Cupcakes!

With popular shows like DC Cupcakes and Cupcake Wars, cupcakes have become the new craze. And they're showing up at weddings, too! In addition to the Norwegian wedding cake, we will also be offering our guests cupcakes from Scratch Cupcakery in Cedar Falls, Iowa. My parents visited us last weekend and brought a dozen cupcakes to sample.

My favorite:
"Wedding Day" almond cream cake | vanilla buttercream frosting

My parents' favorite:
"Raspberry Love"  vanilla cake | raspberry buttercream frosting

"Raspberry Love" and "Wedding Day"

A few more samples. We also tried "Mocha," "Chocolate Chip,"

"Mint Chip," "Red Velvet," and "Turtle."

Although all the cupcake samples were delicious, I really want to try the cupcake called "Monkey Business." It's banana cake with peanut butter frosting. YUMM! They only offer this cupcake on Wednesdays in the shop, so I will have to make a special weekday trip up to Cedar Falls.

How can you Display Cupcakes at a Wedding?

• Tiered cupcake stands to resemble a wedding cake
• Individually on a dessert table or at the guest tables
• A custom-built display

Photo from marreroevents.com

Why Cupcakes?

You can offer guests more variety in cake and frosting flavors:

•  I will have at least two flavors at my wedding

Cupcakes will save you money in your wedding budget:

• Professionally made cupcakes range in price from $2-4 (The average cake cost is between $5-6/piece).
• Caterers, hotels, event centers don't charge cake cutting fees for cupcakes because there is nothing to cut! (be sure to confirm this with your wedding planner or caterer).
• Deliver fees for cupcakes are often much cheaper because they are easier to transport than a large wedding cake.

Kransekake: Norwegian Wedding Cake

I grew up in a distinctly Norwegian household. Many “old world” traditions have been passed down from my great-grandparents to my generation. My sister got married nearly two years ago, and I was designated as the one to bake and assemble the traditional Norwegian wedding cake. Now, this isn’t a cake in the traditional American sense. Kransekake literally means ring or wreath cake. It is made up of 18 rings of decreasing size stacked on top of each other to form a cone-shaped tower.

The dough is made of almond, butter, confectioner’s sugar, and egg yolks. The rings are essentially almond-flavored cookies -- hard on the outside, chewy on the inside. After assembly, the rings are decorated with icing and can also be adorned with miniature candies and Norwegian toothpick flags. For my sister’s wedding, I decorated her cake with the toothpick flags and placed a bottle of Moscato d’Asti beneath the tower.

As my own wedding approaches, I will likely make my own kransekake for the occasion. No one in my family has quite mastered the cake like I have. It’s a very tricky baking and assembling process. If the rings are not cooked long enough, the tower will collapse in on itself. If the rings are cooked too long, they will look too dark on the outside. The rings all have to be baked at the same temperature for the exact same amount of time in order for the rings to be consistent in color.

Want to try it out? Click here for a recipe, or purchase a cake here.

Kransekake decorated with candy and flags

The kransekake I made for my sister's wedding in June 2009 (you can see the top of the wine bottle barely poking out of the top).

My sister's kransekake at the head table.