My wife is a study in contradictions. She is a yoga instructor at a local gym, who also makes cakes, cookies, and other sweets that are both gorgeous and tasty. Today, she’s putting the finishing touches on a wedding cake. As she worked on this, we started wondering how many exactly how many calories are in wedding cake. A quick review of some wedding websites didn’t turn up much, so that’s when my inner nerd kicked in and I decided to add up the whole thing.
Calculating The Calories In Wedding Cake
We should begin by laying out the scenario here. What we’re talking about is a tiered wedding cake made with butter cream icing. Start to finish, this beast took a full four days to prepare, and we figure it weighs more than my nine year old son. Tack on some butter cream roses to make it pretty, and viola, wedding cake. None of the crummy tasting fondant, either. No plastic pseudo icing substitute. Bring on the fat and sugar. After all, you should only get married once.
Next. What constitutes an actual serving size of wedding cake. This is yet another example of portion distortion in our society. One serving is defined as a 3-inch x 3-inch square of cake. (Think 7.5-cm x 7.5-cm for those who use a more advanced system of measure.) I’ve got to wonder who goes to a wedding these days and has a slice like this. Not too many people I know. Tack on a few cups of punch and you’ve got yourself a party.
So, the moment of truth has arrived. When you add up the caloric content of every ingredient in this cake, it comes to a grand total of 110,520-calories. Yes, that’s correct. One hundred ten thousand five hundred and twenty. Using the recommended serving size of 3-inches x 3-inches, this cake is sized to serve 170 people. Do the math and it works out to an average of 650-calories per square. That’s more calories than you’ll get in a Big Mac, folks.
The next time you’re go to a wedding, and you think to yourself — “I’ll just have a little piece…” Remember that.
