Six Slices of Deliciousness

Remember back in March when I wrote how I choose our cake baker? At that initial meeting I only got to try one slice of cake (white almond with white buttercream), but was told that once I put my deposit down I would be able to get a box of 6 slices with flavors of my choosing to try. Well I finally got my box...
In case you don't want to read the labels, starting in the back row we have Chocolate Doberge, Pecan Praline, Raspberry, Bavarian Cream/Grand Marnier, Turtle, & Cream Cheese (aka Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese). Now starting with my thoughts on each slice, going backwards this time.

I never actually planned on having red velvet cake for the wedding cake, but really just wanted a slice because it's one of my favorites. Funny enough though, I wound up not like the red velvet near as much as I liked the almond slices, so it worked out well here.

In my e-mail I actually asked for turtle with chocolate buttercream, but I guess didn't specify white almond cake, so they gave me chocolate instead. Which so much chocolate it's difficult to taste the filling, which is pecan/caramel/chocolate. I went into the tasting expecting to love this one, but it's not quite caramel-y for me, and the pieces of pecan felt a little big to be inside cake.

As I've said over & over on the blog, the boy is not a fan of desserts. But he is a fan of Grand Marnier, so I thought Grand Marnier flavored cream would be perfect for him. Except it was still too sweet for him, but I was a fan. It isn't an over the top Grand Marnier flavor, but instead tastes more like a hint of orange.

Half Eaten SamplesGoing into the tasting, I knew I wanted at least one fruit flavored tier. The groom's cake is going to be strawberry, so it seemed silly to have the wedding cake strawberry as well. The idea of a lemon flavor didn't excite me. And while I considered coconut, I'm only sometimes into it. Which left raspberry. It worked out though because out of all the flavors I sampled this was my favorite.

Initially I thought I was going to have a hard time deciding between the pecan praline and the turtle because they were similar. And in fact I probably ate the most of these two slices trying to make sure I knew which one I preferred. I really thought it was going to be the turtle, but I wound up enjoying the praline quite a bit more.

Doberge is actually a New Orleans thing. According to wikipedia, traditionally "the cake is made of multiple thin layers of cake alternating with dessert pudding." Although, out of all the flavors I tried this is probably my least favorite and seemed like a normal chocolate filling.

Back Row of Half Eaten CakeI think you could probably guess from my comments, but I decided to go with Grand Marnier for the bottom (aka the layer we'll cut into and taste), raspberry for the center, and pecan praline for the top. Although I'm not planning on saving the top layer for our anniversary, instead I'd rather just get a brand new fresh cake a year later. So this way our venue will hopefully cut into all 3 layers, so guests can have a choose of all 3 options.

What flavors did you choose for your cake? And if you had to choose out of these 6 options, which ones would you go with?