The Cookie Table
 

Most vintage GCers have heard about the SWPA tradition of The Cookie Table, by which many weddings are judged. Even Wikipedia has heard of it, although they incorrectly credit Youngstown as the origin ("in place of... a wedding cake"? Um, no!). Rather than piggyback this onto another thread, I thought I'd start a Cookie Table Thread of its own.

The tradition is simple: a table (or several tables) are filled with cookies at the wedding reception, allowing guests to help themselves for their own table or for munching on their own. Articles abound as to the hows and whys of The Cookie Table, but the bottom line is that it's a great way for friends & relatives to say that they approve of the match. Most have mini-ladylocks (clothespin cookies), pizelles, Russian (Mexican, Scottish) Teacakes, and Pecan Tassies, along with the more standard cookies. I saw a list and thought I'd post it. If you have any cookie you'd contribute, feel free to contribute a recipe. If you've tried a recipe that was perfectly nasty, let us know about that, too. MAYBE, we could combine this with Christmas Cookie thread, and have The Ultimate Cookie Recipe Thread!


This is a list of cookies shown above, with the recipes.

We had a wonderful cookie table at our wedding, and it was the thing I was looking forward to most! An elderly friend of my MIL offered to do our cookies for us as our wedding present...something like 30 dozen later...we were good! I even baked a few just because I was nervous and needed something to channel my energy.

This recipe has been an old standby for my mom for years, and it is one of my favorites because it has nice spice tastes and is sweet and chewy too.


Raisin Molasses Gems
Servings: 3 dozen

Ingredients:

¾ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp salt
1 cup raisins
Sugar

Directions:

Beat shortening and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat well. Combine flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt. Add to molasses mixture; mix well. Stir in raisins. Cover, refrigerate until chilled. Shape into 1 inch balls; roll each in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake in upper third of preheated 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes

Bumping b/c of a great article in the NY Times about the Pittsburgh cookie table:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/di...?_r=3&emc=eta1

Is this the same thing as a Venetian Table? We had one at our wedding, with fruits, cookies, pastries, ice sculpture, etc. Ours wasn't just cookies; it was all kinds of desserts.

ha ha - you can have a pretty ceremony. Just don't sign anything, cuz you're not married until you put pen to paper!! :p

I love the idea of the Chinese take out boxes! I admit to have stashed ziplock bags in my purse, but usually when my mother was invited and not up to going. She never saw a cookie she didn't like!

I didn't have a Cookie Table at my wedding. You'd be surprised to hear how many people attribute that to why the marriage didn't last! Next time, we're having the mother of all Cookie Tables!

My friend had Chinese take out boxes. Definite keepsake.

Each box had the couples' names and 2 butter-esque (don't know the name) cookies inside. I liked the cookies but my significant other did not. Can't please everyone.

How interesting...I have been to way more than my share of weddings (most in Texas, but a couple out of state), and have never heard of a cookie table at the reception. My wedding planner did suggest giving a large, decorated cookie away to guests as party favors as they left, but we decided that we could do without that expense.

Neat idea, but I'd be afraid I wouldn't leave room for cake! (Incidentally, my pet peeve is wedding venues that cut small pieces of cake. Nobody is planning on taking home leftovers...cut them large!)

I live 2 hours from Pittsburgh, and I have never seen or heard of this before.

However, I think it's an awesome idea. Knowing me, if I did this, I probably wouldn't even have a cake. No one eats it anyway, but everyone seems THRILLED with the cookies!

TRUTH!

I have been to my fair share of weddings and I have never, NEVER had a good piece of wedding cake. They're always dry, or worse, soggy, but never delicious.

At most of the weddings I've been to, a piece of cake has been placed at my seat after everyone is already up, drinking and dancing. No one is remotely interested in the cake... except for the people who don't get out of their seats for the entire wedding.

ETA: Plus, with a cake, there's usually only one kind. But with so many cookies, you can please everyone!

A. I am SHOCKED that you've never seen this. There's been a cookie table at at least 10 of the last 11 weddings I've been to! Plenty in Erie, as well.

B. I've never met a piece of wedding cake I didn't like. In particular, my brother's (made by my SIL's Grandmother) and the wedding I went to over Thanksgiving had DELICIOUS cake, that was aesthetically pleasing as well.

