Here is a peek at what I’m spending most of today and tomorrow (yes, I’m taking a day off work… I really needed a break from work anyway) doing:
Before I started shopping for gowns with my mother a couple weeks ago, I had the impression that finding a dress for my mom would be fairly straightforward. I had dropped in the formal wear store of Trudy’s last I was at the Pruneyard, and they seemed to have a large selection of off-the-rack dresses. I couldn’t have known then that I’d end up going to NINE different stores in search of a decent dress for my mother!
The first store we went to was Trudy’s. It’s the place where I found my wedding dress… but not the place where we bought it because of their pricing. They’re generally expensive with little chance of discount. Despite this, they were having a sample sale, and their selection of mother-of-the-bride (MOB) dresses was extensive, particularly for a size 8 mother. (I think the average mother is more plus sized, so finding samples my mother’s size was difficult at times.) As expected, their service was great; the attendant (Judy) pretty much found the perfect dress on the first shot, a purple Montage by Mon Cheri dress with coat and in decent condition:
MOB dresses tend to retail for about $500 for styles with coats (our original budget of $200 was apparently… difficult), and shipping times range from 2-3 months (not gonna make it for the wedding). This one was $299 because it was a sample (the dress customers try on to see if they want to order it) of a discontinued style, and off-the-rack the only alterations my mom needed was shortening the hem and strap. We tried a ton of other dresses, but we were all in agreement that this purple one was the best. We were at the register, and my mom even had her credit card out. At the very last second, I stopped her, as I just realized that the dress is almost the exact same color as my qipao. My mother and I both agreed that having both of us wear almost the exact same color of similar fabric would be weird, so we had to pass on the dress. It was almost so easy; I was pissed at myself for not going with my original plan of a traditional red qipao. *sigh*
That same day, we also went to Elegant Lace and Bay Area Bridal. Elegant Lace had good service and an okay selection, but in terms of samples, they were pretty beat up and mostly not my mother’s size. We were a couple dresses we liked that we’d have to order and pay retail, which is hella pricey. Plus the brand of dress we liked (Montage by Mon Cheri) had very few options in darker tones. My mom was hoping for a red or burgundy kind of color, but most of the color options were light colors. Dark colors were always black or purple. Apparently, red is some sort of taboo color for moms in American weddings. Bay Area Bridal didn’t have as many nice dresses, and their service was nonexistent.
Later in the week, we went to Valley Fair to check out the department stores. The good thing about going to department stores is that dresses are cheaper ($200 to $300 retail) and you can return the dress if you change your mind (no returns allowed at bridal shops), but the selection is a lot less with very little color options. We found a decent coated dress by Patra at Nordstrom’s:
I liked the dress but was iffy about the color. I felt my mother looked better in the darker colors, and the color of this dress kinda reminded me of underwear. But we both felt it was pretty and considered it a viable option, especially at under $200. Other dresses we checked out weren’t that great, and Macy’s didn’t have any of interest for us.
The next weekend, I made a last ditch effort to find the right dress. If we didn’t find the right dress today, we’d buy that purple one at Trudy’s and just deal with the daughter-mother-matchy-matchy stuff. At the suggestion of my day-of coordinator, we went to the Great Mall. We went to Group USA, which has affordable bridal and formal wear. Nothing there were worked for my mother. We went to Neiman Marcus Last Call, which had nothing even worth trying on because of little selection. The last store with went to was Uni, a Chinese store that sells qipaos and cheaper formal wear. It’s run by a Taiwanese lady and strongly reminds me of clothing shops in Taiwan. Despite the cheaper quality, it was still pretty pricey, plus there wasn’t anything we particularly liked. So Great Mall was a total failure.
Right after, we went to David’s Bridal, tried some more dresses, but they were kinda frumpy looking. There was another non-plus-sized MOB trying on dresses, and I think her daughter and I kept looking at each other’s moms to try and figure out what to get them to try on. David’s Bridal’s MOB dresses are kinda more prom looking, and unfortunately we didn’t particularly like anything here either. Ugh. We gave up. Back to Trudy’s for the purple dress.
