Martha Explains Cake

1. White Butter Cake

2. Moist Yellow

3. Almond Dacquoise (who has ever heard of that word before? Certainly not me)

4. Lemond Poppy Seed

5. Carrot Cake

6. Red Velvet

7. Marble

8. Chocolate Butter

1. Caramel Sauce

2. Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

3. Chocolate Ganache

4. Lemon Curd

5. Swiss Merengue Buttercream

6. Chocolate Buttercream

7. Apricot Jam

8. Pistachio Buttercream

9. Cream Cheese Frosting

10. Raspberry Preserves

Doesn't that just make you want to go on a cake tasting, right now? I would love to go to some bakeries and eat little tiny pieces of cake with different fillings. Sounds like a fun way to spend a day!

In case the print is a little small, I wanted to share an adorable little chart about what your cake flavor says about you (total bull, but entertaining nonetheless):

a) Vanilla- Sophisticated

b) Lemon- Tart and Sexy

c) Strawberry- Romantic

d) Chocolate- Masculine

e) Mint- Cool

f) Carrot- Spicy

g) Almond- Traditional

h) Fruit- Open-Minded

I think they're a little silly. Vanilla is safe and boring. Sophisticated to me would be something gourmet/foodie, an unusual flavor pairing. Here's what it should be (totally kidding, by the way):

a) Vanilla- Boring, playing it safe. You are probably two white people getting married.

b) Lemon- You are settling for your groom, and the cake is a way of saying, "Life gave me lemons, I had the baker make a lemon cake with them."

c) Strawberry- You like Bjork ("Naked man, naked man, please come down, I'll get you some strawberry cake or something").

d) Chocolate- You are having an internet-meme-themed wedding. The cake is to go with the chocolate fountain, representing Chocolate Rain.

e) Mint- Your groom has halitosis; the cake should help.

f) Carrot- You are marrying a rabbit.

g) Almond- You don't like your second cousin, who has a nut allergy. NO CAKE FOR THEM

h) Fruit- Your nod to your groom, who wanted to serve Skittles at the reception so that guests could taste the rainbow.

Let them eat cake

I enjoy browsing Martha Stewart Wedding galleries. Everything is so beautifully photographed and well organized and easy to flip through and find a million favorites. Here are some cakes I found that I liked:

Wendy Kromer via Martha Stewart Weddings

Wendy Kromer via Martha Stewart Weddings

via Martha Stewart Weddings

via Martha Stewart Weddings

via Martha Stewart Weddings

via Martha Stewart Weddings

Wendy Kromer via Martha Stewart Weddings

via Martha Stewart Weddings

Wendy Kromer via Martha Stewart Weddings

Deep Blue Something

Whipped Bakeshop via oh lovely day

It's a blue cake. And not a wedgewood china, pale blue, BLUE. Like Grover. The texture looks like thick, impressionist paint globs up close.

I don't want the cake to be a big production. Because we're not serving cake to everybody (more on that later)! We will just have a tiny cake to cut and put the cake topper on. I do like looking at a pretty cake, I just know that John and I love other desserts infinitely more than cake. It is cool though, don't you think?

I could see a whole painter theme here; watercolor envelope liners on the invitations, mini easels on the tables holding up the table numbers...

Cake Crushes

Ok, so I know I had been saying "CUPCAKES CUPCAKES CUPCAKES" since before getting engaged, but this idea may or may not happen for a few reasons:

1) I went and bought a vintage caketopper, which calls for at least one cake to put it on.
2) Our venue doesn't have refrigeration available, so cupcake type things would have to be done by a bakery (the whole point of the original cupcake idea was that it would be DIY) and brought in.

That said, I'm not necessarily about having a huge cake for all. Most people don't like the idea of the cake flavor being chosen for them. Plus, any flavor I'd want is likely something a little unusual, something not everybody would like. The cake itself is mostly interesting for the actual cake-cutting, or as a photograph that later ends up on a blog. And it gets so expensive!

If we go with cake, I hope we can just get something simple yet not cookie-cutter. Enter this website for inspiration:
http://maggieaustincake.com/

I am not in the DC area, but I am enamored of her cakes.

I'm not so big on the dainty flowers, but I love the smooth texture and simplicity of the actual cake.

Stained Glass=perfection.

I adore this. The cake stand included.

I have a thing for smooth, creamy cakes like that. Although I didn't initially pick up on the fact that those are supposed to be black pearls. They looked like capers to me, and I was like "that's weird for a cake."

Here's some other ones from my cake inspiration folder:

Breaks my flow of perfectly smooth icing, but I had to show off that amazing crown/cake topper.

See the smooth edges on the cake again? I like the creamier color on this one. I won't be going with a bright white dress so my cake shouldn't be stark white, either.

I seem to have a thing for crisp, clean lines and simple decoration. I can see just a smooth creamy tier with our topper on it, with other desserts available for guests.

What do you think?