Let them eat cake!

mandrietti

I'm in the process of setting up appointments for next weekend to do cake tasting and meet with bakeries.  I live in Cincinnati, so I'm not too familar with many of them, except for some of the obvious one like Anita Kline and Jan Kish.  I like Anita and am going to meet with her, but I really wanted to see what others have to offer.  I do like fondant and the more unique flavors which doesn't seem to be her forte.  Jan Kish is awesome, but it seems like her prices are insance.  Is that true?

Any advice you can share, would be great, especially since I only have a day to get the meetings in!  Here's a few of the others I've seen in The Knot and Columbus Bride:

Short North Piece of Cake
Suisse Shoppe
The Cake Studio
Le Gateau
TG Patty Cakes
Alice's Piece of Cake

TIA for the help!

jnkreager

I am not much help--we are going with Anita Kline.  But I have heard good things about Short North and Alice's.  Good luck! :-)

Alko726

I'm not sure if Alice's does fondant work, but I do know she's got a binder full of some interesting flavors!  Her prices aren't too far off from Anita's (we used her), so it might be worth a look!  My good friend works for her at times and is starting her own cake business up, but really seems to like how she operates.  She's a little ways out, and for some reason only offered us Chocolate and White cake at our tasting, so you may want to request some of her more unique flavors to taste if she gives you the option.  Good luck!

gcbuckeye2

Most people that don't go with Anita on this board seem to go with Short North Piece of Cake.  I never tasted anything there, but I think they have decent prices, so I would try to go there.  Anita had some pretty different flavors though, and when we went to meet with her, she let us taste about 7-8 different kinds of cake and like 4-5 different flavors of icing.  We went with her because her cakes are SO good!  They taste much better than others, and she is really good at making buttercreme icing look like fondant.

mandrietti

That's good to know about Anita...she did send me pictures and I agree it looks like fondant.  I am very excited to meet her and taste the cake.  I just want to do my homework and visit a few other options so we know exactly what we're getting and can compare all the options.  I think this might be my favorite part of the wedding planning so far!

chemgal23

Jan Kish did my friend's wedding cake and for a wedding of 80 people the cake was $650 so her prices are up there.  I will say the cake was really good and looked beautiful, but you pay the price for it. 

We went with Alice and the cake was awesome!  I am not sure if she does fondant, but her she can make the buttercream look just as smooth. 

RNM 2008

ANITA ANITA ANITA!!!!

Looks like fondant and tastes like buttercream -- what could be better?
In my opinion she has a wide variety of flavors especially with the fillings.

Short North Piece of Cake was my 2nd choice. Yummy, but not as yummy as Anita's, plus a little higher in price.

contauri

I don't have much input as we're going with Anita as well, but all I can say is have fun! Definitely my favorite part of the planning process :P You're making me wish I tried out more places so I could taste more cake ;D

mandrietti

This might sound dumb, but was anyone nervous to go with Anita because it's just her?  I'm just thinking what if she was ill or something - she doesn't have the rest of a bakery business as backup.  I just know with the rest of my vendors, I've been careful about going with reputable names and companies, rather than independent.  I'm not saying it's bad that she's independent, but just something I was thinking about. 

a-ingram

Mandrietti, I'm the same way about Anita.  Our wedding is in next June and alot can happen in the next year!  I think we are going with Cakes of Distinction/Bachman'sin Powell.  They have really good moist cake with great fillings - they also have some interesting flavors.  I'm not sure about their fondant since I'm not much of a fan, but if you set up an appointment they will do tastings.  We've worked on several cakes with them (graduations mainly) and they turned out better than expected.  Their website is http://www.cakes-of-distinction.com/

tobefletcher

Mandrietti:

We were looking for something a little unique and creative...Bakery Gngham was recommended.  Met with them...and loved their approach.  The owner (Amber) has worked with a top wedding baker in California...and has been baking since childhood.  She has great flavors (you can create just about anything, no up charge for fillings) and she has some fun ideas...or can go mainstream if needed.
Also, my brother works in the wedding industry and noted that vendor recommends on a site called Stylemepretty are hard to come by (not just anyone can get a recommend from them) and Bakery Gingham was listed as preferred baker.

good luck

Myroni03

We're using Short North Piece of Cake... prices were very reasonable and they were willing to deliver all of my cakes to my wedding site that is 70 miles outside of Columbus. Piece of Cake is my favorite baker by far... always fresh cakes with super yummy icings.

I did do a cake tasting with Jan Kish, way way out of my budget... cake was good but I couldn't rationalize her prices.

Also, about Bakery Gingham I wasn't impressed with them. I stopped by the German Village location and FI and I bought a cookie when we were out and about one day and it was so stale and disgusting. I did look into their prices for wedding cakes and they were much more than Piece of Cake.

heidianddetails

Saur Cakes in Gahanna,  Beautiful and Delicious.

tobefletcher

Hmmmm...thanks for heads up Myroni. may need to check Piece of Cake as another option.

mandrietti

Well so far I setup meetings with Short North Piece of Cake and Suisse Shoppe in addition to Anita.  The others haven't returned calls or emails so if I don't hear back, I won't worry about it.  Since I'm out of town, communication is key so if they can't return a call for a new customer I figure it might not get better.  No more headaches! lol

[Deleted User]

Have you tried Bella Luna cakes? We almost went with her, but like some of the others the ladies have mentioned, she was a bit pricey. But she had really nice work and flavors, etc.

We ended up going with a lady named Theresa who has her bakery called Elegant Icings. She is located just west of Columbus, but will travel just about anywhere I think. It was delicious and really reasonable, we were a a pretty tight budget. Her website is: elegant-icings.com if you want to check her out.

ehampto

Alice is wonderful. She just did my wedding cake for my wedding on the 17th. She responded to all of my emails throughout planning and was very helpful. For my wedding cake, I had the strawberry, chocolate raspberry and yellow cak with fresh strawberries. And the groom's cake was red velvet. Let's just say that the only cake left was the cake for our first anniversary. Everyone was raving about the design and the taste of the cake. Her prices are also great and she can work with you. She is very creative. My buttercream icing was as smooth as fondant.

lilmissychloe

My wedding is next weekend (EEP!) and we are going with Short North. They were great about setting us up with tastings (and invited us back for another tasting). Good prices and they're willing to do whatever you want. I LOVE them!

Gardenia11

We're going with Anita as well and our date is in June next year also.  I'm not worried about her being a one-man show. You could pick another bakery with several people and it could catch on fire or something.  Anything could happen so I don't really think it matters.  Cake tasting is definitely the best part of wedding planning!