At Trudy’s, the purple dress we liked thankfully hadn’t been sold yet, but a second look at it reminded both my mother and me of how similar it was to my qipao. We told our dilemma to the Trudy’s saleslady (it wasn’t Judy this time… I didn’t get this woman’s name), which was that we couldn’t find a decent, dark colored gown that didn’t require ordering and wasn’t purple. We figured we’d try on more dresses while we there, so the saleslady looked briefly and immediately found another gown worth trying. It didn’t have a coat, and it was also purple… but it was a much darker, bluer purple. You could easily tell it was a different color from my qipao, and the color would allow the dresses to coordinate nicely together. My mom tried it on, and it was perfect. Flattering, NO alterations needed. It was $215 retail (no discount for this one) and a Patra dress, and the sample was fairly new so it was in great condition. Once again, Trudy’s got it on the first try. We purchased it immediately. While no returns are allowed, they do allow exchanges for store credit for, like, a week or something, so it’s not like you have zero options. Judy (the saleslady we had the first visit) was behind the counter and was thrilled the dress was sold. She had told a deliberating customer earlier that Saturday that, if they don’t buy it that day, it’d be gone by Monday. She was glad my mom’s purchase made her not a liar. Sucks for the other mom, but there is another wonderful size-8 purple gown in the racks…
Anyway, here’s THE DRESS for my mom:
From the side:
I’m stoked. I think my mom looks fab, and the color (which is definitely different than my qipao… we compared the dresses next to each other!) and style is very flattering. I can’t believe she doesn’t even have to think about alterations. Amazing. I just have to find a matching chiffon scarf (need to go to the fabric store), and then we’re set. I definitely recommend Trudy’s for mommy dresses.
New thing I learned today: Aubergine is a synonym for “eggplant“.
The color name for the first dress we tried at Trudy’s was called “fresh aubergine”. The same brand also had dresses in “eggplant” that were similar in color, but slightly darker.
My main wedding task through May to beginning of July was trying to figure out bridesmaid dresses. To summarize, procrastination, my own personal pickiness, three different body types in three different locations, long ready-to-ship times, and ridiculous prices made me think about the bridesmaid dresses more than I should have. Even though Sandra (maid-of-honor) was in LA, I was able to get Anna and Kimi (the two bridesmaids) to check out bridesmaid dresses at Elegant Lace, a bridal boutique I hadn’t visited before since they didn’t carry Pronovias. As long as you’re not looking for a gown for the bride, most bridal boutiques will let you browse dresses and use the dressing room without assistance or appointment. Anna and Kimi speed-tried a bunch of dresses, and though we didn’t find exactly what I wanted despite their decent selection, it was a good way to get an idea of my preferences.
I eventually settled on dark brown, chiffon, tea length dresses by Wtoo (a division of Watters & Watters which is supposed to be more affordable). My original requirements were more general, as I was hoping to let the girls find something they’d like on their own. But the bridezilla in me wanted a more cohesive look, so I gave up on attempting to please everyone 100%. (Sorry, girls.) Anna and Kimi settled on Wtoo 130 in Cognac (Wtoo’s chiffon brown). I saw photos of real people wearing this in another bride’s blog, and her bridesmaids looked great, so it seems to be a good style for many body types.
Sandra went with Wtoo 212, also Cognac but with a Pomegranate (chiffon red) band to emphasize my color scheme:
I like their choices, especially since 212 complements the 130; it doesn’t look much different than 130 aside from a different colored band. And that’s very appropriate since Sandra is the extra special maid-of-honor. Hopefully, they’ll look cute in person as they do in pictures. I’m not too worried, as they already pass my minimum requirement of not looking like prom dresses.
I went the same route with the bridesmaid dresses as I did with my own dress, which is order by phone/email. This time around I went with RK Bridal, which beats its competitors by 5%. I price-matched Pearl’s Place, since the store that sold me my dress doesn’t carry Watters & Watters. The price difference is pretty significant; almost 30-40% cheaper through online stores. The only problem with RK Bridal is that everything has to be done with fax, and it takes a few days before any sort of email confirmation (or for address change, no confirmation… had to call to make sure it actually got through). Ordering beginning of July, I got an estimate ship date of end of September. We’ll see in a few weeks if this route will turns out okay.
New thing I learned “today”: A dress that is tea length means the hem of the dress is somewhere below the knee and above the ankle.
And by today, I mean months ago when I started looking at bridesmaid dresses, of course.
Finally, the last of my trilogy of trilogies of cake tastings. This time around, we looked at bakeries that were supposed to be more reasonably priced, at least according to Yelp reviews.
Bakery 7 - Jen’s Cakes
I called Jen’s Cakes after reading positive reviews on their cakes and pricing on Yelp. I called their number and spoke with Jen, who got my basic wedding information and said I’d get a call back later from Anthony (her husband) on scheduling a cake tasting. He did call back, and I arranged for us plus my mom to check out their cakes at their home the next Saturday afternoon, as they were in the progress of moving their bakery from Los Gatos to Willow Glen.
At their home, we were greeted by Anthony. Anthony organizes all the cake tastings, as well as helps deliver cakes, so he’s probably the person you’ll meet if you taste with them. He’s very laid back and chill, constantly joking and a bit sarcastic. Might be kind of weird if you don’t get his humor, but it’s easy to shrug off, which is what my doesn’t-speak-much-English mother did the entire time. Regardless, his casual demeanor makes him pretty easy to talk to and, I imagine, negotiate and work with.
