Phragments from Phyllis: Cake ... that's what I'm talking about
Wedding preparations are in full swing ... again.
Liz and Vince came recently to get some things settled. We visited the florist, the tent-renter, the hair stylist (for a trial run of what is going to work with Liz's hair) and the wedding cake baker. We also were trying to finalize a format for "save the date" cards before it gets too late to send them.
If you remember, for Cat's wedding in February, she wanted a particular cake -- "Happy Cake" -- and when we found out the Barbecue Barn would do a wedding cake, we were happy not to look any further.
But Liz wants a particular style of cake, so the search was on. We were given several names and a friend gave us the name of someone she suggested we definitely should try.
So we had an appointment Saturday afternoon. We had e-mailed four choices of cake flavors, icings and fillings. This cake baker lives in Burnettown in a gorgeous house at the end of a dirt road and up a hill. (We were trying to figure out how she gets a wedding cake from her home to the reception location without its taking a tumble on the road.)
Anyway, we arrived and talked about what we wanted and determined what the cake should look like. She had ready a box of four sample cakes -- three with buttercream icing and one with fondant. There were Italian cream cake with cream cheese filling, vanilla with raspberry filling, butter cake with caramel filling and sour cream pound cake with vanilla icing.
We raced from there to the hairdresser -- a friend of Cat's who did everyone's hair for her wedding. She's just opened her own shop, so she was perfectly agreeable that we have a cake tasting while we were there. We picked up Cat on the way (plus forks, paper plates and paper towels) and Vince and Liz, Cat and I headed off.
Another of Liz's bridesmaids met us there and as Liz's hair took shape, we cut the cakes and began the taste testing.
Man, were these cakes so good. All four were beautiful and absolutely delicious. Luckily, we all agreed on the same cake as our favorite.
It's funny. Liz had originally said she wanted pound cake for her wedding cake. She likes the dense, heavier cake -- and apparently so did all the rest of us. It was even more fabulous than the rest.
So that's one more item we can mark off our list ... and look forward to eating in October.
Meanwhile, the answer to the question is, the cake baker admits she doesn't always put the cake entirely together before trekking down the hill. (And if you're interested in some tasty and lovely cake offerings, visit www.kyndrascakes.com.)
