This is a highly specialized question. My wedding anniversary is coming up on October 23 (#17!).
The person who catered our wedding in 1993 recreated our cake from a photo I had clipped from The New York Times Magazine sometime in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, she did not return the clipping and I am longing to see it again.
I tried searching The New York Times online archives without success. It was in the Magazine section.
Can you help me?

luvcookbooks
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15 Comments

luvcookbooks October 19, 2010
Just to let you all know, I have searched the archives several ways and come up empty. But... no photos in the articles. I live in New York, so I should be able to make a pilgrimage to the actual archives if I am allowed. Will be back to you with the wedding cake photo. My son the Critic liked it.
 
luvcookbooks October 6, 2010
Using your search ideas, I have it down to 82 articles. I think it will have to be there. It may be a while, but I will post the article and the scanned photo.
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
It was real fruit. Will try to scan from friend's scanner. Thanks! Off to the NYT site to search.
 
AntoniaJames October 5, 2010
I just noticed that you can also search just the New York Times Magazine, in a "refine search" option at the very bottom of the results page. ;o)
 
AntoniaJames October 5, 2010
If you subscribe to the New York Times, or know someone who does who can help you with this, you can search the archives, doing an "advanced search" to limit the time period. Put multiple-word search terms in quotes -- e.g., "wedding cake" -- to limit the results further. You don't get photos from the archives, but they do indicate (sometimes, at least . . . I don't know if they always do) whether there was a photo with the article. I suspect that you can narrow the time down to a few years, which will reduce the number of search results.(I just did a very quick archive search for 1/1/81 through 10/5/87 which turned up 156 articles. Scanning the first two pages of results, it seems that 10 or 20% at most might be relevant.) You might get some clues from the articles then that will help you when you go wherever you must to pull and look through hard copies. Or, there might be a name mentioned in an article, for example, the name of a bakery, which you could call to see if they in fact made the cake featured. Good luck!! ;o)
 
mrslarkin October 5, 2010
ok, now you GOTTA scan a picture for us!! Was the fruit made from marzipan or was it real fruit?
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
I have pictures of the actual wedding cake, but for some neurotic reason, I also want pictures of the picture that inspired the wedding cake.
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
It was from an article, I think about weddings. It was on the upper lefthand corner of the page, if I remember correctly, with a small caption underneath. Perhaps a visit to the 42nd St. Library is in order. Sounds like a question for Reference Librarian!
 
amysarah October 5, 2010
You've probably already thought of this, but have you gone through your wedding pictures and/or video to see if the cake makes an appearance in any of them?
 
mrslarkin October 5, 2010
Was the picture from an ad or an article? I wonder if you could find that issue stored in the periodicals archives at libraries?
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
That is a beautiful cake. Mine was round and more like a mixed bouquet of fruit and flowers. If I had a scanner I would scan in a picture of the wedding cake. Maybe a visit to Staples is in my future.
 
mrslarkin October 5, 2010
Sounds beautiful!! Your description reminds me of the wedding cake in Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. If you don't have the book, you can see a small picture of the cake here: http://www.amazon.com/Baking-Julia-Savor-Americas-Bakers/dp/0688146570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1286285381&sr=1-1#reader_0688146570 click on the "back flap" book section and scroll down a teeny bit.
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
don't have a log in to proquest
 
Amanda H. October 5, 2010
Is this (not sure this link will work for you if you don't have access to proquest): http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=116238083&sid=4&Fmt=11&clientId=54989&RQT=309&VName=HNP
 
luvcookbooks October 5, 2010
Oh, sorry ... it is a beautiful white cake decorated with fruit and I believe, flowers, including champagne grapes, Fiorelle pears, and lady apples. It looks like a beautiful Dutch still life. It was a photo without a recipe.
 
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