The Tastings, Part II: Cake!

I didn't expect it to rain on my cake tasting day, but given how hot Vegas summers tend to be, I'll take it as a sign of good luck. The rain did bring the temperatures down, and while I worried that my carefully organized paperwork and growing notebook would get soaked, I managed to protect them with a mixture of bags and umbrellas as I hurried my way from the parking lot into a new bakery, Las Vegas Custom Cakes, with the fiance.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a bakery connoisseur. I've been baking since around 2007 myself. I've scouted various local bakeries that have come and go and come and stayed in Henderson and Vegas throughout the years. I've ordered custom cakes in the shapes of video game logos, Rubik's cubes, children's book characters, and Disney princesses. I've watched cake design competitions on Food Network and even taken a cake decorating class at JOANN. So I thought I knew a little of what to expect. But I had never been to a cake tasting before. And so, despite my familiarity with most things cake, and all the research I had compiled ahead of time, the experience began with me feeling just a bit unprepared.

The room was almost eerily quiet when we walked in--likely the rain keeping crowds away--and smelled like the inside of a Baskin Robbins. I glanced around the small shop, taking in the cute decor trying not to worry about my umbrella dripping on their wooden floors. At last a woman appeared to lead us past the gorgeous displays of intricate tiered cakes up front and into a back room where a long wooden dining table seemed almost out of place among the bakery equipment.

Two plates and two bottles of water were set out on the table, each with four small rectangles of different colors. We sat with forks poised at the ready while the woman explained each of the flavors to us. The only problem? These weren't the flavors we had requested to try.

After mentioning this fact, the woman quickly consulted with a man who we assumed was the baker, and our requested cake squares came out immediately, set down next to the first plates. Our choices had been ready for us, the staff just didn't realize who we were. No harm, no foul--we got to eat both plates of cake!

Flavors they picked.
Clockwise from the top: Chocolate cake infused with Bailey's Irish Cream.
White cake infused with pear brandy and chocolate inside (the only one I didn't like).
Red velvet cake with cream cheese filling.
Strawberry cake infused with champagne.
We aren't big alcohol people.

Requested flavors.
Clockwise from the top: White cake with cookies and cream filling.
Chocolate cake with salted caramel filling.
Lemon cake with lemon cream cheese and raspberry filling.
Taro cake with taro mousse filling. 

I won't spoil the final flavors or the final design, but all I can say is my cake choices ended up surprising even me--not what I had originally anticipated for my wedding, but we had to go with the flavors that blew us away.

Now the cake has been designed and ordered, so that's one more thing to cross off the list!