So first let me apologize for my lack of posts the last few days. I have gone back to work after a month off and sprained my lower back (ick!). Alas, I have not abandoned you. I have a lot more cake to share with you today. Next up: Retro Bakery. This bakery is famous on The Knot’s Las Vegas board for its cupcakes.

Personal Pic- Retro Bakery Half Dozen Cupcakes

Top (L to R): Cherry Cheesecake, Chocolate Loves Vanilla, Red Carpet (red velvet)

Bottom (L to R): S’mores, Pucker Up, Ninth Island

I was super excited to taste these babies. I have read such great reviews on them and our wonderful photographers, said they were totally yummy. So I decided the best way to taste these babies after tasting our yummy cake from before was to take a bite of each. I was already feeling overwhelmed by sugar. I must tell you, I was kind of disappointed. The frosting was overwhelmingly sweet and super thick. The cake itself was super yummy and moist. I freely admit I am not a big frosting person. I love cake, but not frosting (weird I know). So although I was not super impressed upon first try, I think I may give Retro Bakery another shot when I am back in Vegas with Mr. Darcy at the end of this month. I like the idea of cupcakes. I think there is just something inherently fun about cupcakes. I also like the idea of having several different flavors of cupcakes. I also think that cupcake stands are adorable.

Source: Weddingmagic.wordpress.com

Source: Utahlovescupcakes.com

Source: Vanilla Bean Bakeshop

Did you have a hard time deciding between cake and cupcakes? Or did you choose another option?

Warning: This post may induce the need to consume chocolate, cupcakes, cake, or cookies. It shouldn’t be read if you are trying to avoid such items and maintain a proper diet. I know this from personal experience.

So after blowing our budget on our Oh-So-Awesome Photo Booth, I scoured our budget to look for places to cut. One solution cut the cake budget, but before we could do that we had to try some cake. Option 1: Las Vegas Cake Designs. Super reasonable prices and beautiful cakes.

I called them on Mama Austen and I’s drive to Vegas to order 5 tasting cakes. I chose chocolate with raspberry mousse, lemon with raspberry, white cake with strawberry, marble cake with chocolate Bavarian cream, and red velvet cream cheese. LV Cake Designs’ standard icing is a non-dairy whip, so we kept that as the icing on the cakes. When Mama Austen and I arrived, we were greeted by Dawn and the aroma of yummy baked goodies. Dawn rang up our five tasting cakes and helped us carry them to the car. (Mr. Darcy did not, and still does not,  understand why we have to pay for a cake tasting. I tried to explain to him that this was to help cover the cost of the ingredients and that whomever we ordered the cake with would apply this money towards the actual wedding cake.) So let’s see some cake Baby:

Personal Pic- Lemon cake with Raspberry

Personal Pic- Marble Cake with Chocolate Bavarian Cream

Personal Pic- Red Velvet with Cream Cheese

Personal Pic- Chocolate with Raspberry Mousse

Personal Pic- White Cake with Strawberry

 These boxes were fairly big for tasting cakes, but I wasn’t worried because I knew the Sprinkles, Mama Austen, and I were up for the challenge. When we attempted to opened them (this is more challenging than it looks, as you may be able to tell from some of the pics as the bakery packs those cakes for no-damage traveling), my desire to taste the cake that may potentially be our wedding cake flavor, made the cardboard boxes seem like extreme impediments to my goal. Successfully making it through the packaging, we found this, a six-inch round tasting cake.

Personal Pic- Six Inch Tasting Cake from Las Vegas Cake Designs

Yep, we had five of these babies to eat. I was quite excited to slice into them and when I did this is what I found.

Personal Pic- Lemon Cake with Raspberry

This is Mama Austen’s favorite. Of course Mama and Papa Austen are both die-hard lemon cake fans, so this was a must have flavor, when sampling cake.

Personal Pic- Red Velvet with Cream Cheese

So at first this wasn’t my favorite. I am by no means saying I didn’t like it. I just found it to be a bit underwhelming, but according to Mama Austen (whom hails from a strong southern background) this is the way red velvet is supposed to taste. After a few more bites I began to appreciate the cakes lack of overwhelming cocoa powder, besides what I do know about red velvet cake I am a SoCal gal through and through. This is a definite potential flavor.

Personal Pic- Marble Cake with Chocolate Bavarian Cream

I really liked this cake, but it did not seem like wedding cake. I don’t what wedding cake is supposed to seem like, but the yellow and chocolate marble cake isn’t what I imagined would be in a wedding cake.

Personal Pic- Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse

This cake was so yummy. I loved the chocolate cake, but I wish I had them make it with the strawberry filling instead. It would have been like chocolate covered strawberries. Definitely one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever tasted.

Personal Pic- White Cake with Strawberry

I saved my favorite for last. I am totally in love with this cake. When I think of wedding cake I think of white cake with fruit filling. This is also my favorite flavor of cake for any time.

