Let's talk cake!

labro

Has anyone started researching wedding cakes yet or had any tastings? Share some of your cake inspiration pictures if you have any!

FI and I had a tasting last weekend and one more tasting this weekend. We're hoping to make our decision after the second tasting.

The first tasting was more of a consultation so we just tried a couple of the things she had on hand. Red velvet with the most amazing cream cheese frosting ever and german chocolate cake.

If we order from her we're getting a three layer cake. The first and top layers will be what she called European vanilla but she basically described as a "heavier" cake with a vanilla-almond flavor and raspberry filling. The middle layer will be spice cake with cream cheese filling.

Our second tasting is Saturday.

We're trying: pumpkin cake with bourbon filling, spice cake with cream cheese filling, almond with raspberry, hummingbird cake, cornmeal cake (we wanted to try it because we've never heard of cornmeal cake).

This is the look we're going for. I don't want any fondant, just buttercream, so we really can't go crazy with decor but that's ok!

TeddiD34

That's a gorgeous cake! I love the texture of the frosting.

I'd share mine, but we're not having one (just a yummy dessert).

LDay2014

A friend of ours is a chef with President's Choice and will be making our cake for us.

This is our inspiration photo and we have chosen three flavours: Dark Chocolate, Vanilla, and Red Velvet - one for each layer 

labro

@TeddiD34 What sort of dessert are you having? We had this yummy fruit cup with some sort of lemony whipped deliciousness at a tasting with a potential caterer and if we had had budget I would have totally included it!

TeddiD34

@lmhollister Mmmmm, I love a lemony dessert

We're not sure yet; we do our tasting on Mar 20, so we'll figure out then. We're trying tiramisu, chocolate/hazelnut torte and a variety of cannolis.

I can't wait to try all of that!

labro

Mmmmmm tiramisu. Someone on another board had a traditional wedding cake but then they had tres leches for a groom's cake and I think I would have died from happiness if I had been at that wedding. My sister's SMIL had an ice cream sundae bar at the RD and it was seriously the most amazing thing ever!

jerkyanne

I am making our wedding cake.

I decorate cakes for family and friends in my spare time. I'm planning on doing red velvet with cream cheese frosting and lemon cake with lemon curd filling in the layers. I'm going to have three layers with sunflowers and pine cones as a decoration.

Emily104

FI prefers pie over cake, and I really don't have a sweet tooth, so I think we're just going with pie. 

weeniedogs

We have our cake tasting in May with a well-know and Knot-award winning bakery outside of Baltimore. I have no idea what kind of favor(s) I want for the cake, but I definitely have an idea of what I want the cake to look like - very simple, but sophisticated and beautiful. At the moment, my fiance and I are fighting over what cake topper to go with - I would like an elegant shape of our last name (O), and he would like a Marge and Homer from the Simpsons (I wouldnt expect anything less from a Simpsons fan!). But I am so excited to get to tasting! 

Here is what we have in mind, with our color of Plum for the ribbon:

smalfrie19

We had our cake tasting with the vendor we had picked out and OMG I cannot WAIT for more!!! We are having White cake with raspberry filling and spice cake with cream cheese filling...with a TRUE buttercream frosting that is to die for! Her cake is dense and moist and I am IN LOVE! 

labro

@smalfrie19 That sounds A LOT like our cake that we're trying to go with. Spice cake with cream cheese and a white vanilla-almond sort of cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting that's to die for! I have a second tasting with the first baker we met with on Sunday to try the cake flavors we discussed ordering and that's probably when I'll make my final decision. We loved the cake at our second tasting and I thought our baker was the coolest person ever but her buttercream was super duper sweet and it gave me a sugar headache after just a few bites.

smalfrie19

@lmhollister yeah that's what I loved about our baker's buttercream...its sweet...but when you let it sit on your tongue and melt you can taste the butter, which totally smooths out the sugar! I am so excited. 

Jessica2426

lday iI really love that cake!

my kids are crazy. they only eat cupcakes not cake. iI tell them its the same thing. lol. 

but iI am making a small heart cake with a bunch of cupcakes under. iI am so excited to do this! iI know iI can do it because iI made 500 cupcakes for another event. we are only having about 150. 

iI may or may not do filling. iI made cassatta, boston creme pie, banana creme, and smores. iI may just get boxes of flavors and call it a day. iI am going to make purple flowers to put on the cupcakes. and again not sure if they will be fondant flowers or royal icing. iI just dislike fondant. 

anyone else doing a cupcake tree? are you doing multiple flavors or just 1??

kschork87

We're doing a cupcake tower. We're doing 3 flavors. Our 6 inch cake on top of the tower will be a cookies and cream cake. Our three flavors are oreos cookies and cream, chocolate with pb icing, and vanilla/vanilla. The baker is great she uses all natural ingredients, no preservatives, no shortening.

trishnuk8

I reaaaalllly want an ice cream cake.

