For those of you who don't know, Katie and I got engaged in February! This means one of us has to do a bunch of planning, scheduling, finding vendors, communicating, reading contracts, designing STDs, etc., while the other writes a blog rating the food from all the tastings! The main cake/cupcake vendor that Katie found has dangerously competitive pricing and the samples cost ~$20, so we have only done one dessert tasting. The dinner tastings, on the other hand, were free! So we did two of those; one for a more traditional dinner from a catering company, and another from a pizza place in Mt. Dora (Shadrach's).
This post is going to take you through my personal review for every piece of food I had from these tastings.
Traditional Catering
First, let's start off with the traditional catering. We tasted a total of four appetizers, five entrees, and six sides.
Appetizers
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| Bruschetta (left) and Caprese Skewers (right) |
Bruschetta: 5/10
Really tasty for just bein some tomato stuff. A bit too messy to actually pick for a cocktair hour. Everyone would drop balsamic-covered tomatoes all over themselves and the venue.
Caprese Skewers: 3/10
I can't eat soft cheese straight, so I had a tomato with the balsamic and it was fine. I wouldn't eat it again.
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| Pork Tacos (left) and Mini Cubans (right) |
Pork Tacos: 6/10
Some good pork from the catering folks on this one. The tortillas were serviceable and the salsa didn't add much, but it's gotta be pretty mild to be a crowd pleaser.
Mini Cubans: 6/10
Little "Tampa" Cuban sliders (Genoa salami w/ the pork & ham) on Hawaiian sweet rolls to mimic a Media Noche. It was good. There's no practical way to press hundreds of sandwiches :/
Mains and Sides
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| Mojo Chicken (left) and Black Beans & Rice (right) |
Mojo Chicken: 5/10
Pretty good chicken, it had a little too much of *something* for me. Maybe citrus? Darren and Lisa loved it and it was their favorite main of the evening.
Black Beans & Rice: 7/10
Some pretty good standard rice and black beans. A contender depending on the main chosen.
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| "Two Chicks Rice" (left) and Mahi w/ Tropical Salsa (right) |
Mahi w/ Tropical Salsa: 7/10
The tropical salsa was good as fuck. I'd eat a whole plate of it. The fruits were diced a bit big for eating alongside the Mahi, but I just like to stab the big fruit pieces.
"Two chicks rice": 3/10
Rice with cranberries and scallions. I did not take a bite with cranberries. I am a coward. When the ingredients were explained, I really did not understand that combo.
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| Cilantro Rice (left) and Yellow Pepper Pesto Mahi (right) |
Yellow Pepper Pesto Mahi: 3/10
The pesto was interesting with fish. This seemed like a better flavor combo for the chicken. The flavor was pretty good but the tropical salsa is so much better
Cilantro Rice: 8/10
Just some good, well seasoned rice. Very flavorful. If this can be paired with the black beans (I think it can?), they would make a chalky side dish option.
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| Roasted broccoli (top left), Chicken Bruschetta (top right), and Lemon orzo (bottom) |
Chicken Bruschetta: 7/10
I might just be a fan of whatever their Bruschetta is. I don't really mess with tomaters that much, so I was surprised I liked this and the app so much. Less favorable reviews from Darren / Lisa
Roasted Broccoli: 7/10
Not as good as Katie's. She told the catering company to season the broccoli really heavy and roast 'em, which does the trick.
Lemon Orzo: 8/10
Super delicious on its own, unfortunately it's not a likely side dish pick because it wouldn't pair very well with the proteins likely to be picked. A veggie is practically required, so it'd be this or the Cilantro rice & black beans
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| Chicken Marsala (left) and Green Beans (right) |
Chicken Marsala: 3/10
By this point, we were all pretty tuckered out with food tasting, but this was just the weakest option of the night. Something about it just tasted not very good. The texture wasn't helping.
Green Beans: 5/10
The strictly inferior vegetable. I prefer my veggies roasted and crispy, so it's not "for" me.
The Results
We're able to pick 2 apps, 2 mains, and 2 sides if we choose this catering company. The finalists, along with my rating for them, are:
Appetizers - Caprese Skewers (3/10) and Pork Tacos/Mini Cubans (7/10)
Main - Mojo Chicken (5/10) and Mahi w/ Tropical Salsa (7/10)
Sides - Cilantro Rice & Black Beans (8/10) and Roasted Broccoli (7/10)
Pizza Catering
I'll admit it. The pizza catering is way yummier. They'd drive down from Mt. Dora with a little pull-behind pizza oven. The drawbacks to choosing this caterer is (1) they will not supply water/cups, we'd likely be using water bottles instead of nice water jugs & goblets, (2) they only supply paper plates, not real plates, and (3) they cost the same as the traditional caterer.
