#371

On cake:

Right now, there are four main contenders, and not enough time to figure these things out. That's where the Secret Weapon will come in, a.k.a. Mom. I'm not into the whole cupcake thing. I was for a while, and then I spent, oh, 5 years making cupcakes because they seemed like the easiest thing to eat at parties. Elementary, my Dear Watson. I've found, instead, that cupcakes are messy...the frosting gets all over your hands, it gets stuck in your teeth, you're left with that annoying and sticky wrapper, and the cake just doesn't taste like cake. Usually, it's far too light to hold up to the frosting, which is why I think places like Magnolia's make their cake so dense. But instead of tasting like cake, they taste like a moister dry muffin, if that makes sense.

So that's my diatribe. I'm steam-rolling through wedding tasks now that we are way beyond the 100 day mark (super shutter), and I've come up with four places that might be worth a look for cake. The average cost of a slice in New York City starts at $10...Holy Rolled Fondant, Batman!

How Sweet It Is is a little pastry shop recommended by our caterer. I wasn't super-impressed by the website, but I am going to try and arrange a tasting for this weekend, anyway.


A Simple Cake is a genius venture by Gail Watson, one of the doyennes of cake. You order from one of her pre-designed cakes, and voila! I like her listed flavors, especially the "Buttermilk Spice" one. On our last pilgrimage to Baked (and yes, I'm getting to that one), Tom and I ordered a spiced cupcake that was to die for...the flavor just seems right for the time of year. The one draw back to A Simple Cake is that all of the frosting is vanilla...not a huge fan of the whole chocolate cake/vanilla frosting bit because I find that the sweetness of the vanilla frosting overwhelms the complexity of the chocolate underneath. But I love the classic look of these cakes.


Baked...but y'all new this one would be on there as it was the site of my 27th birthday. (Or was it 26?) This would be the best option for the cake buffet I had in mind, and the retro flavors are ridiculous. But somehow, I've always walked away mildly disappointed. Can't put my finger on it, exactly...


Oh, and they're quite popular for cupcakes, but the ones they do for weddings look like boobs, in my opinion. I suppose you could pass them off as "angels' tits"...


The final option is Soutine, where one of my old toddler playgroup mom's works. They have a deal on wedding cakes, though I'm not sure how they taste.

Any and all advice would be massively appreciated.

(Source)

PS. I lovelovelovelovelovelovelove the twinkle lights under the white tablecloth. Kind of like fireflies, no?