If we do this it would have to be in the back and then have a small cake for us to display and cut. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Plus dessert/candy bar!!!

JennyColada

We are having a two tier cake. The bottom layer inspiration is the mini/flower ombré cake. The top layer will have a quote written on it ("To define love is to limit it." - Fi picked it!).

No cake tastings, but we decided on a white sponge cake with seasonal jam/buttercream. We are giving our bakery creative license with the exact colors (and flower decorations) and final flavors. Neither of us are picky.

Dignity100

I have no clue at this point about cakes!!!

FI and I are in between cake designs - I think I'll do orange flowers:

Flavors available:
Chocolate Cake
Yellow Cake
Marble Cake
Almond Cake

Fillings available:
Chocolate Mousse
White Chocolate Mousse
Strawberry Mousse
Bavarian Cream
Raspberry Mousse
Buttercream
Amaretto Mousse

I THINK right now we're leaning towards:  Marble Cake w/Bavarian Cream filling
There are other flavors we could upgrade to, but I don't think the cake is a huge priority and we'll just go with the basic cake that comes with our package.

labro

@trishnuk8 I think that's a great idea! My venue reccommended something similar to me as a way to save money. It seems to me if you really want ice cream cake then that's the direction you should take,

JasperandOpal

I am also doing a selection of pies because FI and I don't usually like cake but then my Fi's coworkers got him a cake for his last day of work that he loved so if I can rework our budget a bit I might get that as his groom's cake. 

rsbloom

My FI and I aren't big cake people either, we're doing a variety of cheesecakes from The Cheesecake Factory.  We're going to display a few and have the rest refrigerated in the back.

Lowell14

WE will be doing 3 tiers of vanilla (Bottom tier), lemon drizzle and chocolate fudge. FI doesn't like cake AT ALL so the baker helped me decide.

PrincessOfHavoc

We're doing double chocolate cake with ganache and cannoli filling. Frosting is a very amazing dark chocolate that's almost black without any dye and then white lace pattern like my dress.

I want death by chocolate. And this is one place I'm putting my food down and saying it's DF's and my day, we are getting exactly what we want. Well, 100% of his and 98% of mine. My real preference would be fruitcake. But since death by chocolate is an acceptable substitute, I won't force fruitcake on guests.

mocarski002

We are doing a (believe it or not) funfetti with buttercream frosting. Instead of doing satin ribbin we are going to use fondant.So excited!

Jean0715

@mocarski002 omg I am so jealous! I love funfetti! Our baker is pretty cool. We go and discuss what type of design we want and work with them. Then we call them 5 days ahead of time with what type of cakes we would like to sample (pick 2 types of cake and three types of filling per tasting) and he bakes us a mini cake to take home and enjoy, the first mini cake is free and any other mini cake (2 types of cake, 3 fillings) is 10 bucks...better yet this baker comes with our caterer so cake cost is already included. I think the FI and I are going sets up a meeting sometime next month.

Rachelariana

LaPeanut, what was you experience with the cream cheese filling? Is it overshadowed by the buttercream frosting on top? We are also doing a RV layer along with a carrot cake layer. The one tasting we've been to the baker served it with just buttercream frosting (I was unaware that I'd need to request cream cheese for those flavors) and it was underwhelming, to say the least.

labro

@Rachelariana I didn't think it was overshadowed at all! The cake slices are so tall that you get plenty of bites with just cake and cream cheese frosting and bites with just the buttercream so it was basically two separate flavor experiences. We also tried a cream cheese frosting with flakes of caramel candy added to it and it was amazing!

Rachelariana

@LaPeanut1018 -- That sounds delicious! So your baker is willing to work with cream cheese as the frosting? MIL has me convinced that no one will want to work with it because it's hard to pipe and doesn't crust well like buttercream. We're going for a messy, rustic look (similar to yours) so I'm hoping that's not much of an issue.

Lauramae980

I am a former event planner, so luckily I had my bakery in mind from the beginning. We haven't done a tasting yet because it's kids birthday season and the bakery is pretty busy, but we are going to do it late June. I know the flavors, but my FI should get a say and I value his opinion on what he wants. Luckily, the bakery does takeaway sample boxes of flavors, so I can pick up and he can try after he gets home from work. 

The reason I like this bakery is that that they do buttercream frosting. After years of cutting through fondant at events I just loathe it. 

Blergbot

Our cake will be devil's food on the bottom tier with chocolate ganache and white chocolate, coconut cream filling. The middle and top tiers will be vanilla with Chantilly cream, lemon curd filling with fresh raspberries. The cake will be covered in vanilla buttercream ruffles. The pic is of a similar cake our baker did. It will be decorated with succulents and pale pink blooms (no tulle).

Pepperally

@Blergbot - you had me at coconut cream filling!!!!!!!!!  FI doesn't like coconut  

Blergbot

My FI could eat coconut at every meal and not get sick of it. He is obsessed.