Appetizers
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| Meatballs |
Meatballs: 8/10
I don't really like meatballs that much, but the sauce carried the hell out of these things. I only ate one because I was pacing myself, but I probably could have eaten all four and not gotten tired of it. For knowers, Ashley would have gone NUTS for these.
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| Caprese Skewers (reprise) |
Caprese Skewers (reprise): 7/10
I got some skewers without cheese and just tried them like I did the other to get a cheese-less baseline and holy hell. These were actually gas, even without any mozz. I took a bite then chose to eat more because it was so good. Katie said the mozz was the best she'd ever had. Melted in her mouth.
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| Garlic Knots |
Garlic Knots: 5/10
They were good, but they're not your normal buttered up garlic knots and also didn't come with any sauce (?) That said, I'm a big bread guy.
Pizza
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| Margarita Pizza (left) and Pesto Pizza (right) |
Margarita Pizza: 8/10
They've got good tomatoes, good mozz, and good basil. It's a good pizza.
Pesto Pizza: 10/10
Maybe the best pizza I've ever had. It's got pesto sauce, shredded mozz, parmesan, romano, and asiago cheeses. I could only eat a little because I had to drive 2 hours back home (diarrhea), but I ate all the leftovers once we got home.
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| Pepperoni Pizza (2 and 4), Sopranos Pizza (1 and 3), Vegan Cheese (3 and 4), No Cheese (1 and 2) |
Pepperoni Pizza: 8/10
A test vessel for the vegan cheese and no cheese options. Super good. I would eat an ass load of this.
Soprano Pizza: 9/10
It's supposed to be really cheese heavy (pizza), but I got this one no-chz/veg-chz. It comes with shredded mozz, a four cheese blend, provolone, capicola, pepperoni, and giardiniera. The meats and giardiniera are something I much prefer to a supreme and it's mid olive/sausage/peppers/etc. On that train of thought: supreme pizza is serviceable, but we can do better. It's the carrot cake of pizza.
Pizza Components
A lot goes into the pizza to make the final rating, so we're also going to look at the pizza's crust, sauce, cheese, and vegan cheese.
Crust: 9/10
My crust was a little over done and really crunchy, which is actually just how I like it. Katie's was probably perfect for the median pizza enjoyer.
Sauce: 9/10
Like I said in the meatball review, the sauce these folks make is truly world class.
Cheese: 10/10
Their cheese is so damn good. Some in-house mozz. Actually nuts
Vegan Cheese: 1/10
Vegan cheese just isn't good. They try to emulate the "umami" (or whatever) of cheese and just always end up tasting funky. They're also always so gummy. They actually stick to your teeth more than fruit roll ups or some real life gummy candy.
The Results
If we go with this caterer, we'd get two apps and four pizzas of our choosing along with Cheese and Pepperoni by default. Right now, we'd be going with all three specialty Pizzas we tried during the tasting and would have to find a fourth to fill out our roster. For the appetizers, we'd be looking at the Meatballs and Caprese Skewers. There's less stuff not getting picked from this caterer, so a roundup doesn't seem as necessary.
Cake and Cupcakes
We picked up 3 identical containers of mini cupcakes, one for me, one for Katie, one for extra tasting or whatever. I never touched the third container. The guide for the container along with a picture of the mini cupcakes are shown below. We didn't take a picture for each individual cupcake, but we'll be following the flavor guide left->right and up->down the same way you'd read a book. This vendor's reviews will be a lot more text-heavy. We will have Katie's reviews along with mine!
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| Cake Testing Flavors, note the "]\" in the top-left showing the hand-made nature of this guide |
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| The mini cupcakes! |
Note, the cake names are formatted like this: <Cake Type> / <Filling Type> / <Icing Type>
For the first appearance of each cake / filling / icing, I will include mine and Katie's notes on it.
White / Raspberry / Cream Cheese: Katie - 8.5/10 Lucas - 7/10
White cake - Good basic cake, unlikely pick
Raspberry filling - Katie loved it, I thought it was just alright. Wasn't getting much berry
Cream cheese icing - Not too strong on the cream cheese, the people should like it
White / Pistachio Buttercream: Katie - 5/10 Lucas - 5/10
Pistachio Buttercream icing - Katie loved this shit, it's like an edible buttercream
Lemon / Blueberry / Cream Cheese: Katie - 9/10 Lucas - 9/10
Lemon cake - Super good with blueberry. Instant lock after tasting
Blueberry filling - Killer with Lemon. Also, real blueberries!
