cake Archives - Sweet Potato Bites

When I started planning my wedding last year, one of my biggest priorities was to have delicious food. I wanted a meal that would be memorable and one that our guests would remember. Thanks to my amazing wedding planner and the culinary talents of Trattoria Grappolo, Sunstone Winery and Solvang Bakery, we got that meal and then some.

All of these pictures in this post are from my amazingly talented wedding photographer Dana Grant, and pretty much make me hungry every time I look at them. The Englishman and I tasted everything that was served before our big day, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the end result.

For our cocktail hour, we had three different Sunstone Wines: Rose, Grenache Blanc and Merlot along with an assortment of beers for guests to sip while they enjoyed some passed appetizers.

For our passed appetizers, we decided on some bacon wrapped shrimp, bruschetta toasts, melon wrapped in prosciutto and house made potato chips with burrata and guava.

In short, it was AMAZING. All of it.

I couldn’t get enough of the house made potato chips either as evidenced when the Englishman and I paid a visit to chef Leonardo for a snack.

Pretty soon it was time for the champagne toasts and to dig into dinner.

For dinner, we started our meal with freshly baked bread and olive oil (one of the best combos ever in my opinion).

The salad course included a classic Caprese and a Caesar salad.

For our entrée, we decided on a rustic roast chicken with vegetables and a penne amatriciana.

Everything was served family style so guests could enjoy as much as they wanted (I loved having dinner this way!)

Then it was time for our delicious cake! If you read my post on Solvang Bakery, then you’ll know that they made sure the cake was free of any allergens and made from scratch.

Not only was our cake gorgeous, but it was GOOD. Best cake I’ve ever had hands down.

We ended up going with two different flavors – chocolate with lemon buttercream and carrot with lemon buttercream. We have the top tier in our freezer but somehow I don’t think it will last until next year.

In addition to cake there was gelato, which I never got to try (still broken up about it), but it was a big hit among our guests, especially since it came with little sugar cones.

And that was our wedding food. Huge thanks again to Dana Grant Photography and her amazing pictures! If you are ever in the Santa Ynez area be sure to pop into Sunstone Winery for a glass of rose, Solvang Bakery for some baked goodies, and Trattoria Grappolo for an amazing meal. I’m already planning my return trip up there to eat all of it again.

I haven’t posted much about wedding planning on the blog, but with less than 2 months to go until the wedding, most of my days/nights/weekends have been devoted to getting ready for the big day. This past weekend I did a quick whirlwind trip up north to finalize some of the details, which included wedding cake tasting at The Solvang Bakery.

Not going to lie, the cake tasting was one of the things I was looking forward to most when I began planning our wedding. I love cake (who doesn’t?) and I feel your wedding cake choice is a fun way for people to see who you are as a couple based on your taste preferences.

The one thing I was a bit nervous about when it came to the wedding cake tasting at The Solvang Bakery was my food allergies. I emailed the owner Melissa and explained that I couldn’t have anything with corn, soy or walnuts. She was incredibly nice, and when they brought out the cake for us to taste, she labeled everything and listed out all the ingredients which was fabulous.

Not only were all the cakes at Solvang Bakery delicious, they brought us very generous slices as well. I’ve never seen so much cake and frosting in my life. Fortunately I had the Englishman and my parents to help me wade through all the cake, and we even managed to give a few pieces to people who were visiting the bakery as well.

The overall process was a blast. We got to taste a variety of different cakes and were given little cups of frosting in case we wanted to mix and match some flavors. One of my favorite frosting flavors was a coconut one made with sunflower seed butter. I’ll definitely try to recreate that one at home.

The flavors we tasted included chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, carrot (made with pecans!), vanilla, lemon and almond. While I don’t want to reveal what we decided on quite yet, I will say I’m quite pleased with our final cake and the fact that we have a couple of different flavors on different tiers so I think everyone will end up with something they like.

If you are ever in the Santa Ynez Valley be sure to visit The Solvang Bakery. They make a variety of Danish pastries in addition to cakes and other confections. Plus, everyone who works there is incredibly nice and their desserts are GOOD.