From Cashmere to Cookies

Tamara was the first bride to order a GIANT chocolate chip cookie for her wedding (we think she is a genius!)

What gave you the idea to have a giant chocolate chip cookie for your wedding day?

To be frank, cost had a lot to do with it. We knew that we really wanted to have cupcakes from my favorite local bakery for our guests and when I was speaking with the bakery staff about making a "cutting cake", I was a little taken aback on how expensive it was. My husband and I were recently out of law school and paying for the wedding, and there were just so many other places in our day that we thought that money could be better used. At one point while making the decision I turned to my husband and said, "I don't even want cake, I much rather have a cookie." And the idea was born. I had this vision in my head of us cutting a large chocolate chip cookie and that was going to be it.

Did the cookie replace your actual wedding cake?

We served our guests cupcakes and we used the giant cookie for the cake cutting moment. (We also took it home and it is currently in my parent's freezer. We are going to try to eat a slice on our one-year anniversary and we are confident it will taste better than year-old cake.)

What made you choose Connecticut Cookie Company for your wedding? What did you like about the big cookie? (flavor? scalloped edge?).

So once I got the idea for the giant cookie, I scoured the internet. My husband and I live in DC (but got married in Connecticut, which is where we are both from), so the internet was pretty much my only option. I remember I looked once or twice, and didn't find anything that looked right and/or was local to CT. We started talking about other options but I really couldn't believe that there was no giant cookies (maybe my bridezilla moment?), so I looked one last time and came across the CTCOCO.com website. The cookie was exactly what I had pictured in my mind. I saw in the cookie description that the site recommended it as a great cake replacement and I knew that I had found it. And then to be sure, I did a quick search for reviews of CT Cookie Company and they were all raves. It was one of those great wedding planning moments - you have an idea of something cool you want to do, and then you contact a vendor and either they aren't available or they are out of your price range and you get bummed out. Small victories like awesome cookie cakes really mean a lot in the midst of a stressful time. (p.s. when we had the cookie the night of the wedding it was super delicious).

Was there anything else at your wedding that were personal touches like our giant cookie?

We really wanted to throw a party that felt like 'us' - which I guess is a little laid back and a little offbeat. For dinner we did a clambake, with lobsters and corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. One of my favorite pictures from the wedding is a candid taken by a friend where I am cracking a lobster tail with my lobster bib on over my dress. Some of the other things we did included lawn games (cornhole, giant jenga, ring toss) during our cocktail hour, polaroid cameras and props for our guests to goof off with, and at the end of the night we had some of my husband's former students bring in their electric doughnut maker so all guests left with fresh apple cider doughnuts. It was definitely the cliché, "best day of my life", kind of day.

There are recipes, and there are RECIPES. Some are almost public property, being common knowledge and other are heirlooms like Aunt Sue’s Kickass Chili. If you ask me how to make guacamole, I’m happy to advise on the 7 ingredients and how I mix 6 together and toss with chopped avocado. But my baking I protect like it has been patented.

Here are some tips to share this type of state secret:

Write the recipe in Latin: IV poculi caseum gratum
Use invisible ink, like this:
Translate volume to weight: 254 grams rice flour
Make up excuses that are uncomfortable or tragic: “I had a small house fire and lost, oddly, only my recipe cards and my report cards from college…”
Distract with an elaborate story: “M.G. I am so glad you called. You will NOT believe what just happened to me…” and launch into some fantasy about leprechauns who crochet car cozies or one of those intractable monologues about your friend’s friend whose co-worker’s sister-in-law was interviewed on the local news wearing a sweater you designed fourteen years ago while working at Ralph Lauren.
Or pass off of your friend’s recipe as your own and share that one.

Here I take advantage of a friend, exercising my rights to point 6.

World’s Best Carrot Cake

Pre-heat oven to 325

Grease and flour the bottom and sides of both pans.

Mix dry ingredients together in bowl, sift or whisk until well blended

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

Add:

3 cups shredded carrots

4 large eggs, whisk with fork separately first

1 ½ cups or 3 sticks unsalted butter, melted

Mix well by hand, do not use a electric blender.

Fold into 9x13 pan or 2 x 9” cake pans

Bake at 325* for 45 minutes or until cake is springy when touched and when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Frosting

Let butter and cream cheese soften in a bowl at room temperatures. Add vanilla and powdered sugar, mix with beater until smooth.

1 stick unsalted butter

1 package cream cheese

3 tsp Connecticut Cookie Company vanilla

1 16 oz. box confectioner’s sugar

From Cashmere to Cookies

CTCOCO caught up with Tamara Leigh Kramer...

Share my top secret recipes? Heck, no, But Here’s a Dangled Carrot