“It was an emotional wedding. The mother of the bride cried. Even the cake was in tiers.”

HAAAA! I kill me. No, seriously folks … thank YOU. I’m here all week. Try the pork loin.

The only thing we have been enjoying nearly as much as finding a rehearsal dinner venue (which we are still using as an excuse for eating out MONTHS after we have actually found the place we are going to use) is cake tastings.

I feel like we have done 237, but it may only actually be 236. However, we finally appear to have settled on our champion this afternoon.

We went out to Lille in Herndon, Virginia, and had an appointment the owner (Moustafa?). A one-on-one sitdown with an actual craftsman was a welcome respite to the god-awful “open houses” we have frequented with 50 people packed into a small room in an industrial park on the outskirts of town.

He walked us through some options, and gave us a sampling board of cakes, frostings, fillings, etc. We have gone through this whole process under the assumption that we would end up with a chocolate cake, just based on personal preference. Lille, however, had this great white cake, with white chocolate mousse and a raspberry jam filling. I have never had cake so good.

AND, on top of it all, he suggested a cake design with cala lilies (which just happen to be the leading contender for the flowers in The Lady Sparkler’s bouquet).

We still have one last place to look at, but we took down Lille’s information, and will likely call back in a week to reserve the cake. We’d order it now, but there is this one place near Topeka that we haven’t tried yet …