Kyle Hickman, the head pastry chef at One&Only Cape Town, shares his ideas for sweet treats at your wedding…
The trend has moved from formal, traditional cakes to individual bite-size desserts such as cupcakes, mini pastries, macaroons and petit fours. You can also make serve-yourself dessert stations, such as candy buffets and ice-cream or crêpe stations, that allow guests to customise their dessert. This also creates a fantastic interactive station – perfect for guests to get to know each other.
Strawberry and pistachio tarts, Pina Colada verrines, blood orange crème caramel and mango sago pudding would all work well for small summer weddings.
Keep it simple. Dessert is the last meal of the evening and guests are usually full. Rather have three or four more elegant dessert items such as a selection of macaroons, eclairs or truffles and some individual desserts in glasses, instead of going for an enormous selection that often ends up untouched. Fruit is always a good option – stone fruits are wonderful for summer as they offer endless choices, especially when served as part of a live ice-cream station.
I personally like the idea of having gift boxes for guests to take the wedding cake home in. The sweet compartment in our stomachs is usually reaching capacity after an event like a wedding, so this allows for guests to enjoy a bit of the wedding the next day. The boxes can also be personalised, giving a little more character to whole thing.