Development of a Wedding Cake, part II

I was really really really really excited about the prospect of multiple cake tastings. I like dessert, if you hadn't heard. I scheduled our first tasting with one of the least expensive people in the area, as kind of a "warm up." If it worked out, great. If not, eh, at least we got free cake.

Basically what I'm after: A round, balanced, three-tier, not too elaborate cake, with green accents.

Source

(**Side note: We did our tastings prior to my starting the blog, so the pics will be quite light. Sorry.)

However, I quickly realized the cake tasting process not as fun as I had envisioned. For one, it's a lot of work to arrange the tasting and talk with the person and describe your vision and look at their samples... it's definitely not just free dessert. That first tasting was kind of a flop. We didn't really like the cake, she was obviously very new in the field, her designs weren't that great. We headed home a little deflated.

Take two. Our wonderful caterers told us that they have worked with basically all the cake makers in the area and hands down recommend one woman. Her cakes are beautiful, cut well, are high quality, delicious, and reasonably priced. Sold. We headed to her house for a (extremely generous) tasting of the following jaw-droppingly delicious combinations:

• Chocolate cake + Hazelnut Buttercream filling w/ Buttercream frosting
• Chocolate cake + Raspberry Cabernet Chocolate Mousse w/ Fondant
• White cake + Raspberry Cream Cheese filling w/ White Chocolate Ganache
• White cake + Champagne Custard filling w/ Buttercream frosting

Yum-tastic. The raspberry cab chocolate mousse was the best thing I've ever tasted. We decided to go with the buttercream after seeing how beautiful her work with it was.

One part of the tasting that was harder than I expected.... planning the size of the tiers. I figured "I want three even tiers for ~65 people" was all you had to say. Nope.

Do you want (and remember, you're paying per slice):

• 10" x 8"x 6" for 57 servings?
• 10" x 8" x 5" for 72?*
  
• 10" x 7" x 5" 61?*
  
• 10" x 9" x 8" for 70?
• 12" x 10" x 8" for 88?
• 12" x 9" x 6" for 74?
• 12" x 8" x 6" for 69?

Calculations based on this chart, except those marked by * which were estimated by our baker.

We decided on 10" x 8" x 5" with the 10" & 5" tiers as chocolate cake w/ the heavenly raspberry cabernet mousse and the 8" tier with white cake and raspberry cream cheese, all covered in traditional buttercream. Oh my gooooosh I can't wait!

Up next: Designing the cake.

What parts of the tasting process surprised you?