THE CAKE... a very important detail: Part II

I'm sure you remember my post on a Wedding Cake Verses Wedding Cupcakes.

Six lovely words.

Fluffy Thoughts Cakes by Lara Stuckey

All her cakes are about 4-5 inches high, with 4 rows of cake, and three rows of buttercream. Between each layer of buttercream and cake, she also applies a thin layer of "spread," be it ganache, curd, or jam. Below is a slice shot from her website of marble cake, with 2 rows of vanilla and 1 row of chocolate filling, and a facebook shot of her white cake w/ raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberries:

Um.. YUM!


I went to a cake tasting in early January. What did i think? Her cakes taste amazing!


And the fact that she was a fine arts minor, and I was a Fine Arts Major, and she specialized in sculpture really makes me confident that my cake will look awesome!


THE TASTING

Presentation was impressive, ultra chic, lovely, and the cakes taste WONDERFUL! I wish i brought a camera because the layout was soo cute with the tiny cakes and the baby scoops of fillings!

She makes amazingly moist, dense cakes, which we were able to sample with different buttercream fillings and spreads.

The process:

• You dip your fork into a spread.
  
• You scoop a bit of buttercream onto your fork
  
• You cut the cake w/ your fork
  
• You place it in your mouth and experience something magical

UH - MAY- ZING!!

From what i could recall...

Flavor of mini cakes she had us try (all lined up in a row) were: Mocha Chocolate (Devil's Food), Red Velvet, Marble, White Chocolate (with bits of white choc), Yellow Cake, White Cake

Buttercreams: Vanilla, Chocolate, Hazelnut (w/ crushed caramelized hazelnuts), Raspberry, Blackberry, Lemon, Orange, Coconut (w/ shredded coconut pieces), Cream Cheese, Cookies and Cream (Crushed Oreos), Coffee

Spreads: Passion Fruit Curd (my favorite), Raspberry Jam, Milk Chocolate Ganache, Dark Chocolate Ganache

Other Fillings: Volrhona Crunchies, Fresh Strawberries

THE FINAL DECISION:

I went with her. In fact, I gave her my deposit at the tasting.

Here are my design/flavor decisions:

Five Tier design - The cake would be covered in an Ivory Fondant with light orange lace and orange and gold gilded swirls on each tier (she’s going to copy the swirls on my invite). A gold Sugar ribbon would be added to the base. She'll draw, scan, and email me a final sketch when it gets closer. I am eager to see the results.

A dilemma... mom was hoping for a huge cake on a dime-like budget. I brought this up to Lara and she came up with a solution:

The top 4 tiers will be decorated styrophoam, bottom tier will be real cake, and I’ll have 2 sheet cakes in the back (all to save money).

Flavor Choices:

• 1st flavor (bottom tier, 100 servings) - “My Great Passion” White cake w/ Passion Fruit curd and Blackberry Buttecream


• 2nd flavor (Sheet cake #1, 50 servings) – “Mine oh Mine” Red Velvet with Dark Ganache, 2 layers of cream cheese filling and one layer of cookies and cream (oreo) filling
  
• 3rd flavor (Sheet cake #2, 50 servings) – “Starbucks on Steroids”White Chocolate Cake, Milk Chocolate Ganache, 2 layers of Hazelnut Buttercream and one layer of Coffee buttercream

Suffice to say that if a month after your tasting you're still dreaming about the cake you ordered, I'd say you made a great decision!

Is it bad that aside from marrying Mr Smallville, this is the one thing I'm looking most forward to?