Mmmmm... cake...

Today I had the best-est cake that I've had in a very long while! We met with the baker again today and she gave us two samples: mocha cake with raspberry filling and lemon cake with strawberry filling. I was a little worried b/c when we met with her previously, the mocha sample was a little dry and the fillings did not have much flavor. But I was astounded today -- the raspberry and strawberry flavors were very apparent, the cake was not dry, and altogether it was not very sweet (Chinese ppl do not like overly sweet things). Now the hard part -- which flavor to choose?!

The lemon cake with strawberry was very fruity-tasting and that's why I like the mocha one a smidgen more. I like the balance of the mocha (not very sweet, even notes of bitter) with the raspberry, where the contrast of each flavor heightens and complements the other. I also found the strawberry flavor a little artificial tasting but so far fiance, FFIL, and my brother both like the lemon/strawberry more.

I think FFIL's first reaction was shock that the mocha cake was dark (chocolate is practically black in color, which is a terrible thing to Chinese ppl, yet there is no problem with FMIL's dress being black -- I roll my eyes for yet another spin on logic vs. superstition where exceptions can always be made by the old folk for them to get their way). He also thought the cake was a little bitter, which I think is not such a bad thing (but I am one of the few ppl in America who prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate; what can I say, I have a sophisticated palate, haha!). Besides the flavor though, I like the idea of a different-looking cake (can you imagine how dramatic the dark cake would look coupled with the white fondant on the outside when you cut into the cake for pictures?)

My mother and I can't decide (she likes both too) which one we like. We'll see what my father says (he is very picky and I think he has a very Chinese-y palate). In the meantime, I may just settle for different flavors for different tiers and give the lemon one to the old Chinese ppl and the mocha to everyone else.

But other things to keep in mind -- the baker was saying that you have to be very specific to the Chinese restaurant about the way that you want the cake cut b/c oftentimes they'll slice it however they want, even cutting tiers in half so that you just get this glob of messy cake (maybe even without any frosting) on your (paper) plate. She says that they're mostly used to cutting Chinese cake, which is not very tall (and is usually just one layer) so they might think something like our 5" tall tiers composed of at least 3 layers is meant to be cut in half. Aiya! So we may have to designate a cake-slicer from among our friends (or someone to supervise the cake-cutting). My boss, who used to be in catering, is always called upon to cut cake whenever something special is being celebrated in the office b/c he always cuts a concentric circle in the middle so that the middle part can be saved and the celebrant can bring it home (like a mini cake) so I was thinking that I'd ask him to cut it. HAHAHA -- that would continue the running joke but I don't think anyone would find it funny and it'd probably be weird.

Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with our baker and we made it official by giving her a deposit. I'll hold off on giving a final review until after everything is said and done but so far I'm happy and she's been pretty accomodating and helpful with the designs and flavors. Check out Silk Cakes if you need a cake for any special occasion!