Chelsea Clinton's Wedding Not So Vegan After All

Before Chelsea Clinton's wedding, there was speculation about the guest list, the dress, and the wedding cake. Most had figured that the cake would be vegan and gluten-free, since the bride is vegan with a gluten allergy. I was super excited about this, as someone who is vegan, gluten-free, and a fan of the Clinton family.

But Entertainment Tonight crushed my vegan cake dreams. They reported that the nine-tiered vanilla sponge cake layered with chocolate mousse sat four feet tall, and was very un-vegan. It was made with 360 eggs and 30 pounds of butter.

The cake was made by La Tulipe Desserts, which is located in Mount Kisco, NY. Although La Tulipe Desserts is not a bakery with vegan options, they write on their website under the wedding cake tab: "We can create any custom size, flavors and style for your special day. Anything is possible."

"Anything is possible" meant that the bakery was happy to cater to Chelsea Clinton's food allergy, using 45 pounds of gluten-free flour to make the wedding cake. This leads me to believe that the bakery would have been happy to go the extra mile for the special day and make the wedding cake vegan, but Chelsea Clinton didn't ask them to.

Change.org readers debated on my previous post, Chelsea Clinton's Extraordinary Vegan Wedding, as to whether it mattered that her entire wedding wasn't vegan. The menu included vegan and gluten-free entrees, but it also included grass-fed beef. "It was hardly a vegan wedding if animal was served there," one reader, Sarah Panullo commented.

Sarah had an excellent point, but I was so excited that a vegan wedding cake was to be served to world leaders (and Oprah) by the former First Daughter, that I was willing to overlook that she was also serving grass-fed beef. Since the wedding cake is something most guests consume, not serving a vegan wedding cake strikes me as a huge failure on Clinton's part.

It isn't as though vegan baked goods taste worse than ones made with animal products. In fact, BabyCakes Bakery is all-vegan and mostly gluten-free, and they've been voted the best tasting cupcake by New York Magazine. That's the best cupcake out of all cupcakes in New York, not just compared to vegan ones.

And earlier this year, Chef Chloe won Food Network Cupcake Wars with her vegan creations. Her competitors made standard cupcakes, but Chloe's vegan cupcakes won every round.

My point is, Chelsea Clinton wouldn't have had to sacrifice taste if she had made her wedding cake vegan. But Chelsea Clinton chose not to have a vegan wedding cake, and it seems her wedding wasn't vegan or extraordinary at all.

I had hoped that her wedding would inspire other brides to leave animals off their guests' plates, and keep all animal products out of their own wedding cakes. It's a good thing my invitation got lost in the mail, because I wouldn't have been able to eat that cake,  and now I've had to eat my words.

Photo Credit: Vicky_Dom