Let's have our cake (and eat it too)

So, one of the goals of the recent Rockin' Keys trip was to eat cake.  And eat cake we did!  I scheduled 3 cake tastings on one afternoon for Momma Rocks and myself.  In retrospect, I think I should have spaced them out over the two days we were there - after 3 tastings in a row (where you wash down every. single. bite. of. cake with a drink of water, we were full, had a sugar high, and we both really had to pee.....oh well.

Momma Rocks - pre-cake tastings, enjoying Key West

(Photo by me) 

Me, waiting for my first cake tasting!

(Photo by Momma Rocks)

Now, you might be thinking "Wait a minute Rock Hugger, didn't you decide to do butterfly cupcakes ala Publix?"  Well, the butterfly cupcakes aren't off the table (and I recently acquired some really nice thick cardboard to make a cupcake tower!), but I kept reading about how other brides got to do cake tastings, and dammit, I wanted my cake tasting too!  Not to mention, we had not really considered any other cake places (mainly because Mr. Rocks is not a big fancy cake guy), and it was worth a look, right?

So, off to Key West we went for a bit o' cake.  The first place we went to was a bit disappointing.  So disappointing, in fact, that I am not even going to mention their name.  They brought us several "mini-cakes" where the cake and flavored frosting were already put together.  

(Photo by me)

The chocolate gnache was awesome, but the cakes themselves were a bit...dry...ucky....bitter....they just weren't good.  But apparently this place specializes in novelty cakes - good if you want someone to make a cake that looks like an elephant, but only if you don't plan on eating it.


So, an hour later (and a pee break), we were off to the next place, Amazing Cakes.  We met the baker in this office complex right off of Duval street - she had basically converted an office space into her kitchen, with the big mixing bowels and ovens and all.  Her place was really clean and she had all of her certifications on the wall (Momma Rocks really liked that).  Unlike stop #1, Amazing Cakes gave us a platter with all of her cake flavors and all of her frosting flavors separate.

(Photo by me of some tasty, tasty cake!)

This is a much better way to taste cakes!  Paula (the baker) has us try each frosting first, then try the cakes, then mix and match cake and frosting flavors.  And her cakes were excellent!  All of her frostings were buttercream based, and the cakes were very moist and yummy.  Momma Rocks and I both approved.  We played around a bit, and came up with two different cake/frosting combinations:  one would be the chocolate cake - 3 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and raspberry buttercream filling.  The other would be the "non-chocolate" cake with 3 layers of yellow cake with strawberry butter cream and plain buttercream filling.  How good does that sound?  Hungry yet?  :)

And even better - Paula and I went over some design ideas that I loved, and the cake was totally affordable!  I sent her an email after we got back from the Keys, and I am waiting to hear back from her. We would still need to figure out if there would be a delivery charge from Key West to Marathon (and how much that would be) but the Publix Plan may have a serious contender!

After Amazing Cakes, we jumped back in the car and headed up to White Street to Key West Cakes.  (And we had another potty break - I seriously had no idea how much water one drinks while tasting cakes!!)  Key West Cakes set up the tasting similar to Amazing Cakes - with the cakes separate from the fillings.

(Photo by me)

These cakes also tasted good - not as good as Amazing Cakes, but much better than the first place!  I liked how Key West Cakes had some neat flavors - like coconut cake and key lime cake.  However, Key West Cakes was waaaaayyy to expensive (for us).  So, while tasty, not a contender in the cake race.

Once we left Key West Cakes, it was getting close to sunset...which meant that there was absolutely no parking anywhere near Duval Street.  Momma Rocks and I were also getting a bit tired (coming down from the sugar rush plus we did not sleep the night before), so we decided to do some "drive-by" sightseeing in Key West.  I showed Momma Rocks the Southernmost Point and Mile Marker "0"

(Drive-By photo by Momma Rocks)

And, of course, we had to pee again.  After a potty break in the absolute-most-disgusting-gas station bathroom-I-have-ever-seen (and I have traveled in third-world countries, yo), we packed it in, said good-by to Key West, and headed back up to the middle keys for dinner and an early night to bed.

Little did we know that missing the sunset at Mallory Square would be faaar surpassed by the sunset the next night.... :)

A teaser of what we did on Saturday!

(Photo by me)