C. I didn't know what to think of a cookie table the first time I went to a wedding that had one. I was surprised that they can be GORGEOUS. I was in a wedding once where the cookie table overshadowed the cake SO MUCH that they ended up moving the cake all the way across the (very large) reception hall.

That was at the same wedding where the bride and groom made to-go bags that looked like their invitations and said "thanks for sharing our day" or whatever. Of course, that was a Pittsburgh-themed wedding, in Pittsburgh. They're not all so gaw-geous. When I say Pittsburgh themed, the colors were black and gold, their engagement photos were taken in front of all the sports fields/arenas (in the jersey of the team that plays there), etc... so of course their cookie table was HUGE (we're talking the entire wall of a huge reception hall with about 5,000 cookies or candies).

I am CLEARLY going to the wrong weddings! :p

Obvi! Also, I somehow find a way to pack away at least 1 entre', 1 piece of wedding cake, 2 cookies, and at least 2-3 drinks at a wedding. It's a special occasion! Live a little! I may have to loosen my dress and/or unbutton the top button, but it's not like I eat like that all the time!

I've never heard of a cookie table either. I've been to plenty of weddings (mostly Mexican) where we've had cookies at each table, but it's always the same kind of cookie. The traditional biscocho, which is just YUUUMMMY. But to have a table decided to different types of cookie, nope.

And judging a wedding based on a cookie table? That's plain ridiculous.

:confused::eek:

I have NEVER been to a wedding where there was any cake left.

On that note, I have NEVER had a nasty wedding cake. That could have to do with how much money these people spent on all of those tiers, and how seriously the couple took their cake tastings. My fav is the tiered lemon cake my friend had for hers. They ran out of cake so quickly (I guess there was cake smuggling going on) that they had to have a table of cookies and doughnuts. It was glutton heaven. :p

According to honeychile...

It's definitely something people talk about. "Ooooh did you see the cookie table?" "Oh I went to this wedding last weekend that had the best cookie table!"

I don't think, however, that people hold it against a couple if their cookie table isn't the greatest thing a guest has ever seen. They may hold it against them if the cookies aren't that good, though.

And attributing a marriage that doesn't last to the lack of a cookie table is most likely 90% joke. I've also never seen someone leave a wedding because there was no cookie table.

We had SO much wedding cake left over. (I generally don't care too much for wedding cake, but ours was good). We had a "dessert room". Our baker does a package where you get a cake that fed about 3/5 of our guests, then 7 other LARGE desserts (cheesecakes, cakes, pies, etc.), and then they gave you some cookies for your cookie table. And we had to add on massive amounts of cookies.

Everyone still talks about the sweets at our wedding. The desserts were a huge hit because so many people would prefer a piece of cheesecake over a piece of wedding cake.

Not only was it fabulous (this bakery's desserts are TO DIE FOR), but it was economical - the whole package was cheaper than a cake at most other bakeries.

Ah gotcha. I guess I figured if it was a southern thing, that it wouldn't be so incredulous if people did attribute a failed marriage to a lack of a cookie table.

But then I haven't been to a wedding with a cookie table so if someone said "they had an awesome cookie table" I'd look at you like :eek: :confused:

And candy, candy, candy! Chocolates! Sweets! OMG. I was at a wedding where they had gumball machines on the cookie table. Yum yum yum!

OMG this thread is making me hit the red and green M&Ms HARD.

*cue the Hallelujah Chorus*

Never heard of this.
I have been to a couple weddings recently that had a candy table.
They had little carryout boxes at our seat inviting us to fill it up with candy.
Of course there was a cute little poem and most of the candy was the color of the bridesmaid dresses.

My cousin did have this at her wedding a few years ago. It was amazing :D

Of course, 'cause we always judge a marriage's chance of success on what is served at the reception. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

To be honest, I can't remember the last wedding reception I went to where they didn't have a chocolate fountain.

If you're talking about mine, I think it was joking. We did an amazing wine, cheese, fruit, and hors d'oerve table instead of the cookies. When I think of it, I'm fairly certain it was the only local wedding where there wasn't a cookie table!

Of course, you have to realize that it's not just about the cookies - it's the relatives & friends' way of saying that they approve of the match. LOL - that's probably why I didn't have the cookie table!

I used to facilitate at divorce seminars, and there was a cookie table there. The mid-western pastor who was there was checking it out, and I explained the meaning of the cookie table while everyone around me nodded. He firmly approved!

