A bride's review of cake tastings....

http://judyonthenet.com/2008/07/24/the-best-part-about-wedding-planning-cake-tasting-pt1

I thought it was interesting to read a bride's response to different cake tastings and what she liked and didn't like. She also shares photos of the cake tasting plates. A good read for those of us that are new to the cake tasting world.

Ooooh. Thanks for sharing. I am still trying to figure tastings out-I just hate them.

very interesting! thanks for sharing.

Can't seem to get the link to work.

That is very interesting. Thanks for posting this!

I can't get it to work either!

wow interesting indeed... you know i make all these cakes and i just cant get that nice look like in the first plate of flavours where it looks so nice and set and thick with filling yet my customers all love their cake hmmm andi dont even have slices cut like that i let the customer cut off their own piece and they seem to like that.

Man i think i may have to have a few plays heheh which i am sure my hubby and kids will love but if anyone could share with me how i make a nice firm filling like that or what it is that does it i would really appreciate it thanks... hehe

Very interesting. l have never seen a cake tasting blog before!

Wow... how interesting. We never even did a single tasting for our wedding, so it's nice to have the perspective. Thanks for posting! (although... made me hungry for some cake!)

Thank you very much for posting this link.


Amy

Talk about overkill. Nine cake tastings?? Seriously.

Oh my gosh!! I got so excited to read this and now I can't the link to work!!

what an *annoying* little twit! i hate when people are greedy. i would flat out refuse to make her cake...

I just finished reading. Did anyone else think the Groom was a total weirdo? What normal groom is that obsessed with "smoothness" of the decorations?

Still an interesting insight. Seems like it all boiled down to taste, though.

Ugh. Ok, part of me wants to be like "oh how cute, she had a great time out there, and wrote up a pretty informative article for brides"....but the other side of me wants to do this:

If you taste here, you might want to consider bringing a couple friends.)...yes, because all of us decorators just loooove to have you bring as many people as possible and mooch our cake!

Because it was a pretty intimate setting and Margaret was there the whole time, I didnt feel comfortable taking pictures of the samples.) One of the many reasons why I don't do sit down tastings. No way, no how. Thanks to the suggestions of several in here, I pack those samples up in a cute box, label them, stick a card in there, and send those girlies on their way! We can discuss details of your cake, cost, blah blah blah at another time. Enjoy your samples and call with questions! Next!

maybe I felt weird acting like a pig in front of Margaret....and believe me honey, I don't want to watch you eat anymore than you want to be watching me watch you.

so we got to taste fondant for the first time. (Its gross. Its basically sugar wax. If we get fondant, make sure to peel it off the cake before you eat it.) Thanks a lot Cake Expressions for using shi**y fondant and making it that much more difficult for those of us that use GREAT fondant....argh! Ok, maybe their fondant is ok, and the bridde just doesn't like it, no matter what it tastes like. Sorry CE, if this is the case.

New thing I learned today: Fondant really is just sugar and water.
...well that makes two of us! Ain't that inneresting!

That blog was a great read. I'm glad she enjoyed herself, and that's all that matters. But, in the end, nothing she said will cause me to change the way I do things. Only reaffirmed my decision to not do sit down tastings!

Thanks for the link MJ Girl!

I do mine from home (legally) so no way can I just slice up nine flavors like that. Anyway, around here most caterers include wedding cakes so although I get many party and groom's cakes, my wedding orders are still sparse.

I make two mini tasting cakes by cutting them round and then icing them homestyle (or pouring ganache) so they have two little 3" fully iced cakes, and they can taste them and/or take them home. So far its been the easiest way to do it for me, and presentation isn't too bad. Still haven't decided the best way to box them up yet.

Still interesting. I will say the way I do it, at least there's no chance of the cake drying out, and they will taste just like on wedding day.

I do not do cakes for a living so have no idea what it's like for all of you out there. However, having read this article I must say I take my hat off to all of you for having to deal with people like this. Seriously, have they never had cake before or something???

If I hear of a cake decorator going off the deep end in some bizarre front-page news story I will know it was the poor person who got stuck with making the cake for these people.

That was interesting, but I missed or couldn't find where it said which place she picked for their wedding cake!

Hi everyone! I'm the person whose blog you guys have linked in this thread. Sorry if anybody has trouble checking out the page... the server is being flaky. I noticed I was getting a few folks from this forum.

I hope you guys are getting some useful info out of my rambling posts. I totally understand if you folks think I overdid it with the cake tastings. Cake is kind of a big deal to me. Feel free to ask me any questions, send me hatemail, whatever. It's all good

And yes, my husband is a total weirdo. He has to be... he married me!

And to Jamie's comment on the fondant: I don't think it was Cake Expressions; I really think fondant isn't my thing. I tried it at a couple places, and I can't imagine myself liking anything with that much sugar density. Feel free to prove me wrong tho!

Edited to add: Sorry I just missed the above post. I haven't made a post about my cake yet, but we ended up going with La Patisserie.
http://flickr.com/photos/goteddygo/3007758682/in/set-72157608706637460/

Judy, I looked everywhere on your blog and was dissappointed that after reading all about the tasting, there was no wedding cake picture. Kind of like reading a novel and discovering that the end pages are missing when you finally got there. Thank You so much for posting a link to your wedding cake picture. And it is just darling. I love the topper, so cute.

Since you are obviously a cake person, have you ever considered trying your hand at it? You might like the idea of baking and decorating cakes which are much more to your taste than the ones you did not like during your journey. You'll find an abundance of help and encouragement here on CC. And if/when you and your new hubby decide to have kids, you'll be ready to make their birthday cakes. That's how many of us got started.

Hang around, you'll love it here!

~Anna

Oops, just saw the Bride posted here. Sorry to insult your husband-we always forget that people we talk about here are real people.

The cake was really pretty. I love the topper.. so cute.

oooohhh... I like the groom's cake!

Fondant... there are different types. I sent a cake to work with my hubby last week, and used store-bought fondant. He even put a note on it so people would know to peel it off because it really wasn't good. I used it because I had it, and since the cake had god chocolate icing, I figured it could be peeled. I was doing the cake so I could try a new technique with dust and my airbrush and made it a point that it was an experimental cake (eat at your own risk. *lol*).

One guy... yes, a MAN... called hubby and let him know that the fondant wasn't nearly as good as my "other" fondant. All I could do is laugh. My other fondant was the cream cheese fondant that is listed in the recipes section here, and it does taste very good, but it doesn't have the same workability as the store-bought stuff. I'll be practicing how to get it a bettter texture (I live in teh mountains, so maybe high altitude was part of my problem).