Cake Tasting: What Dream Are Made Of

From time to time, I like to remind y'all of CupcakesOMG!'s rise to international fame by taking you back to its roots: cake. 

A couple weeks ago, you practically rode side-saddle to the tasting for our wedding reception dinner, so it would have been sacrilege to not fill you in on all the details of our cake tasting.

As part of our package at our venue, we have the option of choosing one of their cake vendors. Because of my mom's gluten allergy, I am adamant that we work with a bakery offering gluten free options. Even though our cake won't be gluten free, I want to have a couple of gluten free cupcakes for her so she can have the same experience as everyone else. Especially since, like, she's paying for this shindig. So, as part of our tasting, one of the cake vendors came along with a few options, including white cake with vanilla buttercream:

...chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream:

...German chocolate cake:

...and two gluten free mousse "cakes":

I use air-quotes (which, in this case are real quotes) to describe these cakes because in reality, they aren't cake at all, they're mousse. And mousses are DELICIOUS, but they are not cake. That's why they are called mousse. And that concludes our English lesson for today.

I wasn't wowed by any of the cakes through our venue's vendor, particularly because we didn't get a lot of choice in filling, frosting, cake combinations and ultimately, the cakes were only okay, which is why  I couldn't book a tasting at Fluffy Thoughts fast enough.

Fun fact: Fluffy Thoughts is owned by the sister of the woman who owns the shop where I bought my wedding dress (Carine's Bridal Atelier, for those of you with inquiring minds). Now if that doesn't just scream meant-to-be, I don't know what does.

When we showed up for our tasting, I was taken with the bakery case's unusual selection of cupcake flavors. Samoa:

Candy bar Crunch:

Cannoli:

...and Tres Leches, which happens to be me ALL TIME FAVORITE dessert. Mashed up with a cupcake, and fugghedaboutit!

I knew we were in for a treat. Literally. This tasting experience was entirely different than the one we had at our venue, and by that I mean it was incredible!

{The bubble chandelier reminded me of Lady Gaga's bubble dress}

The dozen frostings and fillings we wanted to try were arranged quite cleverly in this deveiled egg dish:

We then tried half a dozen cakes, all baked fresh just for us in mini loaf pans.

For the next 60 minutes, the pastry chef hand crafted individual bites of cake with various combinations of fillings and frostings for us to try, which I can only describe as my idea of heaven and I need to go back immediately!!! But ultimately, Kyle and I decided on two flavors--yes, you CAN do that!!!! We'll have a white cake with passionfruit curd and blackberry buttercream (this will be the bottom layer of our three-tier cake, which we'll cut and eat during the cake ceremony) and an Oreo-inspired cake of rich chocolate cake, white chocolate ganache, and Oreo buttercream. And it literally tastes like an Oreo. It's gonna be soooooooo good you guys!

And for my mom, chocolate cupcakes filled with French raspberry preserves, topped with chocolate buttercream. 

{And after an hour of cake tasting, I still ate a cake pop. Sorry 'bout it.}

Anyone who doesn't like cake is officially not invited to my wedding. The End.

The Tastiest Tasting

There's a lot of things about wedding planning I wouldn't want to do again: build a guest list; write deposit checks to vendors; (attempt to) register at Williams-Sonoma (it's a nightmare...don't even bother), but doing our tasting is definitely one thing I would do over and over again. We got to sample three cocktails, two salads, four entrees, a dessert, 5 pieces of cake, and a partridge in a pear tree. 

Before we started consuming any solids, we were treated to the sampling of our three cocktail options: this housemade Limoncello champagne number, complete with a lemon sugar rim...

...this Chambord champagne drink...

 ...and this fresh Ginger champagne bevvie.

All three were the kind of drink I'd happily get sick-drunk off of, but ultimately we decided on the Limoncello drink, because it wasn't too sweet and it will be the perfect summertime refreshment to greet our guests upon arrival.

Once we were well lubricated, and I'll be honest, a bit drunkity, the food courses commenced, starting with the salad course options of greens with asparagus, parmesan, and truffle oil...:

...and this combination of greens with strawberries, fontina, and balsamic dressing:

While the strawberry and fontina salad was good, the asparagus salad with truffle oil was the hands-down winner. With drinks and appetizers selected, next came the entree selections. I was expecting this to be pretty easy too, but everything was so delicious we still haven't made up our minds. Then again, it might have been the fact that we were all drunk from the cocktails (plus the two glasses of wine we got to try). Either way, the entrees were delightful. We sampled...

Grilled swordfish with basil pesto breadcumbs over a parmesan risotto:

{This was a surprising standout for me--I usually don't consider fish at a wedding to be this special.}

 North African lamb served with couscous and a balsamic mint demi:

 A duet of sous vide beef tenderloin and crab cake:

 A gluten free herbed lamb chop with balsamic glaze and almond green beans:

I think Kyle and I thought we'd ultimately choose the duet and just not give options for our dinner, but we were blown away with the fish and the gluten free lamb, so now we're not sure what we want to do.  What we do know is whatever we choose will be ah-effing-mazing.

And no meal would be complete without dessert--we sampled the chocolate ganache ring with orange segments and a mango puree (with cilantro microgreens, nbd):

I'm not a fan of rich chocolate anything--I know, I know--but this was delightful! The rich chocolate was cut by the tart orange, so I'm pretty sure this will be a crowd pleaser.

We did taste a few cake options, but I'm getting full just recapping this whole experience, so you'll have to come back to hear more about this one (and the one we're doing on Saturday, because of course the girl with a blog named after baked goods would need options!!!!!!).

Who else has done a wedding tasting? Did you love it? Did it taste the same AT the wedding?? Did you get drunk?!!