Photo: Khaki Bedford Photography
Meet our guest blogger, Carey Polis, senior web editor at Bon Appétit magazine. From her food-filled proposal to figuring out a menu, Carey has taken us through the process of all things edible when it comes to weddings. For her final installment, she explains why she's serving doughnuts instead of wedding cake.
There are many desserts I love: gooey-in-the-center chocolate brownies, ice cream sandwiches, banana pudding, strawberry shortcakes. I could continue for awhile.
Very far down that list is wedding cake. While wedding cake often looks beautiful, once it is sliced, it often sits mostly uneaten on guests' plates, suffering from dryness, excess sugar, gummy fondant, or just general unexcitement.
Dessert shouldn't be a downer. For a recent wedding package we ran in Bon Appétit, the Test Kitchen went to town re-inventing the definition of wedding desserts. From chocolate pot de crémes to strawberry-cucumber ice pops, these desserts reflect how we really want to end a meal. With something bright, something easily portioned, and something a little more funky.
See More: Beyond Vanilla: 9 Local-Inspired Wedding Cake Flavors That Are Anything But Basic
Jon and I never really considered having wedding cake. To be honest, it sounded more like a chore than something exciting — it felt too fancy for the summer-barbecue-except-it's-vegetarian-meets-swanky-garden-party vibe we were going for. And, it felt too restrictive: just one flavor, just one look — It was all too rigid.
We tossed out several ideas: an ice cream sundae bar, a "bar" bar, a simple option of a particularly tasty olive oil cake. And then we realized that doughnuts pretty much checked all the boxes: Something fun, something customizable, and something most of our guests likely don't eat on a regular basis. Plus, now we get to decide how many different flavors we want, and those are the kinds of wedding decisions I really like to make.
So yeah. A Middle East-inspired vegetarian wedding menu with doughnuts for dessert, taking place in a massive shuffleboard court (oh, maybe I haven't mentioned that part). Perhaps not exactly what I envisioned when I was a 7-year-old playing make believe, but something that my 29-year-old self is pretty stoked about.
For even more wedding food advice, head over to bonappetit.com/weddings to explore dessert ideas, wedding cake trends, catering advice, booze tips, and way more.