Development Manager - Tel: 6457 6159

 

[c0co]

I really like what I see!!!! Can I try his cakes this XMAS? hehe... yummy... I mean does he do non wedding cakes?

 

[mtmtmt]

Just got all pics- my cake here.

 

[mtmtmt]

We slashed it through all the tiers (and I fed HB a cherry to emphasise it's real).
They were having some problems moving it too, cherries were rolling off.
Cake was simply served at the end.

 

[mtmtmt]

Pics of above post here.
If anyone is thinking of marzipan fruitcake like mine, I advise to get much bigger than you need... cos on top of serving as dessert to all guests, you could takeaway some big chunks- distribute to PILs and own parent and your own new home consumption, not counting if you intend to distribute to colleagues (we didn't give colleagues- not enough :/ ).
Especially since fruitcake keeps so well in the fridge, there's no harm in a larger volume (also fruitcake is dense/ heavy so LOOKS smaller than airier sponge cakes).

I should have gotten a 40kg cake to douse with RUM at home and "rebake". *hic*
Someone actually commented my 25kg cake was small *whimpers* (yah, compared to the mock cakes of course it's small lah)

 

[fondant]

Hi CoCo

Yup, Pine Garden does non-wedding cakes too, e.g. Christmas cakes/yule logs, birthday cakes, etc. Just give Wei a call and ask him for more information.

 

[soupie]

MT, your cake is HUGE already!! of cos cannot compare with dummy cake.. it'll cost a bomb if the size is same as those dummy cake! btw, ur pics look like something out a catalogue.. sooo coool

i love the pic where u were holding a pc of ur cake in ur kua.. nice!

 

[girlfriend]

hi fondant,

I was thinking to b abit more cheapo. I remember when I bought one half kg cake, we shared among 10 or more colleagues ... of coz the slices are really small..

 

[c0co]

hi MT, how much did the wedding cake cost and where did you get it from?

 

[mtmtmt]

Hi coco,
20kg marzipan fruitcake (even and sufficient distribution of the fruit pieces but nowhere alcoholic enough) from my hotel (they gave abt 25kg and "absorbed" quite a few kgs charge too, serves at least 400 pax = $600 incl. taxes.
DIY decorations (cherries, swarovski diamante strands, crystal figurines).

They provided the fresh flower centrepiece in front of the cake, laid something like VIP table clothing on the table, while the petals were strewn by me. During cake cutting, placed hand bouquet on the side for decoration

They prepared a SMALL dry ice bucket so that base of the cake is clothed in dry ice fumes... quite dreamy. Let me find a pic of that.

All in, mine is a rather traditional set-up (except without intricate victorian cake icing decorations)... may not be for everyone

 

[mtmtmt]

Hi soupie,
hehe actually my fave pic is this. Was not very trusting (what if they hid mock layers inside and simply prepared cheaper sheet cake to be served in the kitchen)... so asked HB to slice all the way through so I could see

They had no idea which side we were going to cut either.

 

[fondant]

Hi girlfriend
Wow, that's cool. That would mean 1 kg of cake can feed 20 people. Would you mind telling me roughly how big each slice was so I can estimate if it's okay for my needs? I think 5 x 6cm should be okay - what do you think?

Hi MT
Your cake is really really beautiful! And such a good price too. Which hotel baked it? I would love to get a similar one!

 

[girlfriend]

hi fondant,

I would think 3cm(width) by 7cm (length) would be sufficient. Anyway there would be food serve during the seat down dinner and some of them wont even eat the cake.. so too large a piece is wasteful & sinful hehehe..

They can always ask for second helpings if they really like the cake.

Btw, I have email pine garden & supposed he can work around my limited budget & 300 guest list.

I am also meeting up with another cake designer in Jan, keep u informed of my final choice.

WLd u like the website & contact of the cake designer than I am meeting up in Jan? Her cakes look delicious too!

 

[mtmtmt]

Hi fondant,
my hotel was Meritus Mandarin- you should check with YOUR hotel to see if they'd absorb some charges and so on
I checked out Pine too and tried his triplechoc- tasted good, good service from him too, unfortunately my hotel gave a better deal for what I wanted (tall cake which Pine's sponge cakes may be abit more tricky... I didn't want to take the chance). I calculated- for the number of kgs my hotel gave, it worked out to about $28/kg for fruitcake (normally fruitcake is more expensive than most cakes... though of course Pine's triplechoc is using German chocolate).

Shop around and explore your options

I only confirmed my cake a week before my wedding which is abit later than I would advise though.

 

[soupie]

hi girlfriend, can i have the contact and website of the cake designer? thanks!

[email protected]

 

[girlfriend]

Soupie,

Sent. I have given you two contacts.

 

[soupie]

hi girlfriend, thanks for the contact

 

[fondant]

hi girlfriend
yes please send me the contact info - could you P'msg me?

thanks for the info, MT!

 

[girlfriend]

hi fondant,

can u leave your email address here? I cant pm you the info coz your pm was not enable.

 

[c0co]

hi girlfriend... u talked to cedele yet? Any comments on the wedding cake?