Ganaches and more

Baker: Allycakes

I had originally wanted to get a cake buffet for our wedding. But then I came across an awesome Cake Baker who I (actually another Bride friend) found on Craigslist. (I love Craigslist. I've gotten so many awesome deals from this place.) I emailed her for a price listing, not having any high expectations that it would be within our budget. She emailed me back with some pictures of previous cakes she had made and gave me a deal I couldn't refuse. And best of all, she suggested we have our cake tasting at Ikea! How could I not crush on her already?

Allyson is such a sweet lady. She lives out in the country (near Santa Rosa, Ca) but willing to drive everywhere in NorCal, literally. It must have taken her 1-2 hours to meet us at Ikea for our cake tasting. An interesting factoid we learned was her story on how she became a wedding cake baker. She loved baking and had been baking all her life because it ran in her family. She used to be a Master Sculptor before she joined the wedding biz. She went to some wedding event many years ago and saw all the beautiful wedding cakes and it was like a light bulb went off in her head. She knew what her destiny was and that was to be a delicious cake baker with some mad sculpting skillz.

For our cake tasting, she sent us a list of cake flavors and fillings. She asked us to pick 2 cake flavors and 3 fillings.

Cake flavor: Milk Chocolate, Yellow, Classic White, Red Velvet, Spice, Pound (Butter or Strawberry), Fruit Cake, Double Lemon, Lemon Lime, Devils Food, Orange Chiffon, Strawberry Chiffon, Fudge, Marble, Marble Mocha, Chocolate Mocha.

Flavor of Filling: Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Butter Cream, Mocha, Espresso, Carmel, Vanilla Butter Cream, Vanilla Mousse, Banana Cream, White Chocolate Mousse, Raspberry Mousse, Passion Fruit Curd, Key Lime Curd, Lemon Curd, Orange Curd, Coconut, Strawberry, Raspberry, Pina Colada, Kahlua, Bailey’s, Grand Marnier, Frangelico, White Chocolate Butter Cream, Other

We chose to taste Red Velvet and Marble Mocha with Raspberry Mousse, Chocolate Ganache, and White Chocolate Butter Cream. At our cake tasting in Ikea, she came more than prepared! She made us 2 small cakes, one Red Velvet and one Marble Mocha. She told us the Marble Mocha was made with real espresso, yummm. She also brought us 5 fillings instead of 3 so that we could try different ways she made her fillings!

She told us that her Chocolate Ganache is made from the finest Belgian chocolate, with about 80% cacao. She made two kinds for us: one without alcohol and one with Cognac. Guess which one we chose. (FYI: you can choose other alcoholic beverages if you liked something else). Here's a quick lesson on Chocolate Ganache, which I promptly looked up after tasting it for the first time at Ikea. It's a mixture of equal parts of chocolate and cream. It can be used as a filling in cakes, a base for truffles, or to make chocolate mousse. And it is so freakin' delish. I wanted to lick everything that it had touched.

She also made 2 kind of raspberry fillings: one mousse and the other a curd. I was on a sugar high that day. It was all sooooo good.

Final cake flavors and fillings we decided on our 5 tier cake:
Marble Mocha with Chocolate Ganache and Cognac
Classic White with Organic Raspberry Curd
The outside will be smeared with White Chocolate Butter Cream before being covered with pretty fondant.

Because she is trying to expand her business, she's offered anyone referred by me to get 25% off of her cake pricing along with a free tasting and free cake cutting. That's a great deal in this economy. Message me if you want more details.

What was your cake flavor and filling? Anyone else Ganached their cake with alcohol?