He led us to their dining room table, where we checked out the albums of their past works. The albums are well organized, with each picture listing frosting and decoration types plus a reference name. Their cakes also looked lovely, with minimal, if any, complaints from Kelvin about lumpiness. Anthony talked to us, trying to get a basic idea how we wanted our cake to look. We still weren’t sure at this point, but we did point out a cake we liked (one with a clean and simple design) and he wrote it down as reference. I asked about fondant flowers and ribbons and other decorations, and he’d give me an estimated cost for those things. He didn’t want to give cake price until the very end, when we decided favorite flavors and general decoration choices.
Once we were done looking at the albums and talking about the look of the cake, it was time to check out the actual cakes. Anthony said it was good that we mentioned I was bringing my mom so he could prepare for her her own serving. He brought out two nicely laid out plates, one for Kelvin and me and a second plate for my mom, along with glasses of water and menu map sheets. Samples were cut into small pieces for each person, but the samples were still a good mouthful, so plenty to get a gist of the flavors. The cake map listed each sample’s flavors by position, and since my mom had a different plate layout, it was nice that she got her own map. They were print outs, so you could write notes on them and take them home for reference. We were also given a list of all the different flavors they offer.
After trying their cakes, I think their cakes are a bit on the sweeter side for me. They also varied in texture (one was pretty dry, while another was easily fell apart from moisture). The first half were decent; we liked two samples which happened to be the exact same two samples my mother liked. One of them had non-dairy whip cream filling, which was the first I ever had it, and it was pretty good. The last half of the samples was gross because of the flavors they chose (TWO coconut cakes, banana, and lemon), and I’m surprised they’d put all these unpopular flavors on their sampling plate at the end. Kinda gives it a bad finish, even tho their cakes overall were not bad. Jen’s Cakes was another bakery where we were alone as we sampled, so it was nice to freely discuss. (Kelvin said I was being rude and speaking a lot of Chinese explaining stuff to my Mom at this tasting, and I didn’t realize I was. I’ll have to work on that.)
Anthony came back after the tasting to discuss flavors and cake preferences. I asked when the cakes were made, and Anthony told us our samples had been frozen, but he emphasized that they never freeze the cakes they deliver. (I wouldn’t have thought they were frozen, but my mom claimed she could tell. Whatever.) We told Anthony our favorite flavors, and he left us alone for a few minutes to figure out the quote. He came back with numbers for buttercream and fondant options that included the simple decorations (I think dots and thin ribbons) based on the one cake style we liked best, delivery and setup, and “love”. The price was very reasonable considering it included delivery (Anthony: “And don’t forget love!”). My only beef with the numbers is that fondant is $2 more per person more when standard so far had been $1 more. No difference to us, because their cakes looked smooth enough for the buttercream option. Giving us a copy of our quote, we finished our tasting and were on our way.
Jen’s Cakes followed up through mail (a nice thank you card) and phone call about a week later to check up on our cake search. I don’t think we’re going to go with them since their cakes are sweeter for our tastes (though now that I think about it, they didn’t have many mousse fillings in their tasting… maybe that’s why), though their prices and service definitely make them worth looking at as an option.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): A
Presentation (based off photos): A-
Taste: B
Favorite flavors: Bailey’s Irish Cream cake w/Bailey’s flavored custard, German chocolate cake w/ non-dairy whip
Price: They quote they gave us included delivery, so if you get rid of $50 for shipping, slices start at $5.75 before any negotiation, which they seemed open to.
Bakery 8 - Sugar Butter Flour
A long time ago, Kelvin’s sister-in-law got us a cake from Sugar Butter Flour in Sunnyvale for our engagement party. It was the first time I had red velvet cake, and it was nicely dense without being too sweet. I was bummed that I forgot to ask for some of the leftover cake at the time, as I wanted for me. Lucky for me, Sugar Butter Flour opened a storefront in the Pruneyard a few months later, and whenever I’m in the shopping center, I make sure to grab a red velvet cupcake. I get the impression that their cakes, aside from the red velvet, would be too heavy for me. Since they were so close, I figured I’d give them a shot anyway, much to Kelvin’s anti-sweetness disgust. I made an appointment with them on another Saturday afternoon over the phone.
I haven’t been to their Sunnyvale location, but the Campbell store is very small as it used to be a Mrs. Fields shop. We met with a young woman named Alisha (I think), who sat us down at one of the cafe tables. The other employee was out doing the cash run, so she was working with us as well as manning the counter, but luckily it was slow at the moment. She gave us a sheet with their cake flavors and general pricing, which I used for notes. Their cake prices were more expensive than I expected, but just about every decoration (aside from massive amounts of fondant flowers or super complicated designs) was covered in the price. In fact, there was no difference in price for buttercream or fondant, so you can look at that as a deal for fondant or a rip-off for buttercream. There were no albums to look at, but a touch screen monitor by the counter had an electronic album of their work. I had already seen them online, so I opted out of looking at it.
