The wedding cake debuted in ancient Rome, where wheat and barley cakes were broken over the bride's head as a symbol of her fertility. These simple cakes evolved during the reign of England's Charles II, whose French chef turned the traditional cakes into an elaborate, edible, sugar-iced creation, said to have been based on the unusual shape of St. Bride's Church in London.
Other cake traditions evolved. The first cut made by the newlyweds came to be seen as their first step in sharing their new life; the bottom layer of a wedding cake represented the couple as a family, while the top layer signified just the twosome. Layers in between represented each child the couple hoped to have.
When I got married, the big event took place in my hometown. My mother graciously, and compulsively, took over. She showed exquisite taste, but planning-wise, went way overboard. Take the cake - Mom, with my father in tow, visited five bakeries before she picked one, and then she test-drove the lucky baker and made him prepare a 6-inch trial run before the deal was done.
Most brides, and their mothers, are less obsessed, but it still can be a challenge to find the right cake. Weddings and the services associated with them are a huge industry, so you'd think there'd be bakeries making wedding cakes on every corner. If you look in the Chicago Yellow Pages, though, you'll only find ten entries under Weddings: Bakers - Retail. Ask around, and you'll get two of the same recommendations consistently: Bittersweet and Café Selmarie. At Bittersweet, you can sit in the patisserie's café area, nosh on a delicious torte or soup-and-sandwich combo, and watch award-winning chef/owner Judy Contino assemble a wedding cake. Bittersweet accepts one-hour cake tasting appointments on Tuesdays through Fridays, 3-6pm. Brides can peruse two books of pictures and taste up to three cakes, ranging from white, almond (yellow) and chocolate, to carrot and banana, plus your choice of three to eight fillings, including brulée custard, fresh fruit and milk chocolate mousse. Bittersweet's most popular cakes are three-tier stacks iced in vanilla buttercream, which is tastier than the more sculptable fondant. Prices average about $4 per person.
Lincoln Village's Café Selmarie, which hosts free cake tastings every January and February, prepares elegant cakes in a variety of exotic flavors, including Bavarian crme raspberry, white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and marzipan tortes in raspberry, chocolate and vanilla, as well as the more standard chocolate hazelnut, chocolate mousse, lemon custard and carrot. Café Selmarie is known for its reasonably priced preparations, and they'll make you a four-tier cake designed to serve 110-130 people for $425-475.
The new star on the city's custom-cake horizon is Crme de la Crme, formed a year ago by Guillermo Perez and Monthalee Farley. The partners took first place at the 1998 Societe Culinaire Philanthropique de New York, one of the highest awards you can win in the wedding-cake world. Farley and Perez strive to create unique cakes for each customer. "Most of our customers have never seen pulled-sugar flowers, ribbon, or blown-sugar work," Farley says. "Chocolate sculptures are also very popular."
Crme de la Crme uses a wide variety of cake sponges in their creations, as well as fresh fruit mousses, including banana, raspberry, strawberry, passion and peach. Cakes generally run $6-15 per person, and customers should order four to six months before their big day.
Most wedding planners say you should order your cake a minimum of three months before the big event. But, if you're like Bonnie Luxem and left the cake for the last minute, try Sweet Mysteries on Southport. "One month before the wedding, a friend asked me what kind of cake we were having, and I didn't have an answer - I had forgotten to order it," Luxem recalls. "I called all over, and no one could help me except Sweet Mysteries, where they couldn't have been nicer. I went in, did a tasting and ended up ordering a three-tier carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting and an extra sheet-cake to guarantee enough cake for everyone. The cake was beautiful and delicious and probably didn't cost more than three dollars a person."
If you're a born-and-bred Chicago native, you might feel most comfortable staying close to home with a trusted neighborhood baker. Several established family baking operations also make cakes, including Dinkel's Bakery, the Swedish Bakery and Lutz Continental Café & Pastry Shop. Lutz's konditorei, which has specialized in European tortes for more than fifty years, offers three variations of cake layers, eight fruit fillings, nearly twenty cream-based fillings and six kinds of frosting, among other options. Lutz's cakes range from $3-3.50 per serving.
"I think it depends on the level of quality and service you are after," Crme de la Crme's Farley says. "In my experience, your creative and artistic options will probably be more limited at a bakery. The best pastry chefs and cake artists don't work in bakeries anymore - they work for hotels or restaurants, or for themselves. If you're shopping solely for price, though, a bakery may be your best bet."
Or maybe lucky stars will shine on you like they did for Claire Koeneman, who opted for having a family friend make her cake. "Rich Eberle, the master baker at Reuter's Bakery, is one of my husband's best friends. His family has owned Reuter's for decades. Rich created a three-tier cake as a wedding gift to us. It was gorgeous, and I'm sure it would have cost more than five-hundred dollars to make."
Bittersweet, 1114 West Belmont, (773)929-1100
Café Selmarie 2327 West Giddings, (773)989-5595
Crème de la Crème Wedding Cakes, 1153 West Grand, (312)243-2502
Dinkel's Bakery, 3329 North Lincoln, (773)281-7300
Lutz Continental Café & Pastry Shop, 2458 West Montrose, (773)478-7785
Reuter's Bakery, 7177 West Grand, (773)889-1414
Swedish Bakery, 5348 North Clark, (773)296-0408
Sweet Mysteries Bakery & Chicago Catering Savories, 3335 North Southport, (773)404-2900
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