That’s it, that’s the post.
Ryan and I recently checked our MOST anticipated box off our wedding planning to-do list: Cake tasting.
Because we picked an all-inclusive venue, a lot of our vendors were already pre-selected for us.
That included our bakery.
RELATED POST:
Introducing… our wedding venue!
Luckily, the pre-selected bakery (Whisk & Paddle Bakeshop based out of Gilbert, Ariz.) was just as phenomenal as the reviews led us to believe.
During our half-hour appointment, we tried six different cake and frosting combinations, as well as seven different desserts.
We tried a simple vanilla cake, a chocolate cake with two types of buttercream (plain chocolate and spicy chocolate — with cinnamon and cayenne pepper), lemon cake, a Champagne cake with strawberry buttercream, an olive oil cake with lavender buttercream, and an almond poppyseed cake with raspberry cream filling.
Because some couples choose to do a dessert table rather than a traditional wedding cake, we also got to try a sample of desserts — just in case that’s the route we decided to go with.
We stuffed our faces with a salted caramel brownie, raspberry oat crumble bar, cheesecake bite, chocolate chip cookie, creme brûlée macaron, chocolate caramel tart and a tiramisu shooter.
I cannot even put into words how incredible the salted caramel brownie was.
Like, when we left, we bought every single one of the salted caramel brownies in the display case to bring home with us.
I, an indecisive Libra, had a terrible time picking a favorite cake flavor (they were all so good!), but luckily Ryan was able to narrow it down for me.
Because we’re going with a three-tiered cake, we were able to pick three flavors. (Spoiler alert to any of our wedding guests reading this.) We’re going with the chocolate cake (and spicy buttercream!) and the champagne strawberry cake, as well as a third option we didn’t try: pumpkin spice cake with a maple cinnamon cream.
I’m not a big pumpkin spice girlie, but Ryan definitely is.
Given how incredible all six flavors of cake we tried were, we have full confidence that the pumpkin spice cake will deliver as well — even though we didn’t try it.
While we were originally committed to just ordering one big cake and calling it good, we did decide to load up our cake table with salted caramel brownies as well, because OH MY GOD.
We brought the half-dozen we bought to Ryan’s dad’s birthday party the next day, and our family raved about them as well. So we think that’s a good decision.
In addition to tasting all the goodies (and buying out the bakery’s entire stock of salted caramel brownies), Ryan and I also shared some inspiration photos from our wedding Pinterest board, looked at some previous wedding cake designs from Whisk & Paddle, and signed a contract formalizing the vendor-client relationship.
The staff at Whisk & Paddle gave us some more guidance and advice as well.
Ryan and I were a bit on the fence about how many desserts we should get in addition to our cake. We originally though about loading our table up with multiple options (just because everything was so good), but were advised to just pick one or two desserts in addition to our cake.
Too many options can a. be overwhelming for guests, and b. lead to the risk of some guests stocking up on multiple desserts just to try everything, and clearing out the dessert table before everyone gets a chance to grab something.
That was something I hadn’t considered at all, so it was good to know!
Although to be fair, we might just order 200 brownies so we can both feed everyone, and also ensure we have AMPLE leftovers.
Seriously, if you ever find yourself in Gilbert, Ariz., go to Whisk & Paddle Bakeshop and get yourself a salted caramel brownie. You will thank me later!
