CAKE, CAKE, CAKE, CAKE! (wait, what do you mean there's more to a wedding than cake?)

For anyone who knows anything about me - or has at least read one or two of these blog posts before, you've probably already picked up on the top five favorite foods in my life (truly, in no particular order):  gummy bears, beer, bacon, wine...and of course, cake.  I love cake. Chocolate cake, white cake, yellow cake, Red Velvet cake, cupcakes, birthday cake, ice cream cake; I even WEAR cake for heaven's sake.

There is virtually no cake I won't eat....unless it has bits of coconut in it.  Even I have to draw the line somewhere. 

But by far, the absolute best cake in the world is wedding cake.  Doesn't matter whose wedding it is, wedding cake is always the tastiest.  I can't explain why, it just is. I can have cake at a wedding and be at that bakery the next day having the exact same thing, and I guarantee it won't be as tasty as a slice of that frosted confectionery goodness that came off the blade of the bride and groom's engraved knife the night before.  It's the same eggs, the same flour, and the same sugar - but there is something magical in the mixing that makes cake all the better when surrounded by white tulle, champagne and relatives doing the chicken dance.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that after the shock of Nick's proposal to me settled into daily normalcy, there was immediate planning to be done.  No, not a venue.  Not the guest list.  Not even the alcohol to be served. 

I needed to plan the cake.

C'mon...this is me we're talking about here.  You didn't really think I was going to plan the alcohol before the cake, did you?  I'm saving that for when we start planning the budget - complete with sampling.

So of course as soon as humanly possible, I scheduled an appointment for the nearest bakery. 

We walk in and I'm overcome by the sweet smell of heaven.  Towers of butter cream and fondant covered cake on silver pedestals surround us in a variety of colors, shapes and all beautifully decorated for the dream day.

 

We are greeted and seated and introduced to the wonderful world of wedding cake - which of course includes SAMPLES!!!!!

Red Velvet, raspberry filling, chocolate, french cream, butter cream, lemon, marble cake, banana nut (I think I'm drooling just thinking about them all again).   And mind you, these are not tiny one bit samples of cake we're handed.  These are full-on SLICES OF CAKE!  Our cake hostess must have seen me coming from a mile away!  Would it be possible to work our way through so many samples?

Why yes.  Yes we did.

And although we narrowed down our decision at this bakery to one cake and icing combination (yes, I said this bakery - I figure this leaves me open for more visits to more bakeries), the more difficult decision left before us is what we want the cake to look like.  I have to admit that we were a bit overwhelmed by the number of options available to us.  Even in just a basic cake design, there are so many different color, shape, decorative combinations, it's difficult to decide. 

Do we select something with color?

or do we go with a basic white?

Do we go simple and square?

Or something a little less traditional?

AARGH!  Too many choices.  Either we need to go back for more sampling in order to get a better idea of what we want, or we're just going to have to have more than one cake at the wedding.  But we are having a relatively small wedding, so what would we do with all of that leftover cake?

Problem solved.