Even if you can't have all of these cakes at your wedding, remember you can always feature them at your anniversary celebrations. The first anniversary is customarily the German chocolate cake year, isn't it?
All-American Wedding Cakes
New England might be known as the culinary home of maple syrup and cranberries, but when it comes to the Granite State, it's all about spice. Spice cake that is -- a flavorful cake tinged with exotic spices, first baked in early 19th-century New Hampshire kitchens.
According to Chef Jacques Despres of Jacques Fine European Pastries in Suncook, New Hampshire, "Chinese five-spice mix and brown sugar are the secret ingredients for baking an authentic spice cake." Served at holiday time, it is particularly popular with brides and grooms during the fall and winter seasons, and can easily serve as the base for a classic three-tier cake if you want to dress it up.
Surprisingly enough, German chocolate cake isn't from Germany at all. In fact, this beloved dessert, made of dark, decadent layers of chocolate cake with a gooey toasted coconut and pecan filling and glazed with chocolate frosting, is a Texan creation. In fact, the cake was first created by a Dallas homemaker during the 1950s.
Today, that city's award-winning Society Bakery features it as a specialty of the house. Owner Roshi Muns is quick to admit that these delectable cakes fly off bakery shelves "because the frosting is so delicious! I could personally eat it by the spoonful all day long."
The South is regaled for regional fare and hospitality, so it is to be expected that several delicious cakes hail from Dixie. One of the area's most famous and treasured desserts is the coconut cake, four layers of vanilla-flavored cake covered in meringue frosting and showered with a snowy white blanket of fragrant, freshly grated coconut. The particulars of its origins are unknown, but legend has it that this Southern favorite was initially brought to American tables from Caribbean climes, arriving in port cities such as New Orleans and Charleston, where the cake quickly became a holiday staple.
The coconut cake featured here is from Sugar Bakeshop in Charleston, South Carolina.
A festive event in and of itself, caramel cake offers a deeply satisfying marriage of old-fashioned yellow-cake layers frosted with a rich, creamy, ever-so-slightly burnt caramel icing. Birmingham, Alabama's Angels Cake and Confections is one Southern spot where caramel cake gets a special reception, dolled up with sliced almond brittle and a raffia bow. Baker and owner Doug Allen admits that the cake's irresistible icing is "a very simple three-ingredient recipe and has been around the South for generations." In addition, he suspects that another reason for its popularity is the fact that the cake's signature icing can hold up to the South's scorching heat during the summertime. "Whipped buttercream icing is no match for warm summers!"
Italian cream cake is another Southern stalwart. It has absolutely no connection to Italy, but its layers of buttermilk-laced yellow cake, mounds of decadent cream-cheese frosting and toasted pecans and grated coconut make for a delizioso dessert. Italian cream cake is seriously rich and altogether sinful in the best of all possible ways. Needless to say, Paula Deen would approve!
The Italian cream cake featured here is from The Upper Crust Bakery in Austin, Texas.
New Orleans may be better known for its never-ending parade of Po' Boy sandwiches, étouffée and jambalaya than its cakes, but the multilayered Doberge cake is worthy of Big Easy attention too. Adapted from a 17th-century Austrian-Hungarian dessert creation, this glazed six-layer butter cake filled with pastry cream can be served in a variety of flavor combinations that can include chocolate, lemon, caramel and strawberry. Indecisive New Orleans natives have even been known to order a "half-n-half," which is, quite simply, two halves of different-flavored Doberge cakes put together to make one.
the Doberge cake featured here is from Gambino's Bakery in New Orleans.
The king of all multilayered cakes, the Smith Island cake hails from a small island settlement on Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Some say it was brought to the island from Welsh settlers, but whether the tale is true or not, Smith Island cake has been declared the Official State Dessert of Maryland.
The Original Smith Island Cake Company currently sells this glorious goodie from its Ocean City retail location as well as online, touting that their version features "nine layers of the most delicate and perfect layers of spongy yellow cake punctuated by the thinnest layers of our old-fashioned cooked chocolate icing that sets like fudge."
Another dessert sensation from below the Mason-Dixon Line, the Lady Baltimore cake, actually derives its regal name from a 19th-century romance novel entitled Lady Baltimore, which included loving descriptions of a delightful cake produced by a lady's tearoom in Charleston, South Carolina.
Bill Bowick and David Bouffard, the owner-bakers of Sugar Bakeshop are just as ardent in their descriptions of "this unique and quintessential Charleston cake, made of three layers of light almond cake, with an almond-vanilla mixture poured over the top of each layer while still hot from the oven. A white meringue frosting with a touch of almond, vanilla and lemon covers the cake. Golden raisins and figs are soaked in sherry overnight and mixed with finely chopped walnuts to make the rich filling that really sets this cake apart." Clearly, this is a cake meant to bring out the Southern belle in all of us.
Heading back up to Yankee territory, one cake reigns supreme when it comes to New York -- the rich, classic, all-American cheesecake. The history behind this decadent sweet supposedly goes all the way back to ancient Greece, but New Yorkers have claimed it as their own since the 1920s, extolling the pleasures of a cheesecake comprised of pure cream cheese, cream, eggs and sugar. Since then, toppings like fresh strawberries and cherries have been making an appearance, as well as flavorings such as chocolate and pumpkin. These days, the dessert's fan base seems to expand along with waistlines, with The Cheesecake Factory chain of restaurants rolling out across the U.S. and the legendary New York City cheesecake emporium Junior's selling more than a million cheesecakes each year.
When is a cake not a cake? When it is an Amish wedding cake. Nestled in the heart of Amish country in Ohio's Geauga County, Mary Yoder's Amish Kitchen, Bakery, and Gift Shop serves one of the best, most authentic versions of this dessert. Bruce Boley, general manager of the Amish restaurant, says that "although not your typical cake, a tasty date-nut pudding is considered a traditional dessert at Amish weddings." Oozing brown sugar and plump, honey-sweet dates, it is given a decorative touch for the walk down the aisle, alternating layers of the warm pudding with cloud-like whipped cream for a trifle effect.
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