Wedding Cakes Made of Love

Mom is a good cook, she just doesn't love to cook.  She was perfectly happy to let meme or I do it, which worked well for us, because we loved to cook.

Don't let that fool you into thinking she does not understand that food is made of love.  In addition to canning, Mom has always loved baking.  She taught herself how to make cakes in high school, turned it into a business, and has always loved making cakes.  Even when, perhaps, it might of been better to not make the cakes.....but that is another story, for another time.  Perhaps.

For Emilie and Chris's wedding, Dominique made 17 separate wedding cakes - all eight or nine inch rounds. In 14 different flavors.  Raspberry, almond, coffee, vanilla, chocolate, and a whole bunch I don't remember.  It was a crazy way to spend 3 days before the wedding, as the mother of the bride has a few things going on....I guess I did go into that other story, at least a little bit.  But the end result was wonderful, delicious, and added food made of love to our daughters wedding.

At least I was not crazy enough to try to cook for 200 guests.....

How Mom Makes Food Made of Love - Homemade Jam

At Chez Carlson, the children saw their father and their meme did most of the cooking.

However, Mom also got into food made of love - typically by canning and baking.  For Jeremie and Maria's wedding, she made the wedding favors - over 200 four ounce jars of jam.  Peach, raspberry, blueberry, rhubarb  strawberry and I think a couple of mixes.  Most of the fruit came from our yard, but I will concede that perhaps the peaches came from out of state.....Wisconsin is not a peach growing state.

While she is planning on a weekend of making jam and canning and inviting the children, here is a video on how to make jam and can it, although as the video shows, you don't have to can in order to make it.  It is simple and delicious.

Wedding Beverage List - Wine, Beer, Water, Soda

This worked out pretty well for my daughters wedding - I know I searched the internet for advice and got conflicting information, so here goes what worked for us.

Setting - 200 guests - 180 adults, outdoors, on a hot summer night (no, not that hot summer night).  Wedding at 4, dinner at 6, dancing till 10.  We had an open bar - no charge.

20 cases of water - we ended with two cases left - did I say it was a hot day?  We put it out in galvinized wash tubs so guests could grab one as they arrived, and placed them around the tent also.  I had frozen 4 cases to help cool down the rest and save on ice.

2 half barrels of beer (actually 1 half and two quarters).  We went with PBR and two micro brews - PBR went first, so don't fret serving cheap beer.

4 cases of Champagne (12 to a case, Barefoot Extra Dry) - we ended up with one left.  This is the only area I think we could of gone with less - 3 cases for the toast would of been enough.

6 bottles non-alcoholic sparking cider - we should of gone more - at least 12.

7 mixed cases wine - I went overboard with the varieties - Menage et Trois red, Columbia Two Vines Merlot, Houge Chardonnay,  Barefoot Moscato, Columbia Crest Riesling, Lindemans sauvignon blanc Wolersheim's Prairie Fume.  The amount of wine was fine - ended up with a mixed case at the end.  But if I were to do it over - I would of gone with just the Merlot, the Chardonnay, the Sauvignon blanc and the Moscato.  Buy what people want - that's pretty much it - it doesn't have to be expensive - just worth drinking.  And I think all of those wines are pretty good on a hot summer night

3 cases mixed soda (half diet, half regular)  Interestingly enough, I should of gone another case of regular soda - we had diet left over at the end of the night, but none of the regular.

300 lbs ice - you need a lot to ice down all that, especially on a hot summer night.  (no, not that hot summer night either)

We used 4 galvanized wash tubs for water, and four coolers to keep the wine cool - I also dropped some ice in the red wine cases - no one really wants to drink red wine that is 85 degrees.

The venue provided the insurance, but we still had a licensed bar tender there.  Good way of making sure you are cutting off those that are getting a little too happy, and are good at dealing with people.

It was a great fun night.