I like it!

That was Tim's conclusion as we hopped into the car. It's also so cute to see him excited. We've been tasting cakes this past week, and the last place turned out to be the best.

Cake testing is probably one of the most fun parts of wedding planning (unless you're on a diet). Comparing the three places we've been to, it's incredibly helpful to sit with people who are the actual bakers. They should be able to tell you what's a good idea and what's not rather than just say "yes, we can do that" to everything you ask.

We visited the first cake maker last weekend. When you walk in, there's no question they're in the wedding cake business. That's all they do. We really like having a cream cheese filling between layers of white and chocolate cake. Their cakes are definitely tasty. The problem was the consultant was a young guy who probably has no involvement in the cake making process. We didn't feel he answered questions well if they weren't on the handouts in front of us. My guess he's the office manager and delivery guy.

Tim and I met up for lunch to visit the second place. It's a favorite bakery of mine. I like stopping by for their flakey and crispy palmiers. I've also tasted a few of the sheet cakes which are yummy. Sadly, the wedding cakes were awful. They sweetened everything with simple syrup and the fillings were a bit greasy tasting. My stomach didn't sit well afterwards.

Our third place was a bakery I found using Yelp several months ago. I'm always up for trying new French pastry places. I had bought a sampler box for a lunch party and had decent results. My only fear was that they'd be pricier. I can't totally speak for Tim, but I'm pretty sure that we enjoyed the cakes here more almost immediately.

The samples were wonderfully generous. Unlike the other two bakers, we were given full wedding-size slices. It made it much easier to understand portion size. (Of course, you can't tell from this pictures since we already took some healthy-sized bites.) There was red velvet (cupcake), banana, hummingbird, chocolate ganache, and lemon with blackberry jam. The cakes were pretty dense but delicious. The flavors and texture were well balanced, not oily, dry or too sweet.

We have also been toying with the idea of serving individual desserts rather than slices of cake. So she gave us a chocolate mousse to try. We bought the raspberry mouse to have a fruit test. We've seen pictures of cupcake wedding cakes. They're cute, but a little too casual for us. The individual desserts would be fun for color and variety. The only danger is people taking more than one before everyone's had a chance to get theirs. But it's understand when you taste how yummy they are.

What a breakfast eh?!!