9 On Your Side reporter Ally Kraemer got engaged in November. She will be writing about her wedding planning experiences until her wedding in August. Expect to see the good, the bad and the bridezilla. (Just kidding!)
CINCINNATI -- “Good Morning Tri-State” anchor Kathrine Nero has been giving me a lot of great advice explaining the difference between Northern and Southern weddings.
Around here, the line is for the bar. But in the South, she said, the line is for the cake.
I better make sure it’s delectable!
Cupcake queen
I love cake, and I really love cupcakes. My mom taught me how to bake when I was a little girl, and we’re already teaching my niece how to bake. The newsroom folks often serve as my guinea pigs when it comes to trying my new cupcake flavors, and I sometimes send them to work with my fiance, Jake. No one turns down Oreo cupcakes!
I even made 120 cupcakes for my mother-in-law’s wedding last weekend! But I know there’s not enough time to make cupcakes for my own wedding, so I’ll have to try others.
Thinking outside the box
A Spoon Fulla Sugar is a well-known bakery in the wedding world. I fell in love with this Ohio State cake on its website, so my mom and I went for a cake tasting.
It was our first tasting and the service blew us away. All of the cake flavors come out on a platter; the icings and fillings come out on a separate plate. I guess the idea is to mix and match your flavors.
Ally Kraemer's mother taste-tests cakes for Ally's upcoming wedding. (Provided)
The only problem: I’m super plain and basically wanted white cake with white icing. The cakes are delicious and really dense. The raspberry filling is super sweet. But Jake would want something totally different like chocolate cake with Oreo filling.
My mom didn’t think the Buckeye cake was really appropriate for the wedding, so I think we’re going to do it for the rehearsal dinner or some event leading up to the wedding.
The BonBonerie
I’ve loved the BonBonerie since I was a little girl. My mom used to take me to its tea room and to pick special cookies from the bakery; it was a special thing we shared. We splurge on the Opera Cream Torte for special birthdays and holidays. (If you’ve never had it, you have to go -- it’s so rich and over the top.)
Wedding cakes from the BonBonerie. (Provided)
I know the cake can be expensive, but we went for a tasting here as well. We were able to choose five or six different cakes to try. The best part is you get to take home the leftovers! Jake loved that doggy box.
The cake is to die for, and the BonBonerie had a great simple design for us already picked out. They really made it so easy for us, and now it’s a special memory for my mom and I that we’ll both remember.
What’s next
I mentioned that I made the cupcakes for my future mother-in-law’s wedding. Next week I’ll share some great photos and tell what we’ve learned from all of it. I’m always looking for advice! If you have some to share, send me an email at ally.kraemer@wcpo.com.
