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