the taste test!
this afternoon brian and i went to check out a bakery in search of a cake. for those of you who’ve never shopped for a cake before, here’s how it works (usually and this time around).
when we got there, we were given two large binders with photos of about 500 cakes. yeah, i know, a lot of cake. the cakes had notes with them, describing the insides, the outsides, how many servings, and misc details (ie, real flowers vs. edible chocolate flowers, unique writing, stenciled decoration).
picking a design was daunting. but, brian came up with a nice system. we each got a binder and flipped through, noting which designs we liked. we then traded binders and lists, circling ones we agreed on and nixing ones we disagreed on and even adding ones we thought should be in the running. we switched again and debated down to four designs. as we tasted cakes, the baker pointed out two of the designs were really similar and we decided we go with one of those.
the design we picked is a 3 to 5 tier, with white buttercream frosting, and round. it has white details (little swirly lines, or whatever) and decorated with fresh flowers. hooray!
after picking a general design, we were given 13 pieces of the different kinds of cake flavorings the bakery offers. the pieces were about two bite sizes and spread out on a baking sheet and numbered according to a cheat sheet of their flavors. we tried a bunch of different ones and settled on one (Alternating layers of cocoa and golden chiffon lightly soaked with cinnamon, Kahlua and espresso filled with coffee pastry cream - via their website). it sounds hella complex, but really just tastes good. it’s chocolate-y without being too heavy (like the fudge ones that were good, but crazy sweet), and included coffee!! excellent!
after that, we talked prices. the design we picked costs about $600 (!!!) for 100 people, plus a delivery fee and an extra charge to put fresh flowers on it. BUT we could get a small cake (3-tier is the smallest), plus sheet cake, all for 300 people, at about $500 (delivery charge included), plus the fresh flower fee (about $40-50). So… about $700 vs $550. not bad - though still ridic.
observation: brian likes classic designs, whereas i prefer more modern ones. so… choosing was a bit difficult, but in the end we really just like simple, yet elegant type cakes.
