cake tasting

has there ever been a more awesome implication of words than that of "cake" and tasting"?? i had been looking forward to this day for quite some time, and it did NOT disappoint. we powered through, considering we had just had a fantastic and decadent (seriously, top ten meals of my life) at niche.

getting ready... plenty of milk and tupperware cups.


one of the bakeries wasn't able to schedule a proper tasting... so we bought two whole cakes instead (thanks, mom!!):


the second cake. and the carnage of our taste test:


each bakery seems to do their samplers slightly different. one bakery gave us tons of tiny pieces of cake (three different kinds), along with little containeres of all frosting options (buttercreams) and all filling options (fruit, usually, but not always). you could mix and match entirely as you want. another bakery gave us large pieces of cake-- red velvet, vanilla, almond; each sandwiched with vanilla frosting. it came with samples of the different buttercream options.

but see that cake in the third picture? carrot. with alternating layers of cream cheese frosting and butter pecan filling. topped with the most incredible vanilla buttercream.

i think we have a winner!