Here comes the pie

Brides find perfect pastry takes the cake when it comes to celebrating
Detroit News Food Writer
Kate Lawson
In the pastry world, there are two kinds of people -- cake lovers and pie lovers.
Cake is for ceremony -- birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and of course, weddings. Pie is for comfort -- family reunions, picnics, Thanksgiving and church suppers.
For years, pie's had its place on the sideboard -- filled with fruit or custard with a crown of meringue or latticed with pastry, while cakes are elegantly perched on pedestals, tiered and frosted with sugared roses and aglow with candles.
Now thanks to Wendy Achatz and Mary Ann Ryan of Achatz Handmade Pie Co. in Armada, the diner dessert is stepping out and is taking its rightful place on the ceremonial table.
Even brides are opting for pie over cake to serve at their wedding, sending home little tarts or pie slices with their guests wrapped in ribboned boxes or plastic containers with a special greeting from the newlyweds.
"Who wouldn't want to take home a nice slice of pie instead of a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin?" asks Achatz, who co-owns Achatz Pies along with her husband, Dave. The couple has a second location in Troy and a third is set to open in Oxford.
When wedding planner Nancy Gies of Sterling Heights saw the wedding pie sign in the Troy shop, she suggested the idea to her client, Stephanie Hogan for her June wedding.
"I just knew it would suit Stephanie. Each bride wants to make their own statement and I knew she would love the idea."
Hogan did love the notion of pie and so did her fiance, Todd Weaver. "He thought it was great," says the 23-year-old Troy preschool teacher. "We wanted something unique. Most people have cake, we wanted to be different. His favorite is French silk and mine's cherry, so we ordered those flavors plus apple, pumpkin and lemon meringue for our 400 guests."
Geis says not only is serving pie unique, it's also less expensive than a traditional wedding cake.
"Most cakes average about $2.50 to $3.50 per slice," says Geis, "the pie slices are $1.50. If you're trying to do a wedding on a budget, this is a great way to do it and still keep your guests happy."
"There will be a cake though," says Geis, "but just for photo purposes only."
Mary Ann Ryan, who's in charge of the wedding pie program, says Achatz served their first wedding pies last fall. "We offer different options and have over 30 flavors, so we're happy to work with the client to see what suits them best," explains Ryan, 32. "We can bake up several sheet pies to cut and serve at the reception, package slices in individual pie containers with a greeting from the couple or make small tarts and box them up with a pretty ribbon for the guests to take home."
"We use all natural ingredients, no preservatives, no artificial flavorings or trans-fatty acids," says Wendy Achatz, who's been turning out her handmade pies for 10 years. "And most of our ingredients are found locally -- fresh butter, eggs and steroid-free milk."
While Achatz pies are her choice, Geis says she's also suggested using pies from Nino Salvaggio as well as Costco to her clients. "Serving pie is a wonderful idea."
Just ask Maria and Mark Teshendorf of Washington Township and Achatz's first wedding clients.
"Mark isn't a cake eater, and I took a poll asking all my friends and clients if they had a choice would they want pie or cake. Almost everyone said pie," says Maria Teshendorf, a 28-year-old dental hygienist in Macomb Township.
"I couldn't believe it," says Teshendorf, remembering her big day. "We had 12 different varieties of pies on display, which we were going to give to our family, and then we had slices of German chocolate pie packaged up for our guests to take home.
"Well even before dinner was over, we spied the strolling singers and waiters cutting into our pies and we had to stop them. Then another waiter came in carrying a tray of the individual slices in the containers. The tray tipped and the pies went spilling out over the dance floor. Suddenly it was like a mob scene. People were like vultures grabbing containers and scraping up the pie off the floor to take home.
"I ended up with chocolate pie all over my train, and neither Mark nor I got any pie. Even my poor grandmother didn't even get pie. It was sure fun though."

Wedding pies include, clockwise from bottom, cherry double crust, apple double crust, Toll House and peach double crust.
Wendy Achatz, left, and Mary Ann Ryan of Achatz Handmade Pie Co. arrange a wedding pie display. Clockwise from bottom are a banana split pie, coconut cream, raspberry creme and chocolate cream; Ryan holds a German chocolate pie.