When it was time to sample, Alisha came out with water and a plate with four large samples to try. She then left us to try the cakes alone and go back to working at the counter. The cakes were majorly sweet. One of the slices was red velvet, which I was excited about, but the cream cheese filling seemed sweeter than what I was used to. Cream cheese filling is supposed to be pretty sweet, but the cupcakes’ frosting had been sweet without being excessive or gross. It was as good as it usually was. The other samples were even sweeter, but my main issue was the texture. They seemed dry and not very soft. When Alisha came back, I asked when the samples were made, and she said she didn’t know since they were from the Sunnyvale store. So who knows what the status of those cakes were, especially after travel.
We were pretty much done after the tasting since we weren’t that interested in the cakes. After asking a few more typical questions, Alisha was nice enough to box up the leftovers up for us to take home. One thing that’s nice about their wedding cakes is that, in order to discourage the whole save-the-top-tier-freeze-it-and-eat-it-a-year-later thing, they offer a free anniversary tier a year from the wedding. Other bakeries have discouraged this tradition as well, but I don’t think anyone else offered a free anniversary cake. Maybe I should have asked… Anyway, I told all the bakeries I went to I’d be saving the top tier for standard sizing ( (Tip: Ask about the dimensions of the cake. A cake for 100 people at one bakery may be a different size than a 100-people cake at another bakery.), but I doubt I’d freeze a cake for a year and eat it.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): B
Presentation (based off photos): C+, their buttercream ones don’t look smooth at all
Taste: C-
Favorite flavors: Red velvet
Price: Start at $7.50 a slice, $40 delivery to Cupertino
Bakery 9 - Cakes by Ana
Our final cake tasting destination, Cakes by Ana, was another highly recommended Yelp business for flavor and price. All I ever got was an answering machine when I called them, but I was able to contact them through email and arrange an appointment on a Tuesday evening after work. They only let you try two flavors of cake, but the flavors can be anything out of their cake offerings. They let you try multiple fillings, which are served on the side. We chose chocolate and guava, as I was curious how their guava compares to Aki’s famous guava cake.
Their bakery is kind of in the middle of nowhere in a warehouse-y area in north San Jose. The front door was locked, but upon knocking, we were greeted by the friendly Annette, daughter of the baker (I’m guessing Ana). She led us to her office, where we sat at a table that had cake albums on top. We went over the albums with Ana, asking about how much various decorations cost. There wasn’t a quote sheet or cake menu for information or to write on, so I had to ask Annette about everything and write it down myself. They have a pamphlet, but we didn’t get it until the end. Most of the simple decorations (cake shapes, bands, dots) are covered, and they also have access to fresh flowers at whole sale price. Though their website and pamphlet advertise cakes starting at $2.90 a slice, we were told cakes start at $3.95 (fondant at $5.60), with price going up with complexity of cake. Still inexpensive when compared to other bakeries. Things like fresh fruit fillings also cost extra, but the cost would be like a couple bucks for the entire cake, so I wouldn’t really consider it an extra cost. Specialty cake flavors also cost extra; for example, having guava cost $30 extra for the entire cake. Looking at their cakes, presentation with non-fondant icing wasn’t very smooth, so we’d probably have to go fondant with them.
The cake tasting is done pretty uniquely here. To taste the two flavors you chose, they make mini-cakes of those flavors from cakes made that day (leftover cake or batter for orders, I’m guessing). A little piece is sampled from the mini-cakes, and the rest is to be taken home to share with others. Cakes are covered in non-dairy whip, which is what they use for most of their cakes in place of buttercream, and little cups of mousses and fillings are sided with the cake. They said they prefer to use non-dairy whip because it’s lighter than buttercream and better for the lactose-intolerant folks. (I’m guessing this bakery is probably popular with the Asians.) I’m not sure I’m a fan of the non-dairy whip. It is indeed very light and its texture is fluffy, but there’s something not quite right about it. After it sits in your mouth a bit, the texture sort of reminds me of something made from powder. I didn’t notice it in Jen’s Cakes’ samples, but Ana’s uses a lot more non-dairy whip than they did. Aside from the slightly off-ness of it, non-dairy whip isn’t bad at all. I really liked the chocolate cake, not too sweet but still moist. Annette bragged that their guava cake is better than Aki’s, as it used more guava in the batter and mousse. I could taste it had more guava, but I don’t know if I’d say it’s better than Aki’s. The cake had a gritty, dense texture, reminiscent of cornbread, probably from the guava puree. It tasted just okay, but I did like the extra guava-ness of the mousse. The chocolate mousse we had wasn’t bad either. We were also sampled a raspberry preserve (tastes like… jam) and fresh strawberries, the latter being tart if not mixed with a mousse.
