My wedding cake

Though I'm getting better with my baking, I did not bake this cake. My gorgeous wedding cake was made by Scrumptions in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The cake is designed after one I saw in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style (incidentally published in my hometown) in their Fall/Winter 2006 magazine. I loved the way the cake looked and knew it would be perfect for my wedding. Once I saw it, I had to have that cake and I didn't care what it would cost!

The cake in the magazine was actually covered in black rolled fondant with pink icing detail. I knew I wanted mine to be chocolate ganache finish instead--tastes much better than rolled fondant, and it matched my color scheme. I called a few bakeries in RI to see who would do the poured ganache. The bakery my sister used for her cake, Fatulli's, couldn't do it, and neither could my caterer. I had seen many advertisements for Scrumptions and figured they would be able to do it. I called and they could!

D and I met with Anna at Scrumptions in December 2006. My goal was to see what they had to offer, and the price, and then go try some cakes at other places too (because who doesn't love tasting cake). Well, after sitting down with Anna and seeing and tasting what they had to offer, I knew I didn't need to try another bakery!

We showed Anna the picture from the magazine and asked her what she thought about doing it in ganache. She loved the idea. Once we had settled that she could do it, we were on to the tasting. For the tasting, she brought us a plate with 6 or 7 different kinds of cake (I remember there was vanilla, lemon, carrot, spice, chocolate, and almond), plus 6 or 7 different icings and fillings (vanilla buttercream, chocolate buttercream, cream cheese, German chocolate, lemon curd, chocolate ganache, and raspberry). D and I had a blast putting all of the different flavors together. I knew I wanted the chocolate ganache finish, so we had to narrow down our choices to fit with that. That meant vanilla, almond, or chocolate cake. And for the filling I was leaning heavily toward raspberry, which D liked too. D suggested lemon cake with raspberry filling and chocolate ganache, but Anna and I talked him out of that. We settled on vanilla cake with raspberry filling, chocolate buttercream icing, and poured chocolate ganache finish! Here's what the inside of the cake looked like after we cut our first piece!

Then we worked with Anna to figure out the size. At that point we were working with a guest list of 164, so we thought 150 servings would be the max we would need (though our budget was based on 125 guests). We could have the caterer cut and serve the top at the reception since Scrumptions bakes you a new top for your 1st anniversary (included in the price of the wedding cake). We settled on a 6" tier, and 8" tier, and a 10" tier with an extra 10" tier to be cut (but not displayed as part of the cake). I was expecting for the price to break our budget, but it wasn't that high. Yes, it was a lot for a cake, but I knew I wanted that cake so I was willing to compromise other areas to fit it in the budget.

The cake turned out beautifully and I received lots of compliments on it based on the way it look. Then people tasted it and the compliments really took off! There were no extra pieces of cake lying on tables at the end of the reception--every slice was eaten! It was so rich and delicious! And, because we only ended up with 125 guests, the caterers didn't need to cut the top of the cake afterall. We were able to enjoy some of that the day after the wedding and more when we returned from our honeymoon.

The only thing I wasn't 100% happy with about my cake was the flowers on top. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful and my florist did a terrific job, but what I really wanted was a single peony or tuberose so it wouldn't overwhelm the design of the cake.

So, if you're looking for a bakery in Rhode Island for a wedding cake (or other special occasion cake), I very highly recommend Scrumptions. Incidentally, if you're looking for a special occasion cake in the Boston area, I recommend Party Favors in Brookline--their buttercream icing is to die for (and they decorate beautifully). Rosie's Bakery is also very good.

Photographs in this post are by Krzystyna Harber Photography. She's fabulous!