Cake Tasting

As we had posted previously, we were planning to use Publix to make our wedding cake. Kelly met with a Publix baker at a wedding expo in Savannah, and together, they came up with a cake...flavors, frosting, design, and most importantly, cost. So we made an appointment with the Publix near Windermere, and took these plans with us, thinking everything would go smoothly. We were way wrong. First, the manager was not in and she was "unavailable for the rest of the morning." Next, we were presented with cake scraps, none of which were the flavors of cake we were interested in using. Finally, we were told that we couldn't use the design Kelly had originally chosen, and the prices that were quoted in Savannah were supposedly wrong.
The baker didn't even have a wedding cake order form, so she was writing all of our information down on scrap paper. And worst, we had to stand up the entire time. The cake is a big purchase...it is not just birthday cake or Dairy Queen ice cream cake (that's for the groom's cake). Then, she wanted us to come back Monday morning to see if we could do the design we originally wanted...sure, it's not like we work on Monday mornings or anything. We got a half-hearted "congratulations" as we walked out. So all and all it was a terrible experience. I'm not saying every Publix is like this. I know couples use them for weddings and have great experiences; the reason we considered them in the first place. Unfortunately, we were not one of those couples...far from it.
But thankfully our wedding coordinater at Windermere came through for us. She gave us the name and contact information for a great baker who is just starting out on her own after making cakes for another company for 15 years. She specializes in wedding cakes. We called her immediately after leaving our tasting at Windermere and she agreed to meet us the next day...with cake samples. As you can see below, they were pretty good because we kind of demolished them.

After Kelly described what she wanted, she sketched it for us and even drew in the frosting detail. It was a lot like those cake shows Kelly watches on TV on the food channel. After sampling her cakes and fillings, we decided on four different flavors, so each tier will be something new.
In the end, I guess we have a good ending to a very bad experience. It probably worked out better this way.