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October 6th, 2008
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Sweet dreams are made of these

The hunt for the perfect wedding cake

September 12th, 2007 issue



COURTESY PHOTO
Cake from Grand Café Praha
COURTESY PHOTO
Cake from Grand Café Praha
COURTESY PHOTO
Cake from Grand Café Praha
COURTESY PHOTO
Cake from Grand Café Praha
COURTESY PHOTO
Cake from White Agency.
Find the cake

Bakeshop
Kozí 1, Prague 1
Tel.: 222 316 823
Web: www.bakeshop.cz

Grand Café Praha
Staroměstské nám. 22, Prague 1
Tel.: 221 632 522
Web: www.kvpgastro.cz

Au Gourmand
Three locations in Prague 1
Dlouhá 10
Tel.: 222 329 060
U lužického semináře 23
Tel.: 257 532 434
Pasáž Myslbek, Na příkopě 19
Tel.: 222 240 018
Web: www.augourmand.cz

"A cake — is just flour and water.”
These technically true but oh-so-naive words were uttered by actor Steve Martin in the film Father of the Bride while his character is being schooled by his wife and daughter and their flamboyant wedding planner about how much time, effort and money go into the all-important wedding cake.
The scene isn’t so far-fetched.
Finding that perfect cake apparently is a very serious business that transcends both cultural divides and country borders. For instance, many brides planning a wedding in the Czech Republic — be they native or foreign — no doubt place just as much emphasis on selecting a beautiful, tasty confection as their counterparts do out West.
However, fancy, top-of-the-line cakes can sometimes be hard to find here, local wedding planners admit. While Prague seems to have a cukrárna on practically every block, few appear to specialize in wedding cakes.
One notable favorite is Bakeshop in Prague 1, which Monika Břicháčková of Prague Wedding Planners describes as having “delicious but simple” cakes.
Danielle Cornfoot, the chef and owner of Bakeshop, says she gets an even mix of referrals and walk-ins. Her cakes vary in cost, but Cornfoot says she tries to keep prices under 100 Kč ($5) a slice, which tends to be on par with the going rate. Wedding experts estimate a couple can expect to pay about 6,000 Kč for a cake that will feed 60 people, while prices at upscale shops, like Grand Café Praha in Old Town, can run 7,500 Kč or more.
“What’s happening is Prague is becoming a destination wedding place,” explains Cornfoot, which has given the capital’s evolving cake market a nice boost.  
According to culinary historians, traditional Bohemian weddings cakes are round, filled with curds or poppy and decorated by patterned, fried donut batter. They would then be topped by images of the bride and groom, plus perhaps a figure of a baby or animals.
“At traditional Czech weddings, there are usually lots of family-made small cakes as well as the wedding cake,” Břicháčková says.
The koláčky, the name associated with the homemade goodies, small cakes or cookies usually filled with fruits or nuts, are a Czech wedding tradition.
“Traditionally, you should give koláčky to your guests as you invite them for the wedding,” says Petra Hofman, owner of the White Agency, which has been planning weddings here since 2005. Nowadays, though, “newlyweds give boxes with these cookies to their guests instead of favors.”
Cornfoot says clients still request a certain level of tradition when it comes to the look of their wedding cakes, yet she is also being asked to get a little more creative with her icing designs.
“It’s taking time to train people” in more elaborate designs, Cornfoot says, “but that’s something I see coming.”
Frederic Lasne, owner and chef of Au Gourmand, says the city’s wedding cake business has been improving.
Just a few years ago, Lasne saw only a handful of brides and grooms, mostly French expats, asking for his services. Today, he says, it is not uncommon for him to do one wedding per weekend, for clients of all nationalities.  
One of his favorite requests, Lasne enthuses, is, during the summer months, putting fruit on and inside the cakes. Such details, highlighted in popular U.S. bridal magazines, are slowly making their way onto the wedding scene here, bakeries are reporting.  Brooke Edge


Other articles in Weddings (12/09/2007):

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