CAKE

need i say more?

we're all settled. we had the cake tasting this morning...truly, i got way more excited about this than was warranted. i think i forgot that i don't enjoy eating unhealthy things and that cake is sweeter than i remembered. last weekend, amid the impending doom and stress of my molecular genetics final, i spazzed and screwed up our tasting appointment time by an hour, and spent the rest of the evening being consoled out of hysterics. seriously.
i don't care how tomboyish you've been in your life; how many transmissions you've rebuilt, how many organic compounds you've synthesized, nor how many semi-automatic weapons you've fired. when you're a bride to be, and you're planning your own wedding with your usual german exactitude and unflinching perfectionism, you too will dissolve in a limp pile of streaming girl-snot and bitter tears of disappointment and self-loathing when you, yourself, are responsible for getting something completely wrong and feeling utterly overwhelmed by the mountain of work in front of you. and your girlier friends will find it amusing, really. cause you're just like them after all. seriously; enjoy it, cause it'll happen.

but anyway, it all worked out in the end and we made it through the tasting just fine, which was fun but less life-altering than the coronation-style jewels, decadence, opulence, and fanfare i had anticipated. i was envisioning something along the lines of midgets dressed in metallic silks on stilts proffering me petit-fours style pastries on gold-plated trays with a live string quartet and swans circling in a pink fountain spouting champagne. note to self: be more realistic and stop daydreaming in chem bio lecture.

so we've decided on dark chocolate decadence (see?? decadence!!) cake with dark chocolate buttercream filling, and a raspberry-flavored white buttercream frosting. the decorations will be shell and sea themed - the whole cake will be an ivory color with ivory shells and seaweed, and brown sugar sand. and preliminarily, a sandcastle topper. i'll post a picture post-ceremony and give a heads-up credit and review to the baker, too. since we tasted other cake flavors we'd never entertain getting (bailey's, strawberry shortcake, marble cannoli, coconut raspberry) and not the actual flavors we chose, we're getting a mock up made for next weekend to try when we make another RI trip to meet with the justice of the peace. and bridesmaid dresses have been ordered. and now all i obsess over is the never-ending dreadful shoe quest. this is way harder than dress shopping.

i'm really stoked to have the cake contract signed for a more reasonable cost than expected, and so excited about the cake aesthetics - it's exactly what i wanted. but sadly, after years of healthy eating and lately, a particularly vigorous gym schedule, i must say: dessert is overrated. except for carvel cake, with the little crunchies in the middle, which will always have my heart.