I'm a little bit surprised by all the wedding cake defenders...

Maybe its a regional thing, but at all of the wedding I've been to (mostly on Long Island) the rest of the food has been so out-of-this-world-gluttonously-incredible that the cake always seems to be lackluster and boring. All looks and no flavor. No one in my family likes wedding cake.

I swear I posted about this before, but apparently it wasn't in this thread. Back in the early days of my cousins' weddings, everybody had cookie tables. They were all traditional Italian cookies (and our family did go right from Ellis Island to south of Pittsburgh) and I always thought this was an Italian tradition. Over the years, as the cousins had to "top" each other, the desserts on the cookie table became more and more elaborate, to include canoli and other pastries that I can't spell (spidini? pinolata?), and then on to more American desserts like cheesecakes, eclairs and cream puffs.

A wedding I went to recently had a beautiful candy table with the Chinese take out boxes and a spread of red candies and chocolate candies (Hershey's kisses, red licorice, chocolate covered cherries, etc.) The set up was breathtaking with candles and red ribbons and roses, with the candy in crystal brandy snifters, vases, etc. Absolutely stunning and fun too!

That was the same wedding that had a mashed potato bar near the end.. some carbs to soak up the alcohol. You got a wine glass with a scoop of mashed potatoes and they had all kinds of toppings you could put on them like bacon bits, cheese, broccoli, etc. Things you would put on baked potatoes. It was great. Best wedding ever, I'd say!

As for cakes, I've had plenty of delicious wedding cakes. My own wedding cake (first wedding) was wonderful. The actual cake on display was primarily styrofoam and the cake the guests got was packaged in a box, 1/2 lb per guest, with three flavors of my choice. Basically, a 3 layer piece of cake. I chose chocolate, cherry chip and yellow. It was the same bakery that all of my cousins had used so I knew the cake was great. It was moist, not soggy.. flavorful.. so yummy. It was all gone, partly, I think, because it was so easy to take home for later if you weren't hungry when they served the cake. There was one section of the display cake that was real so we had to cut from that section when we did the ceremonial cutting of the cake.

I love weddings, cookie tables, wedding cake and candy tables.. and mostly, I love mashed potato bars!

I have had some delicious wedding cake through the years. And almost every wedding I've been to has had a different flavor on each tier, so there's a choice. Maybe it's a regional thing.

The trend up here over the past couple of years was a candy buffet. Chinese take out boxes and lots and lots of candy in apothocary jars. I do PR for a candy brand right now, but I couldn't bring myself to do a candy buffet, especially after so many people have done them now.

ETA: We are in the stage of cake tasting right now and have been blown away by all the choices. I think so far one of our favorites was pink champagne with fresh strawberry and custard filling. I personally care way more about what the cake tastes like than what it looks like. It will also be the only dessert at our wedding, aside from maybe some chocolate-covered strawberries.

Keep in mind that the cakes you are sampling are WAY fresher than your actual wedding cake will be. Your actual wedding cake will likely have been made several days ahead of time, and probably decorated a few days in advance as well.

I love that idea! Maybe I'll steal that for the New Years Eve party.

My wedding had a dessert table that my caterer provided as a wedding gift (she was a professional caterer, but also my husband's Aunt's best friend). My Mom added a bunch or merange and linzer cookies that she baked at home. That table was a bigger hit than the cake (especially with the kids). So I guess I had an inadvertant cookie table... :D

come to think of it, I don't even remember the cake...

We have a thread about cake too for those interested!

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...=wedding+cakes

Is this similar to a Viennese table? Because I've been to weddings that have the Viennese tables and I LOVE it. I'm not all about wedding cake so sometimes I'll skip that and do the Viennese table. NOM NOM NOM

This was the venetian table at our wedding. Is this similar to a "cookie table"? I think it had chocolate dip-to-order, cookies/pastries/canolis, fruit and other stuff. It's been a while so I don't quite remember, and this is a side shot. My hubby and I were in the pic to the right but I cut us out lol.

I also just remembered we had a Belgian waffle setup (the guy in the chef hat is doing that) and bunch of coffees.

ETA: I found several sites that said that the cookie table is the American version of the Venetian table. Here's a site that explains it: http://www.cakespy.com/2009/11/sweet...ng-art-of.html

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