Finally a great cake tasting.

djshumway

After my initial diappointing one... I had another yesterday and it was absolutely amazing, delicious moist cake and now I am more confused then ever on flavors etc cause it was all soooo good. I thought I was set on my specific choices... guess not. Two more cake tastings this week, but unless they can compete.... I think I am sold.

I can't wait to check this and the catering off my list. I have a caterers tasting gala to attend Thursday. I feel up to my ears in cake and food!

jabeckner

I know exactly how you feel. I had two extremely dissapointing cake tastings, where not only, was the food bad, but they couldn't even do the kind of cake I wanted. Then finally yesterday I had an amazing tasting with a bakery that I feel finally understands what I want for a cake and is actually excited about creating it.

Syndelin

I don't think I had any bad cake tastings when we went...  just one that was that much better. 

I miss cake tastings!  If you guys need someone else to come with ya, I'm in....  let me know.   LOL!

djshumway

LOL Syndelin, I might take you up on that hehe...

Im sick of cake... I have a tasting today and tomorrow.

Unless they blow my mind, I am going with Sundays choice... her cake was so fabulous.

jm521

Anyone care to share the names of the bakeries they loved ?  I haven't gone on any tastings yet.

Syndelin

The one that we went with for our cake is Piece of Cake Desserts.  Their cake was AMAZING, and I love the owners personalities too!

They've been awesome to work with, and we wanted something really unusual, and they made it seem so easy!

djshumway

The tasting I had on Sunday was with Grace at Graceful Cake Creations in Mesa. Grace was amazing and her cakes and fillings fabulous. She does gorgeous scroll work too, so if you plan on a cake design with any scroll work then definately look her up.

I have an appointment Wednesday with Amy at Piece of Cake and have heard fabulous things about her too, actually Grace said that they do really wonderful cakes.

I would advise avoiding Nancy Ray at Exclusive Cakes by Nancy Ray-- horrible experience, nasty cake with fillings and all products from tubs. Her prices started the same as most fabulous bakers, and that is for that gross cream non-dairy frosting. Buttercream is more on top of that.

Syndelin

I'm pretty sure Grace was the one we went to right before PoC...  like, 20 minutes before.   She was really good... tasted good, she had some good ideas, but not quite what we wanted.   PoC cake tasted way better, had a better texture, and they nailed exactly what we wanted for design.

They also did say that we couldn't go wrong booking with Grace and the other place we had been considering though.  I did a lot of research.  LOL

djshumway

I just got back from my tasting with Sugarlips Cakery in Mesa... was not very impressed. The cake was fairly dry and I paid $25 for 3 cupcakes (Three pre-selected flavors by me before the appt), and a 30 minute consultation.... every other place I have tried has been free, they have spent as much time as needed and they showed me a variety which I liked because it helped me think of ideas and flavors I may not have. Also $50 for delivery seemed steep, considering it's maybe 5-10 miles from the venue.They also were charging more for most others that include it in their base price, like carrot cake. Graceful Cakes is my #1 runner so far, but I have my appt with Amy tomorrow, so we shall see.

Syndelin

Bring that receipt with you!!

From PoC site:   "Therefore, if you attend a cake tasting with another bakery, pay their tasting fee and decide that they aren't the right company to create the wedding cake of your dreams, bring us the receipt and book your wedding cake through Piece of Cake and we will credit your cake $20 to offset the fee you paid them. "

http://www.pieceofcakedesserts.com/pricing.html

So if you DO decide you like PoC best and want to book with them, you can at least get $20 of your money back! 

jm521

This is great information, thanks ladies!  Oh and just looking at these cakes online is making me hungry!!

djshumway

Ughhh Sugar Lips didn't give me a receipt I had to pay over the phone when setting up the appointment.

jabeckner

I went with Sugar Sugar cake studio. Their price was by far the best I found and their cake was amazing. They even gave me a full top tier of a cake to take with me to continute eating unlike the teeny tasting slices the other companies gave out.

djshumway

Ok, so now I am confused.

I had my cake tasting with Amy at Peice of Cake yesterday. She was wonderful and sweet... even when I had to bring my overly excited soon to be 8 year old step-son hehe.

So here the thing..... I liked Amy's cake, it was moist, but Syndelin you're right... a different texture. Grace's cake was moist and dense, Amy's more moist and fluffy. I think I like Grace's cake better though... BUT I totally fell in love with a fondant cake design of Amy's. I originally did not want a fondant cake... but now Im in love.... So what do I do?

I like Grace's cake better, but she doesn't do as much fondant work and I'm pretty sure she couldn't do the stenciling that I loved....

So do I go with cake that is good, but not my favorite because I am in love with the design (Will be $100 more too)..... or cake that I absolutely love the flavor but have to go with a design that Im less in love with?

Syndelin

Awww...  well I guess it depends on what is more important to you.

We loved that their cake was more fluffy...  it felt lighter, and after all the other food we are going to have, I think it will sit better.  I don't think I would feel like dancing after eating a really heavy, dense type cake.   And there's no way I'm NOT eating cake!  LOL

Oh and if it makes you feel any better about pricing....  we fell in love with the idea of our design, and ended up spending $400 more than we set the cake budget for.  So it could be worse! 

We are only having about 40 guests, but to do our design, we had to get a 75 serving cake minimum for it to work.   Not that I'm gonna complain about extra cake! 

I think we would have gone for the design even if we didn't care for the cake as much...  the pictures of the cake will be forever, but by a few months after, you won't really remember the details on what it tasted like probably.

What do you want to see when you walk into the reception?  If you have that vision of wanting to see the design you love...  or do you not really care too much what it looks like, as long as it tastes like you want?

jm521

I personally would go with the best tasting but it is your decision.  Ahhh decisions decisions!

djshumway

So I could not sleep last night stressing over who to pick for my wedding cake.... this is crazy, and I still have 9 months left to go... ARGHHH

djshumway

Decision made, I am going with Amy at Peice of Cake. I am sacrificing my favorite taste for beauty LOL

Syndelin

I don't think you'll be disappointed with either in the end honestly. 

CandJWHITE

We had a great cake tasting with PoC as well. But they were so busy when we went in. I didn't know how much effort they'd put into our cake with how they're cranking them out. They definitely seemed capable of making our topsy turvy cake though. Then I found Tasha from Hungry for Cake. Her cakes are half the price of PoC and tasted just as good. maybe better! I'd definitely recommend her. She works from home (in Queen Creek) but delivers. She's very sweet and obviously loves her job!

Syndelin

Every time we get an email for questions or anything from PoC, it's at like midnight - 2am...  I'm pretty sure because they are still working.   If you read their blog, they have made cakes (like the Glee cake they made and then DONATED to local kids)  even after the order is cancelled, because it's what they love to do, and they really loved the idea and wanted to do it, paid order or not. 

I have no doubt that they will do the absolute best job on each and every cake that they do, no matter how busy they get, because it's their life passion, and what they absolutely love to do.  Part of loving that is the love of making their customers happy.  I honestly can't see them doing less on any order because they are busy.   I have heard of them turning down orders because of how booked they are, so I know they only take on what they KNOW they can do, and do well.