According to the Wedding Channel if you are looking to save a little on your wedding cake, take a look at these four areas they discuss.

True or False?

1. You Can Never Be Too Sweet
    
2. It's Not Enough To Serve Wedding Cake As Dessert
    
3. It's Cheaper To Make YourOwn Cake
    
4. Simple Cakes Are Less Expensive Than Elaborate Cakes

Many of our clients are requesting a flavor list.  We really don't have one. As specialty bakesr the options are almost unlimited. There are many combinations for cakes, fillings and icings.  And cakes can be fashioned out of your favorite desserts.  

All of our cakes are scratch made with natural ingredients.   Fresh and local when we can find them, including compotes, jams, and other fillings.  Our buttercream icings are made with real butter, no shortening or powdered sugar.

Flavor combination examples: 

Marbles are in favor this year, some popular combinations are chocolate/vanilla, strawberry/lemon. Chocolate/almond, carrot and bittersweet chocolate and more…

One of my brides chose a very specific flavor combination such as a chiffon cake with a strawberry yogurt Bavarian filling.

Another loved Tiramisu. Her tasting was just geared to making the cake taste as close to the dessert as possible. I baked two types of cake that I thought were the closest to lady fingers and two different mascarpone cheese fillings to really decide which ones they liked the best and wanted to serve. With a two different coffee liquor flavored icings and soaking syrups. We ended up serving a true mascarpone mixture as a garnish to the cake as if it were a scoop of ice cream. The end result was a beautiful plated wedding cake dessert.

For another lemon cake, we served lemon curd as a garnish to the cake like ice cream. The cake needed to be room stable for hours… so we just switched the serving method, and still served exactly what the bride and groom wanted. The guests loved it, because it was very different and created another beautiful plated dessert.

I can and do flavor icings with natural extracts and liquors if you choose. For example, Chambord goes very well with the raspberry puree and Italian cream cake. Other flavors include: Lemoncello, Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Kahlua to name a few.

I have listed a few combinations for inspiration:

• Italian cream with a raspberry puree, with the inside iced with a Chambord buttercream (slightly pink color),outside a vanilla buttercream.
• Chocolate cake, with a peanut butter filling on the center layer (the filling is much like a peanut butter pie) in the middle layer, with a peanut butter icing on the other internal layers. All cakes are iced with a vanilla buttercreamon the outside for that white color
• Lemon or Orange cake – depending on the design and wedding location, we may be able to fill the cake with a lemon or orange curd, or serve it as a garnish. Iced with an orange/lemon zest buttercream flavored with Grand Marnier or Lemoncello.
• I have designed banana cakes (which I love) and have served a pineapple buttercream on one, a peanut butter buttercream on another and a cream cheese combo icing on a third. Sometimes it is amazing how the icing changes the taste combination.
• Pineapple cake and filled with a scratch made pineapple jam, served with a coconut or citrus buttercream.
• Lemon cake with each layer iced with a lemon glaze. Fillings include scratch made blueberry compote and lemon or vanilla buttercream.
• Carrot cakes are also popular – I can either make it with or without nuts. Other basic cake flavors are pound, red velvet, coffee, almond, pound, and yellow. Certain flavors work well with cream cheese icings like red velvet.
• Pumpkin Spice cake, combination icing of cream cheese and buttercream in pumpkin orange flavors.

If refrigeration space is available and you are having buttercream on the outside, then a classic combination is devil's food chocolate cake with a cheese cake layer topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache.

Note: the new trend is for the bride to have exactly what she wants… and now that includes chocolate!

I can make just about every fruit flavor of puree, jams and Coulis – blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry – depending if I can get the berries. In the summer this isn't an issue, but in the winter season, I may not be able to get certain fruits such as peach for your tastings.

I hope this helps,

Debi

(Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

Today is April 1st, and it's time for a little fun.  These are not April Fools jokes, but rather actual town names.   We are having such wonderful spring weather, I feel like traveling…  even if it's just on the internet!  So while visiting a few websites I found these interesting places… 

This posting is from Smarter Travel.

These are not April Fools jokes, but rather actual town names. 

Would you be interested in traveling to No Name Colorado?  How about Rabbit Hash Kentucky, Nimrod Oregon, Tightwad Missouir or my favorite…

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales?

If you want to view more and read the history behind these names, please visit their post:

World's Funniest Town Names