Taste-Test Success: Magda's Cakes!

We are winding down to the last month of wedding planning for our upcoming nuptials on January 19th and today we took care of one of the most exciting parts - the cake, or cupcakes, rather!

Nothing can top my excitement over getting to marry my best friend, and I'll admit that picking out my wedding dress was one of those princess moments that girls look forward to, but making arrangements for our wedding cake was a close third.

We spent hours scouring the web for the perfect topper, which is so much harder than it looked thanks to gems like these all over Etsy. Thankfully, picking out our wedding cake and guests' cupcakes was so much easier - and delicious!

From the get-go we've wanted to do a locally-sourced wedding with catering from a wonderful restaurant in Bryson City, we've bought our table decorations from the Friends of the Library and hometown bookstore, City Lights and we've decided to order our sweets from Cherokee baker, Magda's Cakes.

Today we tried four varieties of cupcakes from Magda's and will be using three of them on our big day!

First, for my Reese's fiend - a chocolate cake with a peanut crunch topping. IWe'll be adding a ganache layer and using this for our personal wedding cake, in addition to cupcakes.

Next, we tried a Southern classic, hummingbird cake, with a hybrid cream cheese mascarpone icing. The mascarpone doubled the creaminess of the traditional cream cheese frosting and was perfectly decadent against the spice and sweetness of the cake. These beauties will be at our wedding.

Then a strawberry cake with another unique frosting that's a signature meringue/buttercream. This has a unique texture that's fluffy and subtly sweet and wonderfully creamy without the grit that can sometimes occur with powdered sugar. We love this cake and the freshness from the strawberry puree but are opting for a simple white/almond cake option for our "vanilla" guests.

And finally, what I think was the most surprisingly delicious cake with lemon curd, traditional buttercream and blueberries. The cake had the intense flavor of a lemon poppy seed muffin, without the fake, over-the-top taste (and aftertaste) that some lemon desserts can have. And the sweet, thick frosting countered the bitterness of the berries. I instantly loved this cake and was shocked I did - I hate those brash lemon sweets and conversely normally only like those blueberry lumps found in muffin mix. I think these will be a great choice for our more adventurous guests.

Having chosen this wonderful, scrumptious spread for our wedding I am feeling such a great sense of relief and a wonderful urge to eat our four remaining samples!