By Sherry Rujikarn, Good Housekeping
No, not a wedding cheesecake (although tha would be delicious too), but rather a wedding cake made of cheese. My husband, Matt, and I recently got married and for our wedding, we decided to forgo the traditional tiered cake of sugar and flour for one consisting entirely of one of our favorite foods:
CHEESE!
I wish I could take all the credit for this creative invention, but I was actually inspired by one that the California Milk Advisory Board brought us years ago, before I was even engaged. As kooky as this concept might seem, it made
[post_ads]perfect sense to me and Matt. Neither of us is big on sweets, but we love cheese and believe that the cheese course is an underappreciated tradition.For those of our guests who feel a celebration just isn't a celebration without cake, we also offered afull dessert buffet of cookies, cupcakes, pastries, and ice cream sandwiches, but we thought a cheese course between dinner and dessert
would make our special day that much more personal. Here's a guide for building and serving your very own wedding cheese cake:
Where do we buy the cheese?
The best option is a shop that specializes in
cheese. They'll have the best selection and most knowledgeable staff. We went to Murray's Cheese here in NYC and the cheese monger we worked with was absolutely fantastic. If you don't have a cheese shop nearby, a gourmet or specialty food shop with a large cheese section would work too.
Which cheeses should we get?
We went with 3 very different, but complementar types that we loved and that we thought everyone would enjoy. For the bottom tier, we chose a sharper, aged Italian cheese. Sharper cheeses, like Cheddar or Manchego, are typically the biggest wheels so they're best for your bottom layer. Our middle layer was a washed-rind cow's milk cheese that was complex and nutty. Lastly, for our top layer, we chose a grassy, but mild sheep's milk cheese.
How much should we get?
Our cheese monger suggested about 1½ oz. per
guest (total, not of each cheese). Remember that 16 oz. = 1 lb. So, for
example, for a wedding of 125 guests, you'll want at least 11.7 lbs. of cheese
(1.5 oz. x 125 guests = 187.5 oz. / 16 oz. = 11.7 lbs. of cheese total).
Depending on how many guests you have, you
might want to get multiple wheels of some of the tiers. Our middle and top layers were too small to slice up for 125 guests, so we simply got an extra one of those two layers and had them kept in the back, only displaying one of each on the actual "cake."
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How do we decorate it?
There are tons of options no matter the overall theme/décor of your wedding. If your wedding veers more towards rustic/vintage chic, try edible flowers and lacy trim around the base of each tier. For an earthier wedding, use sprigs of herbs, miniature lady apples, and cascading champagne grapes. If your wedding is a little more formal like ours was, try mirrored accents (like our monogrammed cake topper) and white ceramic flowers. Candles andn ribbons are also easy, inexpensive decorative elements that come in a million colors to suit any theme or palette.
How do we serve it?
After we did the traditional cake cutting, the waitstaff divvied up each type of cheese into 125 portions, plated them, and served them to each guest, just like they would with a wedding cake. You could also display the cheese with crackers, preserves, and fruit, and have guests serve themselves.
What do we serve it with?
[post_ads]Crackers are always a good idea. Different fruit preserves (especially fig and apricot) are also lovely, especially in cute, individual jars that guests could take with them as souvenirs or, if your wedding is more casual, you could have a few jams in larger, communal jars (maybe mason jars?) at the center of the table. We served ours with platters of fruit and crackers that were placed in the middle of the table.
Other Tips:
- Measure the diameter of your top tier if you're
going with a cake topper to make sure they're in proportion to each other.
- There will be "cutting the cheese" jokes. It is inevitable. Don't sweat it!
- One thing to remember when choosing your
cheeses is how the layers look assembled. There was one cheese we really liked,
but it just didn't look right on top of our bottom layer (it was the same
width), so we went with a different one.
- Be honest about the total amount you want to
spend when you consult your cheese monger. There are so many options in all
different price ranges. He/she will be able to steer you towards the cheeses that won't
blow your budget, but are still delicious.
- Just like with a regular wedding cake, don't
forget to bring your own cutlery to cut the cake-just remember, instead of a
spatula and cake knife, you should bring a pretty cheese knife like this beauty we received off our registry.
This
was our way of celebrating our marriage, but maybe you're not a cheese
person. During my months of wedding planning, I've also seen some
fabulous nontraditional wedding "cakes" made of donuts, French macarons, cream puffs, and cupcakes. The important thing is to find something YOU both love. The sky's the limit!
