Hi everyone! We had three cake tastings today, and I wanted to share my experiences with all of you before I slip into a sugar coma. My fiance and sister were both able to come, and we had a blast.
Hot Chocolates, Hurst - They are really nice and have a lot of fun ideas for designs. The cakes were pretty good and they have interesting flavors. They gave us a cupcake of each flavor and big piles of frosting and fillings, and we got to take home the leftovers. The quality of ingredients is not the best and I'm pretty sure they use mixes for the cakes. The price was the highest of the three we visited. They also do candy buffets for a reasonable price.
Panini, Dallas - Extremely sweet people. The cakes are excellent, wonderfully light and fluffy! They don't have many flavor options, because they choose to do a few things really well rather than do many things not very well. The sample pieces were of a good size, and they gave us a piece to take home for my mom for free. Their price was the lowest of the three.
Romano's, Dallas - Maybe it's because it was our last stop, but I didn't really like this place. Their showroom is impressive, but I felt like I was on a conveyor belt, being shuffled in and out so quickly. It seemed a bit impersonal. Also, they called this morning to move our appointment from 2:30 to 2:00, and that really turned me off. Their designs are beautiful, but I care much more about the taste, and I didn't think their cakes were very good. They were far too dense and sweet for me. Their price was in the middle, but closer to the high end.
We're going to think about it for a couple of days, but we'll probably get our cake from Panini, though we might have Hot Chocolates do the candy buffet for us.
I hope this helps anyone who is still looking for a bakery!