Cake Tasting II : I'm the greedy one for once

(via Starling fitness blog)

Roe and I had another cake tasting yesterday at a famous cupcake place here in Philly by the name of Brown Betty's. And as you know from the last post I am somewhat of a cake snob. However, I entered into this tasting with high expectations. A couple of weeks ago Roe and I had sampled their wares at their new Rittenhouse location and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was so anxious to get at all that cakey goodness into my mouth that I actually bit into part of the cupcake paper!

Now we had originally planned to go with a more traditional cake and I had foo-foo'd doing cupcakes as too trendy for the longest time. But when we had their cakey goodness we changed our mind. One they have one of the most kick a** cakes out there. Period end of discussion. Two we are always looking to support African American business owners in whatever we do. And three we saw how creative we could get with the display and how it could really add to the decor and feel of the wedding.

Well we were greeted by Norrinda and I must tell you she was the most pleasant woman. Her and her mother, who is the owner and prime baker were working the shop that day. I love the fact that all the recipes are a reflection of their family history and they demonstrate such a love and passion to preserving their memories through baking. You can see this by all the family photos decorating the wall of the shop. Its like walking into your great aunt's house and being treated to afternoon snack.

We had already tasted their carrot cupcake and lemon and were sold on those, but we wanted to try some of their other flavors, particularly the red velvet. Now as someone whose family comes from down south I did not have a tradition of eating red velvet and I have heard raves about it for the longest time. Therefore it was top on the list.

Roe and I tasted the red velvet, buttermilk pound, chocolate fudge, and regular vanilla. They were all great but the red velvet was TO DIE FOR. I wanted to push Roe away and have it all to myself. We both agreed that red velvet had to be served at the wedding. To quote one of Roe's favorite expressions "I gots to have it!"

Needless to say we settled on lemon, red velvet, carrot, and vanilla for the cupcakes and red velvet for a 6" cake for cutting. And we have decide to do two shades of a soft pink for the icing on the cupcakes and a traditional chocolate fondant icing for the cutting cake.

Going with cupcakes also helped in saving us money since we have a smaller wedding and usually bakers will add a surchage if under 75.

Now for the display, which I want to partly be a surprise. Just know that I am on the hunt for lovely pink milk glass cake stands like the following.