It's All About the Cheese Course

When looking at the veritable plethora of wedding cake options, couples are inundated with decisions - will we do one cake or several? Cupcakes or Croquembouche? What about pies? What about take-home individual cakes? If we get one big cake, what flavour do we want? Do we do the tradtional fruit cake layer or give it a miss? Tiered? Layered? Naked? - it's all enough to turn you off cake altogether and so with that in mind, we go off cake and onto cheese.

Initially an odd premise, but over the last few years a more common occurrence at weddings is, the cheese cake. No, we're not talking about cream cheese and marscapone, nor the frozen dessert kind but rather the more literal definition - multiple complementary cheeses of different sizes, stacked to resemble a wedding cake and then styled to suit.

This is fantastic for the society wedding or for those with a more savoury palate and tends to replace the wedding cake and the cheese course in one all-in-one delicious and beautifully presented, edible masterpiece. The decoration can be as simple or elaborate as you wish - whether that means a simple halo of foliage or the addition of a single flower like we've opted for in this particular case or a dramatic display of seasonal fruit, nuts, twigs and berries to create a veritable cornucopia of decadence - which is what we love to do.

This one is a collection of incredible cheeses sourced from Sabato who are a gourmet deli in Auckland and who know their cheese. If you're going to opt for a cheese cake, it's important that you're choosing to buy from someone who understands cheese, who knows which cheeses complement each oher, which cheese will stand up to being out of the fridge a while and which will be most suitable for stacking at each level.

They should also be able to suggest what accompaniments will enhance and complement your chosen cheeses both from a decorative aspect and flavour aspect with chutneys, condiments, cured meats, fruit and nuts all part and parcel with the cheese selection.

Pricing goes by weight, number of layers and of course which cheeses you choose - a wise old aged cheddar will be more expensive that a newborn edam, so it's important to go in to visit the Cheesemonger, (sample the cheeses) and talk budget. It's quite fortuitous that there generally aren't any set prices - there can be and Sabato for example does mention several but because of the completely bespoke nature of the cheese cake, it can be as cost effective or wildly indulgent as you choose it to be.