Let's Eat Cake!

Over the weekend we had our final cake tasting and design meeting. First to the important part the cake flavors: on the bottom will be carrot cake with a cream cheese filling, the second layer a lemon cake with raspberry filling and on the top a chocolate cake with a chocolate hazelnut filling.

In terms of design the cake will incorporate all of the same design elements that have been going on in the invitation and that will be repeated on the programs and such. Most cakes have two layers: one layer, filling, second layer. The second tier of our cake will be three layers to make it a little bit taller than the rest of the cake. On the second tier an orange ribbon will be wrapped around the middle that matches the ribbon on our invitations. Then in a purple icing that matches the invitations she is going to pipe the graphic that is on all of our paper products. This band around the cake will mimic the band around the invitations. Lastly she is going to put an orange 3 inch gum paste ranunculus at the top. Ranunculus is being used in my bouquet and as Andy's bout so it will tie in nicely. I am thrilled not to have to buy an expensive cake topper that I won't ever use again.

The cake will mimic the band on our invitations above.

We are really excited about the cake! The design is simple but I still feel its dramatic and classy. Additionally it will flow with all of the other elements of the event. But most importantly it is going to be very yummy!

Cake Jewelry

I have decided that I like the more traditional all white cakes.  I'm leaning towards the pearl look and letting the cake have its own jewelry.  I don't want the evenly spaced pearl look that almost looks like beads all over the layers but the look of pearls over flowing.  Our baker and cake designer has already seen these pictures and doesn't think it will be a problem to create which really excites me since I wasn't sure if it was possible.  I think pearls are really classic and add an elegant look to the all white cake.  Here are the pictures that have inspired the look I want to go for as of right now:

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Instead of the print on the layers our cake layers would just be plain and smooth.  This cake would not need a cake topper which I love since I am not crazy about most cake toppers.  If we went with something more like the top cake it would not include the flower and maybe we would do more pearls at the top (like the bottom pic).  If we went with a cake topper maybe pearl K monogram.

Yummy Cake

Last night we had our final cake tasting and I am glad to say we have picked a baker and can check another thing off of our to do list.  We could have gone to 10 or 20 cake tastings but only went to three based on time constraints and such.  I did my research before hand so we didn't even consider bakeries that were way out of our price range or that I had heard mixed reviews on.  From that information we went to Marilyn's Cakes, Tres Belle Cakes, and Affordable Wedding Creations.  

Our first stop was Tres Belle Cakes which is a home baker Tracy.  When we got to her home is smelled like fresh baked warm cake, yummm.  She had a bunch of small cakes for us to try and we left completely stuffed.  Her cake was moist and had excellent flavor that wasn't too strong but at the same time we were able to actually taste and decipher the flavors, we especially liked the lemon.  She is very flexible willing to take anything on and from the work we saw is very capable of doing lots of different artistic things.  Her buttercream icing was amazing!  I hate whipped icing and love thick, creamy, sugary icings and hers fit the bill to the tee!  Some people might think it's too sweet but we both loved it and thought it was just right.  She also makes the cakes the day before so we are guaranteed a freshly baked cake.

The second bakery we went to was Affordable Wedding Creations.  This was an actual shop down in Northern Kentucky right across the street from our reception venue, The Madison.  We picked this place because they are a preferred vendor for our reception hall and we get a tiny kick back if we use them.  Andy had tried their cake at an event at the Madison and really liked it.  Peggy the baker used to be the head cake decorator at Busken Bakery for about 20 years before opening her own shop.  The cake we tried was good, it was moist but there was a discrepency in the different flavors.  The white cake to me had absolutely no flavor, the strawberry had a very faint flavor but her chocolate cake was suprisingly great, especially since we aren't chocolate cake people.  I did not like her fillings which had a gel consistency and did not taste fresh.  She only uses buttercream icing which might not be the best for some of the detail on possible designs we discussed.  We did like how Peggy bakes the cakes a few days prior to ensure freshness.

The last place we went to was Marilyn's Cakes which is also another home baker who has converted her entire basement to a cake shop.  We went to Marilyn because she comes highly recommended and has one of the cheapest prices around.  When discussing designs Marilyn seemed very hesitant about some of the designs because she had never used those methods before and also like Peggy prefers to work strictly with buttercream.  I had heard that Marilyn's cakes were very good however we had a different experience.  The cake we ate was dry and I was unable to discern any taste difference between the white cake and the french vanilla cake.  The chocolate cake also had very little flavor.  Marilyn bakes her cakes a week ahead of time and then freezes them.  The samples we tried also had been frozen which most likely affected the flavor and texture.

After all the tastings we are definitely going with Tracy from Tres Belle Cakes.  Her cakes are wonderful.  The flavor is great, her cakes are moist and she is the freshest since she only bakes a day ahead.  She is very talented and I know that no matter what design we choose she will be very capable.  On top of everything she was fun to talk to and very affordable compared to other bakers out there.  We are very excited to use Tracy and looking forward to the tasting closer to the wedding to pick out flavors and final design!