After the tasting, there wasn’t much more to ask for aside for a sample contract. Annette said she’d email us a contract/sample quote the next day. She packed the leftovers for us and stuck a brochure with it. (Unfortunately, I didn’t drop by my mom’s place that week, so I had to eat all the samples myself. Poor me.) We didn’t get a contract in our email until a few days later, but it had a lot of the relevant contract information I had asked about previously. Cakes by Ana’s was one of the bakeries with lighter cakes, so while it’s nice to take mini-cakes home, I wish we could have tried more flavors. Based on price and quality, I imagine they’re a decent option for folks on a tight budget.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): B-
Presentation (based off photos): B-
Taste: B+
Favorite flavors: Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse.
Price: Starts at $3.95 a slice, $30 delivery to Cupertino.
New thing I learned today: Hummingbird cake, like red velvet, is cake flavor originating from the South. It’s basically a banana cake with pineapple and pecans.
We tried hummingbird cake at Sugar Butter Flour, and Kelvin predictably didn’t like it.
Today, I went flower girl dress shopping with Kelvin’s sis-in-law Susie and her super-cute daughters, with the important one being Naomi since she’s our flower girl. We checked out Little Angels (a cheaper frilly dress shop for little girls, and by cheaper, I mean $65 as opposed to $120… f*cking ripoff) at Oakridge. After trying on several dresses, Naomi was rewarded with time in the play area for “good” behavior. I watched over Naomi as Susie went to deal with Hana’s stinky needs.
The play area has a bunch of things for kids to climb on/through and jump off. The area is walled off by these cushy benches, where adults can take a breather from shopping and wrangling children. As I sat there watching her every move, a young woman spoke to me.
Lady: How old is she?
Me, slightly startled from staring into space: Who? Her? [points at Naomi and thinks a little bit] She’s going to be three in September. [goes back to staring into space]
End conversation.
This was an obvious/typical lead-in to a conversation about our children. Not wanting to be mistaken for a young mom or discuss baby stuff, I stopped the conversation ASAP, somewhat awkwardly. In hindsight, I feel bad for blatantly blowing her off, since she was just trying to be nice, probably bored and felt like talking to someone while watching her kid. I could/should have just asked about her kid (a cute little boy in overalls, ~1yo) and talked about how Naomi is definitely not my kid. I’m generally somewhat sociable (not always, I admit), but I think I was particularly deterred from discussion since I witnessed earlier at a bridal shop some mommy talk. Susie and the shop workers were talking about their kids and experiences and how kids are this and that blah blah blah. Barf. Anyway, sorry young mother sitting next to me at the Oakridge play area.
I guess I felt like confessing to the internet this totally mundane occurrence. You know what else was weird? When I grabbed Naomi’s shoes from the shoe cubbies at the play area, the cubby next to hers had the exact same shoes. Same brand, design, and size! (Susie: “They’re from Target, heh.”) Greatly confused both Naomi and me. Thankfully, their pair was brand new while Naomi’s was… yuck.
…give me a break, I don’t feel like writing an essay about cake right now.
In an effort to get more sleep so that I’m not a complete zombie at work, I’ve been making sure I get to bed before midnight (when I actually fall asleep is a different matter…). It’s been working out alright; I am more alert during work now and less likely to slack off. (I haven’t check my RescueTime for months because I’m afraid of what it will show.) Last night, my efforts were thwarted by a nightmare that disturbed me to the point where I woke up in the middle of the night. I don’t usually wake up from dreams unless I die in it or something violent happens, but in this case, my dream was free of violence. Apparently, stress from a disastrous wedding is enough to bring me back into consciousness.
I’m in some sort of large church, standing off to the side with all my family members. Multiple weddings are going on at this church, so we are observing someone else’s wedding as we wait for our turn. Our turn is coming up, so our family and friends are getting ready either to sit down or walk in the procession. One of the families that we apparently invited has three kids being brats. [This family actually exists in real life, but with only two kids, both well-behaved. They’re friends of Kelvin’s brother that we met at their birthday party, but we don’t really know them.] They start running and screaming and playing up and down the aisle. I’m freaking out, because it’s almost our turn to go up the aisle, and they’re being little snots at my wedding during the ceremony. So I yell at the kids and their parents, and they finally grab the kids out of the way, but they seem to glare at me. My feelings are hurt because they think it’s okay to be so inconsiderate at my wedding, and no one else helped me out with the situation.
I start crying, which ruins all my makeup. My eye makeup is running down my face with my tears. I realize my makeup is getting ruined, which makes me cry even more. I run out of the church so I can call my makeup artist, who already went home for the day. I call and ask her to come over to do a touch, negotiating pricing and whatnot. After I finish my call, I realize that I never officially signed a contract with the reception location, so they probably haven’t saved space for 100+ people for the evening. My mind is dying from the stress, so I give up and run off, ditching my own wedding.