Overall I loved LV Cake Designs. The cake was super yummy, moist, and light. The frosting was not overwhelmingly sugary. My only draw back or hesitation is the lack of creative flavors. All the flavors are traditional, there is no hazelnut cake or apricot filling no tiramasu or german chocolate. I have a desire to try something a little different. Even a white cake with strawberry filling and a champagne soak. I am just not sure yet. More cake will definitely needs to be tasted.

How many cake tastings did you do before you knew you found the one?

Mr. Darcy hasn’t been exactly Mr. Helpful when it comes to the wedding. When I ask him his opinion on things, he usually gives a noncommittal grunt or responds with “Whatever makes you happy, honey.” Well Mr. Darcy has made three simple requests of the wedding:

1. To have our first dance be to the song “Then” by Brad Paisley

2. Have a picture slide show of us for the first dance

3. Have a groom’s cake

The first request is simple and I am happy to fulfill, because I, too, love the song. The second request requires a little more work on my part, but I am going to speak with the DJ about putting this together. The third request required a search for the perfect groom’s cake. Mr. Darcy is quite the outdoors man, he loves to camp, fish, and garden. His fishing interest is already represented in the wedding (I will post about this later), and camping and gardening weren’t exactly what I had in mind for a groom’s cake. I was thinking something more structural. Enter Mr. Darcy’s greatest love (besides me of course): Notre Dame Football. Mr. Darcy’s mood for an entire weekend can be determined by the outcome of a Notre Dame football game. Mr. Darcy’s love of Notre Dame is infectious, and I will spend my Saturday afternoons yelling at the TV right alongside Mr. Darcy. Hence the inspiration for the perfect groom’s cake. I googled Notre Dame football cakes and I found this beauty:

Notre Dame Football Cake from Cake Lava

I showed it to Mr. Darcy and he was instantly in love. “This exactly what I want, babe. I love you,” was his exact response. Mission accomplished!!! Mr. Darcy’s three wedding requests have been fulfilled.

Did your groom make any requests for the wedding? Did you have a groom’s cake? What was the inspiration for the cake?

So let me start off  with saying that planning a wedding from a distance (even if its only a 5 1/2 hour car drive) makes the internet your number one wedding pal. Scouring sites such as project wedding and the knot boards for reviews on possible wedding vendors becomes your number one priority. All the searching of cake reviews, paid off. When it came to finding our wedding cake vendor I knew exactly who I wanted, Aracelli of Aracelli Zea Cake Studio. She had a reputation for incredibly yummy cakes with super fresh ingredients. Plus her resume spoke for itself. Her resume included positions as a pastry sous chef and chocolatier at the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Green Valley Ranch. Her flavor menu was mouth watering with flavors like Chocolate- Caramel Ganache, Vanilla Creme Brulee, and Raspberry Tiramisu. What about her designs? Her designs are gorgeous. You can check out the latest ones on her facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/#!/azeacakestudio. So, originally I imagined a non-traditional cake with three stacked vintage books. Their titles were to be Pride and Prejudice (my favorite book ever… if you didn’t already know), Star Wars (Mr. Darcy and I listen to Star Wars books on tape together), and The Last Apprentice (a series that Mr. Darcy is currently reading and is in love with). So if you can’t tell, Mr. Darcy and I love reading and I thought this was a great way to bring our interest in. Here is an idea of what I imagined for the cake:

Vintage Book Cake

I imagined the books being in our crimson red and dark teal with gold writing. I wanted each book to be a separate cake. I also wanted them to seem real down to the last detail of the pages. I emailed Aracelli and she promptly responded with a few questions and ideas. I answered and she responded with a quote. It was higher than I could handle in our budget, so she made a few adjustments to the size and added a sheet cake to make the cake more budget friendly. Yeah!!! Hooray!!! Miss Austen and Mr. Darcy have a wedding cake. Not so fast, you didn’t think it would be that easy did you?! I showed Mama Austen the design and it looked like she was going to cry and not in a good way either. So what’s a girl to do? Mama and Papa Austen are paying for half the wedding and I don’t want Mama Austen to hate the wedding cake. Compromise. Compromise. Compromise. Prepare to add this word to your wedding planning vocabulary, because you will learn to do it a lot. So what did we come up with, well let’s first start with Mama Austen’s desired design.

Aracelli Zea Cake Studio

This cake is beautiful, but not for the Austen- Darcy wedding. It’s just too traditional. So here is what we came up with:

Aracelli Zea Cake Studio Design

We are using this design, but tweaking it to fit our needs. The middle tier will have Mr. Darcy’s proposal from the book Pride and Prejudice, the ribbons will be in our colors, and the top and bottom tier will feature the swiss dot pattern from the cake my mother loves. Also, as part of this compromise, Mr. Darcy and I will be getting a custom topper from Mudcards on Etsy, that is reflective of our hobbies. So, in the end, all parties are happy and we will save our wedding squabbles for another wedding decision.