We happened across Sweet Boutique Bakery at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden’s wedding expo. They mentioned they were hosting a free wedding cake tasting event, so I signed up for an invite. We went to the shop the next weekend. The ladies had a larger than expected turnout, so we had to wait a bit. We were given full cake slices to try until a baker was available.
We tried:
Chocolate-covered strawberry: strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream and chocolate ganache
White chocolate raspberry: raspberry cake with white chocolate buttercream
Vanilla: vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream
Lemon: lemon cake with lemon curd icing and white chocolate buttercream
Overall, their cakes are amazing. Incredibly moist with a tender crumb and light, fluffy icing. We were wowed and decided to book Sweet Boutique for our wedding. Nicole, the bakery owner / head baker, came over to work out the details.
I’ve always wanted cupcakes for wedding cake. I like the standard portion, and it’s an easy way to guarantee each guest gets cake. I’ve been to weddings where I get a tiny slice of cake right before everything was cleared away. Sweet Boutique offers three sizes: mini, standard, and oversized. We went with standard. At this time, we were still expecting 140 or so guests, so we ordered 144 (12 dozen). Mac and I liked several of the flavors, so we chose four dozen each of three flavors: vanilla on vanilla, lemon with lemon curd, and chocolate-covered strawberry. We also ordered a six-inch cutting cake in lemon. The cupcakes were about $2.50 a piece, and we rented their cupcake stand. Our total was around $500.
I purchased some Virginia Tech cupcake liners during football season last year. I mentioned that I had these to Nicole, and she said we could use them or she could work on a maroon and orange design. In the end, we went with a brown liner and the standard icing colors. Again, I didn’t feel like matching shades of orange.
On wedding day, we were not disappointed. Nicole was setting up when I arrived. She grabbed a bunch of the leftover maroon and orange spray roses and filled in the gorgeous cake stand. My only comment is that we had soooooo many leftover cupcakes. Not all of our 90 or so guests ate one during the reception, so we packed up two boxes of them and took them home. At our Sunday brunch, I started stuffing them in solo cups and handing them out to people before they left. We froze two dozen (!!!) before the honeymoon. They kept wonderfully in our freezer, and we enjoyed them for several weeks afterwards.
If you notice, the cutting cake is maroon and orange, and we loved the piping. We took this cake on our honeymoon. I know it’s good luck to freeze your cake and eat it on your first anniversary, but the idea of eating frozen cake doesn’t appeal to my food scientist sensibilities. We’ve decided to order a replica cake for next June 9, if we’re still in Fayetteville.
Anyone else have a great baker?
