Wedding Blog

Cake is my favorite food, so you can imagine how giddy I was at the idea of a cake tasting. Last May, we started our hunt for the perfect cake designer. We went to a few tastings over a couple weeks (and I swear I meant to get pictures but got so excited about eating cake that I forgot my camera). Scheduling cake tastings was a little tough, because most places have set days they do it on (usually either Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or some combination of the three). So I would have to wait for Mr. Fondue’s work schedule to get posted every week (usually on Thursdays), see which of those days he had off, then try to schedule the appointment for sometime after I got off work.

The second place we went to was Maples Wedding Cakes. We had talked to them at a local bridal show in January and have always enjoyed their samples.

Here are some examples of their work, so you can see some of their gorgeous designs:

We met with Jay Qualls, the cake designer and owner. He presented us with five different cake samples: sour cream almond, red velvet, strawberry, orange dreamsicle, and chocolate. They were all iced in buttercream, and the plate also contained a sample of their white chocolate fondant. When we took the first bite of the sour cream almond, we were both in heaven. It was the most delicious cake ever. The name sounded a little… un-cake-like, but the taste was out of this world. (See, now you think I’ve played it up too much and everyone will be disappointed…. you’re wrong. It’s that good.) The other flavors were delicious as well, but we kept going back to the sour cream almond. The buttercream icing was to die for, as well, and Mr. Fondue even liked the fondant.

We showed Jay some pictures of cakes we liked and a not-so-great photo of our invitations. He mentioned several ideas of how we could replicate the damask design. Then I remembered that I had one of the actual invitations out in the car, so Mr. Fondue ran out to get it.

Jay seemed really impressed with the invitations (specifically, the embossing). He said that we could use the rubber stamp to actually stamp the cake as well, so it would match perfectly. He also suggested using ribbon, similar to that on the invitation. I asked if we could incorporate our monogram as well, and he loved that idea.

At one point during the meeting, when he was describing what the cake would look like, he said that it would look “simple and elegant”. I was like “YES! That’s our exact theme!” It made me very happy that our theme was coming across, just from the few things that I showed him.

He was also really excited about the groom’s cake, and we discussed a few ideas of how they could accomplish the little details like the buttons and controller.

Overall, we loved how excited he seemed to be about working with us and designing our cake, and, of course, we loved how the cake tasted. The main reason I wanted to go with Maples, though? Seeing how excited Mr. Fondue was about it. Unlike me, Mr. Fondue is NOT a cake person, so this was really important to me. At bridal shows, we would taste cake samples, and his usual response was, “Well, it tastes like cake.” We went to visit with friends after the tasting with Maples, and he sang praises about the cake to everyone we talked to.

Now, who can count how many times I used the word “excited” in this post? How did you decide on your baker?

All photos from Maples Wedding Cakes, taken by Dove Wedding Photography.