There are some houses near the church, and I know for a fact some wedding vendors live in these houses since I’ve talked to some of them. As I knock on one of the doors, I turn back and see my mother and Kelvin’s mother run out with some relatives, panicking since they’ve realized I’ve disappeared. I can see them running off in the direction of, I’m guessing, the reception location. I can’t get myself to wave at them and let them know I’m okay, so I try to hide from their view. The door of the house I’m at opens, and I realize it’s one of the vendors (I don’t know for what service) I rejected. Embarrassed, I apologize and run off to the next house. My makeup artist lives there with her twin sister (who’s also another wedding vendor I rejected). [I’m pretty sure I know why I’m dreaming about twins. I just saw an American Gladiators episode the evening before that had a twin in it.] They welcomed me into their home and let me vent. They console me, telling me how it’s okay to ditch your wedding, one of them ditched their own wedding and had it later, how everything will be okay and people will understand. They were very comforting.
As I was venting, I noticed another woman in the house: my wedding coordinator [not my real life wedding coordinator. I’ve never seen this woman before in real life.]. Apparently she’s my makeup artist’s roommate. I start screaming at her, “Why the hell are you here and not at my wedding? Why are you at home not doing your job and doing absolutely nothing on one of the most important days of my life??” I can’t remember how she responds, but it dawns on me that she should have checked on my reception vendor. I start yelling at her about how she missed a critical point of my wedding. Suddenly, I start panicking about how I’ve ditched my own wedding, how it’s all ruined after thinking about it for months, how I could have possibly missed all these details, how am I going to explain it my family, etc. etc…
At this point, I woke up from my dream. It was the middle of the night, and I grumbled about how I ruined the benefits of my early bedtime by thinking about too much crap in my sleep, and how ridiculous that I woke up from a dream about weddings. I eventually passed out again, so it wasn’t too horrible.
In an effort to make my dream log posts less boring, I’ve added a drawing to help illustrate my nightmare. I hope you guys can appreciate my minimal effort. Yay for Microsoft Paint :P
The next three bakeries we tried were fairly close to Cupertino, with a couple in downtown Los Gatos and one literally down the street from our reception venue. For the reviews, I decided to take off the portions rating from the bakeries. It seemed unfair, since I was rating more as better, when it doesn’t really matter as long as you get an idea of what their cakes are like. Plus more isn’t always better, especially if you don’t like the cake. I always feel bad leaving leftovers, but believe it or not, sometimes you can only take so much cake… especially if you’ve just had lunch and your fiancé doesn’t like sweets.
Also, in case you’re curious about Kelvin’s point of view, so far he says all my grades are too high :P
Bakery 4 - Icing on the Cake
Icing on the Cake is another Yelp favorite. Located on a downtown Los Gatos corner close to 17, Icing on the Cake also sells ready made individual desserts and dessert cakes at their counter. Like their website says, they hold cake tastings every 1st and 3rd Saturdays on a first-come-first-serve basis. Kelvin and I dropped by on a Saturday afternoon to check out their cakes.
They were pretty busy when we arrived, even with several salesladies working behind the display of cakes. There are counters to the side, and I noticed a couple looking over wedding binders with one of the sales girls. I waited for them to be done, but it looks like they weren’t going to be anytime soon, so instead I bugged a random lady (totally forgot her name) behind the counter. Once she knew I was here for cake tasting, she immediately came over to the side to start our consultation, so I guess you just ask any sales rep to help you out with cake tasting.
At the counter, she started taking notes on the quote sheet, asking us the typical questions (date, location, # of people, etc.). The bottom of the quote sheet has all the cake and filling flavors, which she went over with us. She asked us to put number next to combinations of cake, filling, and frosting we wanted to try. For example, if we wanted to try chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, we’d put a “1″ next to both “chocolate cake” and “mocha buttercream”. Then if we wanted to try white cake with chocolate fudge, we’d put a “2″ next to “classic white” and “chocolate fudge”. We picked five combinations, which were mostly white or chocolate cakes with various fillings, all with white butter cream frosting. She then ran off to the back to make the combinations we selected, while we looked at binders of their past works. I think this is an excellent cake tasting methodology; you basically build your own cake sample.
We checked out their binders, and I wasn’t particularly impressed. They only do buttercream cakes, so no super fancy designs that require fondant. We’re kinda iffy on fondant anyway, but their buttercream cakes didn’t look particularly great either. While it’s hard to get buttercream to be completely smooth, their buttercream cakes weren’t as smooth as other bakeries we’ve seen, and Kelvin particularly disliked that since he’s majorly bothered by uneven surfaces. They also don’t do shapes of cake other than round. So if you’re looking for a super fancy or very individualized cake, this probably isn’t the place to get it. However, whatever simple designs they do do, it’ll be covered in the cake cost.
