Venue #2 and Cupcake Tasting #1

Wow, that title sounds like we did a lot this weekend, but really we were just wandering around our neighborhood.

Mr. T and I went to peek at Venue #2. You may remember this as the place that would not agree to give me a formal tour. I'd also like to add that they emailed me a rental agreement in a format that would not open on a Mac or a PC. When I asked them to re-send it in a more common format, like PDF or Word, I got no response. So, I didn't think this was a winner even before we went to see it, although the price was right.

So, "open all day Sunday" apparently means, "someone else is having a party that you will be crashing." Which we did, although Mr. T protested about it from the get-go. I am much ruder than he is. The local Historical Society was having some sort of party, but we snuck in and just looked at the room really quick. It looked a little small, although charming in that Craftsman kind of way. Like many of the places around here, there was no separate space to have a ceremony, so this one room would have to serve both purposes, meaning we'd have to shoo our guests out of their chairs and make them stand around while we rearranged the chairs at dinner tables. This option is less appealing to us, even if these kind of spaces are more affordable than spaces that have multiple rooms.

So, Venue #2, I don't think you're for us. I won't be pursuing getting that rental agreement in a real file format after all.

After breaking and entering, I mean, touring the venue, we went to do something I knew we would both enjoy: cupcake tasting! It was not a formally arranged tasting, but it was at a place that charges for tastings anyway (shame on them), so we just dropped in and bought three cupcakes:

(Photo courtesy of Mr. T, who got really into setting up the shot and taking "artistic" cupcake photos for my blog.)

Why, you might ask, are only two cupcakes pictured? Because we ate one on the spot! We ordered a Devil's Food with vanilla buttercream frosting, a Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting, and a Chocolate with peanut butter frosting. Not pictured is the Devil's Food cupcake, which ended up being our favorite, although Mr. T thought the frosting was a little runny for his tastes. But, he declared, chocolate with vanilla frosting was a must, and so we now have one of our cupcake flavours decided. The Devil's Food was very moist, and it wasn't overpowered but rather accented by the frosting, unlike the Red Velvet, where all I could taste was the cream cheese, although it was delicious. The Red Velvet was also a little dry, but the frosting helped with that. The Peanut Butter/Chocolate combo was disappointing. I love this combo and saved it for last, thinking it would be my favorite. However, again, the cupcake was dry, didn't have as much flavor as the Devil's Food, and the frosting was too sweet, if you can believe that's coming from me (I'm a girl who likes dessert!).

So, I'm not sure if we'll be ordering from this bakery. We'd need proof of a second, solid flavor. Plus, there's the runny frosting issue. But, it was a fun thing to do after the venue disappointment!

PS--For those of you who were wondering, yes, I did pay for the dairy consumption later. But that's all I'll say about that. Next time, Lactaid pills!