Photo courtesy of La Patisserie Chouquette.
You haven't seen a truly amazing wedding cake until you see what La Patisserie Chouquette (1626 Tower Grove Avenue) served at a wedding reception last Saturday at the Palladium in Lafayette Square.
Owner Simone Faure posted a photo of the impressive cake on Facebook Sunday. The shop's tallest wedding cake to date towered at twelve tiers high, including a "theatre tier" that featured nothing less than a crystal chandelier. Best of all? The cake came as a complete surprise to the happy couple, which had put their faith in Faure to surprise them.
The story began when the bride came in for a standard cake tasting with her fiance and family. Faure tells the RFT that she always gives brides a once-over to determine what sort of cake will truly make them happy, rather than just coming up with something that follows trends or accommodates other wedding pressures. When it came to this particular bride, the word "princess" came to mind — not in the sense of being spoiled, Faure explains, but someone who works hard and wanted her "dream everything."The bride had the idea of a "bling" cake in mind and a Pinterest cake photo in hand. Faure, who has a policy of not copying cakes, ultimately asked the bride, "Do you trust that I can create something original for you?" After some prodding from her entourage, the bride said yes — and then, Faure says, the pressure was on to impress.
Faure says she has a love of miniatures, which is how the cake's theatre tier with its dangling chandelier came into play (if you watch the video below, you'll see that it also has silver mirrors lining the inside walls). And that led to more tiers — Faure had to invent her own structure in order to stack the additional cakes on top of it.
When the venue wanted to know how big the cake was going to be, Faure told them she honestly wouldn't know the answer until she was done.
Then it was a matter of getting the cake there.
"We transported it in a couple different vehicles in tiers of two to three," explains Faure, who admits she was holding her breath while placing the very top tier (also in a video below).
She needn't have worried.
It's safe to say the cake was a huge hit. Faure notes that brides often plan their weddings so meticulously, there's little room for the unknown. She likes seeing surprise when a couple sees their cake for the first time.
"We love having that reveal," she says.
If you want a custom, crazy-tall cake for yourself, visit simonefaure.com or call 314-932-7935 for more details. You'll also soon be able to see a recreation of the twelve-tier cake in La Patisserie Chouquette's shop window.