The saleslady came back out with the samples, explained each sample, and left us to try them on our own, which I appreciate. It’s less anxious to try cake without someone from the bakery watching you. Another thing I appreciated was that she came back and gave us water as we were trying cake. And we really needed the water, cuz their cakes are really sweet. REALLY sweet. It’s the kind of cakes I always thought were popular in America, with the sugary frosting and stuff. Once I started regularly buying cakes from local bakeries that were pretty light, I thought maybe it was a misconception I had. But after reading the 150+ raves of the place on Yelp, maybe I was right after all. The cakes seemed pretty fresh, as the cake was fluffy, but Kelvin still felt the cake was “gritty” (whatever that means) and didn’t like the texture. I don’t remember the cake flavor, as I felt it was overwhelmed by the fillings and frosting. Kelvin hate sweets cuz “they make my teeth hurt”, and he said these samples were making his teeth hurt. We didn’t try what she said were their two most popular flavors (banana and apple spice) since Kelvin would never like them, but I wonder if they were any better at calming down the sugary taste.
Once we finished, she went over prices with us. She gave us numbers for a 90-person cake and 110-person cake (they really count every square inch on that cake, I guess) for our 100 person reception on the quote sheet, which we got to keep for our own reference. She told us we were welcome to come back again to either do more cake tasting or move on to the next step. The lady overall was good about questions and service, and I really like how they organize their cake tastings. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stand their super sweet cakes, so this place definitely will not be an option for us. Before actually trying any cake, I had contemplated getting a dessert cake for Anna’s b-day or getting Kelvin a delicious-looking mint chip cupcake, but I obviously changed my mind after the cake tasting. Clearly, this place lives up to its name of “Icing on the Cake”.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): A
Presentation (based off photos): C
Taste: C- (I feel like giving something lower would mean they “don’t pass” as a bakery :P )
Favorite flavors: None.
Price: Starts at ~$7.40 a slice for 110 people, but it was more like $7.60 for 90 people, so maybe it varies with size. Delivery fee to Cupertino is $80.
Bakery 5 - La Patisserie
Unlike the previous bakeries, we have had cake from La Patisserie before… several times actually. Sandra recommended this bakery to me a while back, and we haven’t stopped going since. I was expecting good cake based on our past experiences, but who knows how their cake samples would be. La Patisserie was the first place I called for a cake tasting, tho they couldn’t schedule me on a weekend until a couple weeks later. My mother joined Kelvin and me for our cake tasting appointment with Mojgan (I’m still not sure how to pronounce this; I kept thinking her name was Marjan from how she was pronouncing it) on a nice Sunday afternoon.
We sat at regular cafe seating, and after she got our basic information, the first thing we were presented with was three binders of cake pictures. She gave us prices upfront ($5.75 a slice for buttercream, and $6.75 a slice for fondant), and I was taken aback since I wasn’t expecting their prices to be so reasonable. Looking at their binders, their cakes had pretty decent presentation, as most were very clean and smooth. Mojgan was present for much of our album browsing time, so she’d give us descriptions of some of the cakes we were looking at. I was really surprised at some of the buttercream cakes they had pictures of; I would have sworn they were fondant from their smoothness. Similar to previous cake tastings, I pointed to several decorations and asked for cost, and most of the time, she’d say it’s included in the cost. Fondant ribbons? Scrolling? Beading? Square cakes? All covered. The only thing I remember that she said cost extra was a giant fondant ribbon decoration (you can see a couple examples of it on the website) and fondant flowers. Even though she told me fondant flowers cost extra, she said pointed out that the sakura flowers we saw in a couple pictures were covered in the cake price. I asked if they could imitate any cake I wanted, she said they could and to send any pictures of cakes I like, but she kept it real by saying, “Don’t bring us a picture of a castle, because we’re not going to do that.”
Then to the tasting. Mojgan brought out a plate with four circular samples, and it was even accented with a little bit of chocolate frosting. Along with the nice presentation, La Patisserie was also the second bakery to let us taste their fondant. Extra bonus points awarded for letting us try 3 kinds of waxy frosting: regular fondant, chocolate, and white chocolate. Despite the three different flavors, they all tasted like gross sugar wax, and we didn’t eat much of them. The fourth sample without any fondant instead had a buttercream flower. It’s nice how we could taste the various cake decorations. The samples had a larger ratio of mousse filling to cake, and Mojgan explained to us this was to make sure we could taste the filling. In the actual wedding cake, there’d be more cake. She left us alone to try the samples. All their samples we tasted were yummy, just like the dessert cakes we’ve had from them before. Everything had the right amount of sweetness, but still rich and creamy with obvious flavors. Kelvin even liked some of the fruit flavors, and he generally hates fruity stuff. This was the first time my mother had their cakes, and she also liked the samples. We scarfed everything up, with exception of the fondant pieces.
