Last Saturday it was finally time to go cake tasting! I had been looking forward to it for such a long time. I started looking for a bakery a while back. I needed someone who would be willing to make me a wedding cake covered in Marzipan instead of fondant..
Fondant taste like play-do or cardboard with sugar like a friend said :o) Nothing that I want in my mouth on my wedding day. In Sweden there is a traditional cake covered on Marzipan called princess cake (you can get it at IKEA in their Swedish Food Market) and it is delicious. Marzipan is like almond paste (it's based on almond paste) but it's easier to shape and doesn't stick to your fingers. It's harder to work with than fondant because it's fresher and more natural. But let me tell you - it tastes GREAT!
So I found this bakery called Bredenbeck and it turns out they are not very far from us which is perfect. They promised me they could make my cake covered in Marzipan. So full of anticipation we headed over there for our scheduled tasting... but when we got there the salesperson told us that BTW they don't work with Marzipan.
And I am embarrassed to say that I went straight into bitch mode. I mean I had been emailing back and forth with these people for months. They PROMISED!! I told her that if they couldn't work with it.. well then there was no point for us to taste their cakes. Period. She looked a little frazzled.. And said she was gonna go check witrh someone else at the bakery. 5 minutes later she came back and said it was just a missunderstanding and of course they could make it cobvered with marzipan. PHEW! All was well. I apologized for being short with her. :o)
Got got to try their raspberry swirl, pumpkin (which we both agreed wasn't gonna fit our spring/summer wedding), lemon and chocolate (I know there was more but I can't remember all the flavors!). With the marzipan you have to cover the cake with a fruit puree as opposed to fondant when you cover the cake with butter-cream. We picked a raspberry puree which was very tasty. David started assembling his own little samples by taking a piece of cake putting some raspberry puree on it and top if off with a piece of marzipan. Pretty tasty I must say. We really couldn't decide between the dark chocolate and the lemon one. So today we're getting to actual samples made up so we can get a better idea of the flavors together. I think I am partial to the lemon cake. The flavors were so fresh and perfect for a summer wedding!
The second part pf the tasting was talking about the vision for the cake. This is where it got really dicey. We had brought in a photo of a cake design that we liked. Which was originally a moderns ocean/wave theme. But we also brought in a plate that we found that had beautiful whimsical vines, paisley (not that we necessarily want paisley on the cake). But we figured if we could marry the two it would be the perfect expression for our outdoor, whimsical, romantic, forest fairytale wedding. David and I are both artists. Super picky, extremely difficult custom order customer. We know that. That's why we are doing about 90% of the wedding stuff ourselves.
We know we are crazy...So as we are talking to the lady at the bakery we realized that we won't be able to just leave the design up the bakery. We HAVE to design it. We have to make a sketch for the cake decorator at the bakery to follow. Not that she isn't a fantastic decorator. It's just that we need the cake to look exactly like it does in our head...
David is fantastic at drawing so he started sketching out different versions of this whimsical forest, nature cake. The idea is that we are two kind of bugs on top of the cake and each tier has whimsical grass/ferns thingies. Very organic and flowing design. With small whimsical elements. The marzipan has kind of a beige color which will be the base of the cake.
We don't have one or two colors picked for the wedding. It's more of a feeling created by using a bunch of complimentary colors. The bridesmaid dresses are peridot. A paler sort of sage green. The center pieces have moss inside of them with the brown grapevine spheres. We will also have some sage table cloths (hanging out under cream/ivory top table cloth) and a bunch of those sage rice lamps/balls hanging from the ceiling of the tent. Lots of green in different but complimentary shades. For my bridesmaids I am also making fabric flower corsages/bracelets in the greens but I am also incorporating those dusty pink/plumes in the flowers so we thought it would be nice to have those colors somewhere on the cake as well. It's important that it has that forest moss green and that playfulness that we have throughout the wedding.
David's major is in sculpture so it makes sense that he would do the cake toppers.
I told you he is fantastic!He's making two bugs. He said he was going to make me a wasp. Cause I have a curvy figure but I can be a bitch sometimes... ha ha we'll see what he does. I trust him! He did also say that he was going to be a walking stick... and I am not sure how I feel about being up there on the cake holding hands with a stick.. I think a part of me is terrified that he's actually gonna take a little branch and stick it to the cake LOL
I guess this is where I just have to let go and let him do his thing. He has never made anything I didn't like so I just have to let him play with it and we'll see where he lands. I have a feeling they'll be amazing. Just like he is...
and now it's studio time!
lots of love ~tess
