Cake Fail

Yesterday was the big move-in day.  I had pretty much waited until the last minute to start packing (Sunday).  Things just got so crazy with working that I barely even knew summer was over.  I did most of the work on Monday while Anthony was at work before we went to dinner with my dad and Julie.  We ate at Ippolito's, which was really good, but it took kind of a long time & is a good distance away.  I do have to say (spoiler for later) that we had Chocolate Chip Oreo Cheesecake for dessert & it put Cecilia's to shame.  Maybe we should just have that as our wedding cake!

  When we got back home, we got as much done as we could.  Anthony was super tired from work & cutting up a tree at my grandparents' house on Sunday, so he left & I finished up the packing.

On Tuesday morning my dad came over to help us move.  We left by 8:30 & got to Athens around an hour later.  Everything was moved in by 11 thanks to dad & Anthony working really hard in the heat.  We got some unloading & organizing done & left for lunch.  While mom, Anthony & I went to The Last Resort to get our names in, dad went to Cecilia's to get a card for us to be allowed to taste cakes at the restaurant.  We waited for forever for our food but it was soo good!  My favorite place to eat in Athens by far...I've never eaten there for lunch so that was a nice treat.  On the plus side, we had time to pick out which cakes we wanted to try off the bakery menu while we waited.

After lunch was over, we gave our waiter the list of cakes we wanted to try (we were allowed 6): Strawberry, Chocolate, Apple Nut, Chocolate Tiaramisu, Caramel, & Red Velvet.  As it turned out, the restaurant only had two of these cakes that we wanted to try (Strawberry & Caramel), neither of which we were actually interested in having in our wedding cake.  Instead, we got Spanish Lemon, Carrot, & Chocolate Mocha...yeah, that equals 5 slices, not 6.  I really don't like the way the bakery does things, having tastings at a restaurant instead of in-house.  I think that for the amount of money you have to pay for a wedding cake, the bakery should let you request the cakes you want, make miniature ones for you, and let you taste them in the bakery.  Hope that doesn't make me a bridezilla!



Anyway, back to the cakes.  For a bakery as well-known & raved-about as Cecilia's, I expected a lot more.  Like, just sooo mediocre.  Pretty much every flavor we tried was not up to par.  I guess it'd be better to go cake-by-cake. 

Strawberry: My grandmother makes a beyond amazing strawberry cake, using pretty much the same ingredients/concept.  It beats Cecilia's by a mile.

Caramel: Again, I guess I know too many people who make great cakes.  A woman from my old church made the most wonderful, mouth-watering caramel cake...so much better than this.  The icing was pretty good (maybe a little too thick & too much caramel?) but the cake was super dense & almost too moist.

Spanish Lemon: Ever since I ate way too many lemon bars once, I can't eat any lemon-flavored dessert without feeling sick.  The only reason we ordered this one was because dad wanted to try it (& the restaurant didn't have anything else to choose from).  From what he said, I would have been glad not to eat it.

Chocolate Mocha: I love chocolate cake, so I expect a lot from it.  I mean, this one was pretty good but not as rich & flavorful as I would have liked.  The cake itself was really good, but it was almost like "light" icing or something.  That said, it was probably my favorite of the 5 we tried.

Carrot: This isn't me or Anthony's favorite flavor of cake, but we liked this one okay.  I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I could have eaten a serving of the icing plain.  If there's one good thing you can say about the bakery, it's that they knock cream cheese icing out of the park.  Therefore it's tied with chocolate.

Weird that I liked the cake on the chocolate but not the icing & the icing on the carrot but not the cake...

I think it's safe to say we're definitely going to have to look for another bakery.  Maybe I'm totally off-base & wedding cakes aren't supposed to be all that great, but I want to look around a lot more & try to find something that we & our guests will enjoy.  Plus, there's nothing bad about lots of free cake, right? :)