Mojgan came back again for some final questions. There wasn’t a sample contract for us to take home; the quote sheet didn’t have any information on it aside from whatever she wrote down. However, we asked her about all the usual deposits and fees, and she wrote every detail on the back of the quote sheet for our reference. We found out that, for some reason, La Patisserie has the most expensive delivery fee, even though they’re only 1.5 miles down the street from our reception venue! Like 3 times more than average! It sort of put a damper on the reasonable cake price, so I’m hoping we can negotiate this down. They also have a $250 deposit for using their cake stand that is refunded when the stand is returned. I’m not sure if we have to use it… I sure hope not. There was a cake flavors menu in one of the binders that would have been nice to take home, as their website only has pre-made dessert cakes listed. However, she said I could email her for it, and I eventually did do that and got a copy through email. So not much in terms of documents to take home with you, but the cake tasting itself was A+ in our book. Even with the ridiculous delivery fee, the overall price is still comparable to other bakeries. La Patisserie would be the obvious frontrunner at this point if it weren’t for the delivery fee. I hope they can do something about that… I know Kelvin is pretty convinced to book here regardless.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): B
Presentation (based off photos): A-
Taste: A
Favorite flavors: I liked all of them. Kelvin definitely liked the chocolate cake with chocolate mousse best, as he ate most of that sample.
Price: Starts at $5.75 a slice. Delivery fee to Cupertino is $150 (OMGWTFBBQ).
Bakery 6 - Fleur de Cocoa
I accidentally scheduled my Fleur de Cocoa appointment right after the La Patisserie one because I thought La Patisserie was the next Sunday. Thankfully, I didn’t schedule the same time, and La Patisserie didn’t take very long, so there wasn’t any rush. I contacted Nicola of Fleur de Cocoa through email to arrange the appointment. I also had to select the cakes I wanted to try beforehand. They only have four samples for you to try, and you can only try two of them for free. (Extra samples are $5.65.)
We arrived at Fleur de Cocoa a few minutes early, and the place was freaking packed. (In fact, I even ran into an old high school classmate.) The storefront sells individual desserts, cafe beverages, and a few lunch items. Apparently, business is good. I was eventually able to let somebody behind the counter know I was here for a cake tasting, and Nicola came over and greeted me. She asked if I was the 2:30PM appointment (I was the 3PM), and she seemed disappointed I wasn’t them, as that means she got a no-show. She handed me a giant album to look at pictures of their cakes, but there was no place to sit down because they were so busy. In fact, there wasn’t any place to stand without blocking somebody from something. Eventually, table cleared towards the back, and we rushed over to claim it.
It was a lot easier to look at the album sitting down, and their cakes were very nice looking. Nicola came over to talk to us, though we weren’t presented with any information sheets. She had a quote sheet for herself to write down our basic information, but nothing for us to take home. Instead, she grabbed a cafe menu to write all the main contract details like deposits and prices. Going through the binder and asking about the costs of design details, I didn’t really get a good idea of how much things cost. I felt a lot of the answers to my questions were vague; I think she prefers to know a final design before throwing out numbers for design elements, especially since she doesn’t make the cakes (her husband does). The cake per slice was the priciest so far, so if we got a cake here, any additional cost for design wouldn’t be an option anyway.
The cake tasting comprises of two individual desserts from their counters, hence the $5.65 additional cost for tastings outside of the two given samples. We chose their signature Satin cake and their Fleur de Vanille. Both were very… mousse-y. Their wedding flyer states their cakes are heavily mousse based, but I expected a little more cake. I’m pretty sure Nicola also told me that the actual wedding cakes would have more cake, but I’m confused now since their flyer does state their cakes are mostly mousse, so maybe I misunderstood her. My cake desires are more traditional, I guess; I really wasn’t digging this mousse stuff. Even though it was mostly mousse, it was still incredibly sweet. My mother and I had a hard time finishing off the desserts (felt bad wasting it), and Kelvin of course wouldn’t have more than a small taste of either. Quality and freshness for the samples were very good, and I can see other people liking this sort of cake (and willing to pay a premium for it); it just wasn’t for us.
After we finished the samples, there wasn’t really much more to ask Nicola, so our cake tasting was finished pretty early. This place was very pricey, and we didn’t like their cake, so Fleur de Cocoa won’t be an option for us.
Service and organization (at tasting and through communication): B-
Presentation (based off photos): A-
Taste: C+
Favorite flavors: None.
Price: Starts at $8 a slice. She forgot to write down the delivery fee to Cupertino on my cafe menu, but I believe it was $75.
New thing I learned today: “Fleur” is French for “flower”.
