Flowers get a mood board. The dress gets three boutique appointments. Wedding desserts? Most couples get a cardboard box of samples and twenty minutes on a Tuesday afternoon. It’s a strange oversight. The cake is a centerpiece moment: the cut, the toast, the table guests gather around before the dancing starts. The flavors people taste are the ones they’ll remember. And yet somehow, it’s the one part of planning that gets rushed.
Karolien Beyens, a Belgian wedding cake and dessert designer, wanted to change that. Last November, she opened the doors of La Masseria — a light-filled venue in Brecht, Belgium — to a room full of engaged couples. What followed looked a lot like a wedding. Styled tables. A live band. A dessert spread with more options than most couples knew to ask for. The message was clear: your desserts deserve the same attention as everything else.
Photo: Caroline Couck
Slow Down & Savor
La Masseria does half the work for you: high ceilings, exposed brick, natural light that fills every corner of the room. Karolien’s styling did the rest. Deep red florals at the bar. A custom velvet runner printed with the drink menu. Linen tablecloths and ceramic plates, and at each table, a single red carnation in a small glass vase.
Couples arrived to find their names already waiting for them. Custom tasting menus sat at each seat, a live band played softly in the background, and when everyone was settled, the tasting boards arrived.
Slices of different cake bases — classic vanilla, a dense chocolate chip loaf, red velvet and passion fruit — alongside small ceramic ramekins of fillings and buttercreams to mix and match. No rushing. No pressure to decide. Just time, good food, and conversations couples hadn’t thought to have yet. About sweetness. About texture. About what they actually want their guests to remember eating.
Photo: Caroline Couck
On Display
Around the room, example cakes gave couples something to study between bites. A two-tier white cake with a hand-textured buttercream finish. A sheet cake topped with a row of fresh roses and carnations. A compact round with a sculptural, woven exterior. Each one a different answer to the same question: what do you want your cake to say?
The most memorable moment of the evening came courtesy of the live cake sketching. Couples described what they were imagining — the shape, the flowers, the finish — and watched it get drawn out in real time. Seeing something go from vague idea to actual sketch has a way of making it feel real. Suddenly the vision isn’t just in someone’s head. It’s on paper. That’s a hard thing to replicate with a PDF brochure and a price list.
Photo: Caroline Couck
"This wasn’t just a tasting; it was a glimpse into what’s possible when planning with creativity and care. As far as we know, no one has hosted an event like this before, blending cake artistry with a full wedding-style atmosphere."
Photo: Caroline Couck
Dessert Buffet
The buffet was its own conversation. A deep burgundy tiered cake anchored the table, dressed in dark florals and gold detail. Around it: sugar-dusted donuts, raspberry cream cups, small citrus desserts, white chocolate popsicles with a blush berry brushstroke. All of it available to taste. In any order. At any point in the evening.
It was generous in a way that felt considered. A real opportunity for couples to understand the range of what’s possible when dessert is treated as seriously as the rest of the menu. Most people don’t realize how many options exist until they’re standing in front of all of them.
Photo: Caroline Couck
Karolien’s philosophy is printed right on the banner at the entrance: Let’s turn dreams into memories. At this event, it read less like a tagline and more like a promise.
Wedding planning has a way of turning exciting decisions into stressful ones. Dessert doesn’t have to be one of them. When the process is designed well — when couples have space, good food, and a team that takes their vision seriously — choosing a wedding cake becomes one of the better parts of it all.
That’s the standard Karolien Beyens is setting. And based on the room last November, couples are ready for it.
DESSERTS & CAKE & STYLING Karolien Beyens | PHOTOGRAPHER Caroline Couck | VENUE La Masseria | FLORALS Marble and Bloom | CERAMICS Ingrid Van Oekelen
