My fiane, my parents & I took the day to visit 3 bakers in the Hudson Valley region for our wedding cake (wedding date 9/18/2010). We visited "Deising's Bakery" in Kingston,NY; "Corsino Cakes" in Red Hook, NY & "Dawn's Bakery" in Cairo, NY.
Our first stop was to "Deising's Bakery". Beautiful bakery, also a cafe. We met with Eric. He was fully prepared for our meeting and was right on target with what we wanted and they are very well priced. Before I even mentioned it, he suggested making a smaller "display" cake and have sheet cake in the kitchen for extra slices. He did not try to sell us a cake that we could not afford and he understood exactly what we wanted. We purchased a 7 layer cake from the bakery before leaving and it was delicious. They also provide sugar-free & gluten-free products, which is very helpful for some of our family members.
Our next stop was to "Corsino Cakes". We met with Derek. They do not yet have their own storefront so they are working out of a cafe called "Taste Budds". Upon entering the cafe, I approached the counter but received no welcome or acknowledgement. After about 5 minutes of standing at the counter, Derek finally approached us and introduced himself. We were led to a table amongst the customers in the cafe. We were then made to watch a slideshow presentation of the cakes he had created, most of which were not wedding cakes. The samples provided to us for tasting were reference on numerous occasions as "something I had lying around", which in our eyes meant he was not prepared. He provided samples of cupcakes with Italian Buttercream topping and 3 other mousse fillings which had been sitting out for so long they had no proper consistancy and the Italian Buttercream was not what I asked about.
Our final stop was to "Dawn's Bakery". We met with Dawn. Upon entering the bakery, we were received no welcome or acknowldgement. The girl behind the counter disappeared into the back room where we heard a woman say "I wonder if it's the girl that stood me up yesterday. If it is, I don't have time for her". This comment was made by Dawn. She exited the back room a few minutes later and introduced herself. We sat at a table in the bakery and there was another couple there for their tasting at the same time. I showed her a picture of the cake we wanted to have replicated and she proceeded to inform us of how much time it would take to create the marzipan pumpkins & acorns, chocolate leaves & branches. She suggested using real acorns and made mention that she used real leaves to form the details on the chocolate leaves rather than spend the time to do the details by hand. After hearing all of this, she said she would get us some samples but she needed to stop at the other couples' table first. I immediately knew that this was not the bakery we would use; due to the work ethic portrayed. We didn't want to be rude, but came up with an excuse to leave; we didn't want to waste our time or hers by going through the tasting.
Needless to say, if you haven't already figured it out, we have decided to go with Deising's Bakery. They were very professional, prepared and understood exactly what we were looking for....and we are very excited to be working with Eric.
Sorry this was so long; just thought it might help my fellow area brides in their cake searches. Good luck ladies! I will keep you posted on how everything goes with Deising's Bakery.