Chocolate / Peanut Buttercream: Katie - 3/10 Lucas - 1/10
Chocolate - I, personally, did not taste it here for the following reason:
Peanut Buttercream icing - So much fucking peanuts. I think actual peanuts taste less peanut-y
Butter Golden / Strawberry / Buttercream: Katie - 8/10 Lucas - 8/10
Note: Lucas subbed Cream Cheese in place of the Buttercream icing
Butter Golden cake - An upgrade on the White cake, not sure the functional difference.
Strawberry filling - Very good! Real strawberries!
Buttercream icing - I've coined a new term for Buttercream icing. "Plate icing". Because it ends up in a scraped pile on everyone's plates.
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Let's take a little break from all the words and look at a very excited Katie!
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Pink Strawberry / Cheesecake Cream Cheese: Katie - 2/10 Lucas - 3/10
Pink Strawberry cake - Lucas didn't get much flavor here at all, Katie got fake strawberry flavor.
Cheesecake Cream Cheese - Super damn sweet version of the cream cheese. Lot of milk flavor as well or something. Strict downgrade.
Red Velvet / Cream Cheese: Katie - 5/10 Lucas - 4/10
Red Velvet cake - Tastes an awful lot like white cake. But it's the color red
Italian Wedding / Buttercream: Katie - 6/10 Lucas - 4/10
Italian Wedding cake - There's chunks.
Author's note: I don't know why Katie gave it a 6 when she didn't like the chunks or the icing.
Chocolate / Custard / Chocolate Buttercream: Katie - 5/10 Lucas - 5/10
Chocolate cake - I actually ate it this time. Basic like the white. Pretty good execution of the basics.
Custard filling - We're gonna go with a no on the texture and taste here.
Chocolate Buttercream icing - "Plate icing+"
White / Pineapple & Coconut / Buttercream: Katie - 4/10 Lucas - 3/10
Pineapple & Coconut filling - Katie didn't love the texture and coconut is pretty controversial while being mid. Not the vision.
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Here's another text block break for a picture of Katie writing down our reviews (featuring the premier plate icing, Buttercream).
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Hummingbird / Cream Cheese: Katie - 5/10 Lucas - 2/10
Hummingbird cake - Tastes like slightly sweeter banana bread.. but with chunks.
Chocolate / Oreo Buttercream: Katie - 8.5/10 Lucas - 8.5/10
Oreo Buttercream icing - Very good, super sweet, but there's pieces of Oreo 😮
Marble / Ganache / Buttercream: Katie - 8/10 Lucas - 8.5/10
Note: Lucas ate this one without any icing
Marble cake - Mixture of White and Chocolate. Pretty good if you're looking for more balance with chocolate peripherals.
Ganache filling - Some good melty dark chocolate, delicious.
Butter Golden / Dulce de Leche / Buttercream: Katie - 6/10 Lucas - 4/10
Dulce de Leche filling - Not really the best flavor or texture for a filling. Just some caramel.
Carrot / Cream Cheese: Katie - 6/10 Lucas - 🥕/10
Carrot cake - It's just damn carrot cake, dude. I don't get what old people love about this shit.
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| "Plate icing" in action. I can't eat Buttercream |
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| The aftermath |
The Results
For the cupcakes, we should be able to mix and match any cakes, fillings, and icings we want. Katie and I have some ideas for concoctions we would want to use for the final event... but you'll all have to wait and see what those are. For now, I'll do a recap of our top-5 rated cupcakes from this tasting session:
#5 - White / Raspberry / Cream Cheese - 7.75/10
The white cake + berry filling with the cream cheese icing is a pretty elite flavor combination. Not a lot more to be said here.
#4 - Butter Golden / Strawberry / Buttercream - 8/10
The Butter Golden cake is a strict upgrade over the White cake, and the Strawberry filling is an upgrade over the Raspberry filling. The only thing holding #4 back from greatness is the Buttercream icing.
#3 - Marble / Ganache / Buttercream - 8.25/10
#3's story is similar to #4's. The Buttercream icing is hard to overcome for this otherwise electric cake/filling combination. Watch out for these two if they every get a divorce from Buttercream.
#2 - Chocolate / Oreo Buttercream - 8.5/10
That Oreo Buttercream is a really really good icing. The little Oreo pieces in it are to-die-for.
#1 Lemon / Blueberry / Cream Cheese - 9/10
As soon as I tried it, I knew this guy would be a chalk pick. Lemon cake is really damn good.
Conclusion
That's all I've got.
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