Thinking vanilla for your wedding cake?

What is vanilla, if not just a fancy flavor of ice cream and frosting?

The vanilla plant itself, when first picked, does not carry the taste, fragrance, let alone the color that it is commonly associated with. It is the beans themselves that are the most valuable part of its anatomy. Cultivating said beans, however, is such a lengthy and labor-intensive process that it can span anywhere between three months to six years!

Ranked as a first class spice, next to saffron and cardamom, vanilla is the third most expensive "flavoring" in the world.

Historically, vanilla was once used by the Aztecs to flavor chocolate in a drink called Xoco-lall. According to various accounts of folklore, the Spanish Conquistador Fernando Cortéz sampled this drink and returned to Spain with reports that it contained magical powers. As a result, Xoco-lall gained significant praise throughout Europe as a miracle drug. But separately, both vanilla and chocolate became savored delicacies.
Today, sixty percent of the world's vanilla crop can be found growing on the island of Madagascar -which thus sets the price for the commodity on the open market. The remaining forty, however, are cultivated in more tropical climates such as Indonesia, Mexico, Tahiti, Uganda, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and India. The taste can vary depending upon the country of origin, the maturity of the beans when harvested, and the cultivation process(s) used. When the beans at last arrive in the United States, they are either packaged as vanilla beans, or used to create the amber liquid known as the "magic spoonful" - pure vanilla extract.

Being one of the world's most identifiable and comforting flavors, vanilla continues to soar in popularity and demand. The United States alone consumes over half of the world's vanilla.

To find a wedding cake/ dessert/ chocolatier consultant in your area, please try the following links:
Houston
Bryan/College Station
Austin

Helpful Sources:
FoodReference.com: "Vanilla" http://www.foodreference.com/html/fvanilla.html
ice-cream-recipies.com: "About Vanilla" http://www.ice-cream-recipes.com/about_vanilla.htm
allrecipies.com: "Vanilla" http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/vanilla/Detail.aspx