Dessert ideas beyond the wedding cake

The wedding cake is the main sweet note in a wedding. However, you can score extra points for originality with the rest of the desserts as well. From splendid buffets entirely dedicated to chocolate, to exclusive pastry confections, both are options that can contribute to raising the party’s sugar levels!

• Wherever town or city you are from, there is bound to be a typical sweet from that place. Why not serve delicious local cakes, but in miniature size? Use your imagination and give tradition a modern twist.
• Do you have a favorite dessert place that serves the most decadent dessert, the one that tastes like pure heaven? Order it and include it in your wedding day menu – your guests will love the fact that you were willing to share one of your most secret pleasures.
• Is there a traditional sweet that is specifically from the place where you both grew up? It would be a great idea to include some of your sweet history in your wedding.
• Include a special sweet that will remind everyone of their childhood. Who doesn’t remember giant bubblegum, popcorn, lollipops, gummy bears, caramels or those delicious mini-chocolate bars? Whatever you choose, it will definitely be so much fun to include in the wedding, even as a wedding favor: fill various glass jars with these treats and place little bags by them, so guests can fill up on their favorites and take them home.
• There is always that special dessert that comforts us when we’re feeling down:  cookies and cream ice cream, chocolate cake with whipped cream, vanilla pudding, caramel sundae – whatever dessert makes us happy will surely make others happy as well.
• Travelling is always a great source of inspiration. If you both like to travel, create a buffet of desserts from the countries you’ve visited. If you’ve been to Morocco and tasted their delicious date cake; if you’ve visited Greece and eaten the honey and pistachio baklava; if you’ve travelled to Italy you’ve definitely tried the traditional cannolis; if you’ve been to Paris  you’ve had the delicious macaroons… than, the world is sweet and your wedding dessert table should be too!

Personalizing the wedding menu’s desserts

Include your monogram on a variety of desserts, on cookies, on the dessert dishes, on whatever you feel is appropriate – just make sure it’s tasteful. Speak to the chef responsible for the desserts and pastries about all the different possibilities that are available. When you speak to the caterer or the head chef, always be very specific about everything, including the desserts. If you want a specific dessert, show them a photograph of it and even take the recipe if possible – this way they’ll know exactly what you’re looking for; otherwise you may be disappointed because while caramel pudding might look and taste a certain way to you, it may look and taste a totally different way to the caterer or the head chef.

How to serve desserts

If you’d like to include a large variety of desserts on the menu, then maybe a dessert buffet is the best idea. Even if the main course was a sit-down lunch or dinner, serving a dessert buffet is a perfectly plausible option. Once they’ve finished their meal, guests can get up and serve themselves from the dessert buffet table. Although this option is more costly, it allows the guests to mingle, which in turn creates a more dynamic and lively party. A dessert buffet can be anything from an elegant Viennese table to something more traditional and homey – it all depends on the wedding’s theme and the ambience you wish to create. The possibilities are endless: from a buffet of candy and treats, to a buffet of chocolate or caramel desserts…

Once you’re ready to have dessert served, do it with style: have a small wedding cake made just so that it can be cut by the bride and groom and then serve each guest a miniature of the wedding cake, in the form of a present. Present the miniature cake as if it is a luxurious gift – put it in a small paper box with a satin ribbon and place one on each guests’ plate. The guests will definitely have a “WOW” moment!

Dessert ideas:

• Chocolate buffet – for those addicted to chocolate, this buffet will be true paradise. Truffles, chocolate liquor, hot chocolate… place everything so that it will appear to your guests that they are looking at a chocolaterie window display in Paris.
• Miniature desserts – create a buffet of mini-desserts. A display of miniature cakes, puddings and anything else you can imagine, can be very charming.
• Ice cream truck – do you know those ice cream trucks that exist by the beach or that were around when you were kids? How about having one at your wedding? It would be perfect for an outdoor party: have all kinds of ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes and of course an ice cream man to serve them up.