Beach Wedding Cake and Dessert Table

I spent this past weekend at the beach… not sun bathing or collecting shells, but baking, frosting and decorating!  Of course sun bathing is nice, but when you love baking as much as I do, then having a fun reason to do what you love is pretty great too!  I was honored to have an extra “sweet” part in a friend’s ocean side wedding.  I’ve been asked to make wedding cakes for friends in the past, but have always said no!  I really have very little experience with “big” cakes, and making (and transporting!) someones wedding cake sounds way to stressful for my taste!  But when a friend mentioned that she wanted just a small cake to cut, and then a dessert buffet for the guests… I thought I was up for the task!  So last week I baked, and baked, then packed up my car and drove 5 hours to Pacific Grove (near Montery, California) to set up a beautiful beach themed dessert table, and my very first (even if it’s small) wedding cake!

I had contacted the reception location  (Gatherings) ahead of time to get the exact dimensions of the table I would be able to set up the desserts on.  So I was able to chose the dishes I would need, and do a mock set up at home ahead of time.  I was so happy that it came together exactly as I had planned!

The wedding cake was a simple, rustic cake made of vanilla cake, with vanilla-almond buttercream, decorated with blue fondant flowers and white chocolate shells and starfish.

~ Dessert Table Menu ~

Decorated sugar cookies (in shell, starfish and monogram designs)

Fudge Mint Brownies

Lemon Squares (from Trader Joe’s)

Chocolate Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

Custom designed chocolate dipped oreos (from Sweeties by Kim)

You may (or may not) have noticed that all of the photos of the table were taken from an angle… well, since there was a big mirror above the dessert table the only way to get a shot from the front was this…

Hi!  =)

So, this is a photo of me, my work, and my love.

Prop notes…

All the dishes are from my personal cake stand (and platter) collection.  The candle holders on top of the cake stand, and beside the wedding cake are from glassybaby.