Wedding 'Cake'

Notice that cake is in quotes. That's because we aren't having a traditional wedding cake! Early on in the planning process Ben mentioned that he thought it would be awesome to do cupcakes and pair them with a drink or two like one of our favorite places, Sweet Revenge. So once Tensing Pen agreed that we could have cupcakes we had the task of figuring out how to pair them with a drink from our wedding. Without knowing their house wines, we chose to try to pair cupcakes with Red Stripe. This excitedly (the only thing Ben has been excited about yet) gave us an excuse to go to our favorite cupcake shop, Crumbs, and get a variety pack of cupcakes.

Here's what we were working with starting at top left we have: m&m, raspberry, grasshopper (Chocolate mint), ROW 2: hostess, yellow cake with vanilla frosting, chocolate chip, ROW 3: Red Velvet, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, oreo cookie, ROW 4: Chocolate something, coconut, chocolate blackout, and finally strawberry because that was a basic flavor missing from the mix.

We wanted to focus on the more classic flavors that we thought that Tensing Pen could replicate. So we each cracked open a Red Stripe and go tasting away!

Ben very much enjoyed this wedding task!

Here's the aftermath!

So you can definitely tell our favorites. The raspberry almost completely disappeared as well as the two yellow cakes. So we choose yellow cake with raspberry filling and vanilla frosting & yellow cake with chocolate frosting. We definitely wanted some chocolate in there because so many of our friends (and my mom) are HUGE chocolate lovers. So there it is folks! Try them out with a Red Stripe!

And he has contributed!

Yesterday as we were walking back from having lunch Ben brought up our wedding. It went something like 'I guess we should start planning when and where.' I immediately said that there was A LOT more than just when and where but yes that's a good place to start. Once again it was quickly shelved because I still am unemployed (something is in the works though - keep your fingers crossed for me). This however wasn't Ben's contribution - wait for it - he suggested an idea for a reception (that he originally didn't want to have because he didn't (doesn't) want a big wedding).

Last winter I read about this new bar that has alcohol themed cupcakes and pairs them with cocktails. I was sold. I wanted to go right then and there. As Ben and I were sitting around trying to figure out what to do one weekend it came up again. As we were googling and yelping we weren't sure if it was still open but found another place with a similar concept - cupcakes paired with wine and beer. So we headed to Sweet Revenge. Cute little coffee shop looking place with AMAZING cupcakes paired extremely well with wine and beer. I think I had strawberry and prosecco. AMAZING! Ben's was paired with a beer. Equally good. Well he said we should do this for our reception!!! WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

I immediately started having visions of a beautiful display and cute menus with the pairings and my original idea of long 'feasting' tables (for a dinner party) being changed into smaller intimate setups and lounges (for a cocktail style party). So there it is. What do you think? A later affair (since it will most likely be separate from our very small and intimate wedding ceremony) with just desserts paired with wine, beer, and cocktails.

(source)