Cakes By Clarissa?

katers690 · August 2010

Has anyone heard from or seen Clarissa recently? We have been trying to get a hold of her and cant seem to find her. TIA

mrs.smith-rindler · August 2010

I agree. We were using her and could not get ahold of her until I cancelled with her. I am so glad we decided to go with someone else. I would recommend threatening to cancel her or looking into another bakery.

hccpsu · August 2010

She did a cake for a baby shower I hosted at the end of April. She's actually moved from the area, but still has a house here. It was hard to reach her. Her price was very reasonable but I had planned to call someone else because she wasn't getting back to me.

The price was great and she delivered it, which was nice since it was only a small cake. The cake was cute--she did a fondant cut out of a pregnant woman--and the fondant and buttercream tasted good, but the actual cake wasn't one I'd recommend.

CorinneF · August 2010

I realize that I have never posted on here, but I lurked on the boards during my entire wedding planning process and felt that I needed to post about this. My husband and I decided to use Cakes by Clarissa because neither of us particulary like cake so we wanted something inexpensive. When I first met with her she seemed really interested in our wedding, what I was going for, and generally just seemed like a great option for our tight budget. I was planning on purchasing turquoise necco wafers for the small cutting cake and the cupcakes to imitate a cake I had seen in Martha Stewart weddings. She told me it was silly to spend that much money when she could easily replicate the circles with fondant or candy for much cheaper. Fast forward to the month before our wedding. I e-mailed her to see what our final total would be as we were going to have 50 fewer guests than we had originally planned. After not responding for nearly a week quoted me a price that was something like $40 more than our contract stated for 50 fewer cupcakes. She cleared up the error with her pricing (her prices had gone up since we met with her) and then told me that our remaining balance was more than we were originally quoted. Eventhough we had already given her a $200 deposit. I had to send her a copy of our invoice to show her the price she had quoted us. At this point I was nervous, especially because a woman I work with warned me about Clarissa after we had already booked with her, so I reiterated what we had spoken about at our consultation and I re-sent her the picture of the cake she said she could copy. She told me there were no problems and double-checked that I wanted the wafers on both the cake and the cupcakes, which I did. The day of the wedding my husband and I went to cut the cake only to see that there was a small fondant cake with a piece of blue ribbon slapped on it and cupcakes with a tiny dollop of white icing. The reception hall told me they needed to rearrange a few of the cupcakes because some of them weren't even iced. Our wedding was great. No one noticed the cake other than my family and myself, but do not use her. Her prices may be low, but it is not worth all of the headache. E-mail me if you want to see pictures of the cake.

clearheavens · August 2010

omg, CorinneF, that's horrible! Thank you for taking the time to share that with us. It's very valuable information. Feel free to post more often about your wedding experiences! We need more advice from brides who have been married.

kimandbillbike · August 2010

I tried to get in touch with her originally but she never responded to me. I ended up using Flying Buttercream. Her prices were $1 cheaper per slice and I could not have been happier!

mahoganieyes · August 2010

Whoa! Thanks for the heads up!

cyndon · August 2010

I would not recommend her either. We almost booked her as well. She was very nice and even came to my Mom's house and had a tasting with us, but when I went back and looked at her website, one cake stood out to me as horrible looking to me and then when she sent me the quote for the cake, it was $85.00 more than we had talked about, so that was enough for us not to book her. We ended booking Tres Belle Cakes, thank goodness! I also agree that Flying Buttercream is good and A Spoon Full of Sugar.

bettywhite2010 · August 2010

Spoon fulla suga is yummy!

nicoleessman · August 2010

Do not use this vendor. She seems nice and polite and professional in the beginning. When we did a tasting with her she was very nice. She brought small pieces of cake for us to try and they were delicious! We were so excited for our cake. We ordered a 3 tier cake with ribbon (which I was providing) for the middle tier. We also were providing gerbera daisy flowers for a topper. First of all, the cake that she brought to the reception was 4 tiers with ribbon on all 4 teirs. She had told me for weeks she was going to come pick up the ribbon for the middle teir and never showed up, so she took it upon herself to go get her own ribbon. The cake had no flowers on top--which is good in a way because the top layer FELL OFF!!! When the lady from the flower shop went to the reception hall to make sure that our flowers weren't wilting she saw the cake. Thank god this was during the wedding ceremony so most guests didn't see it, but one of my guests (who is a chef) was called and had to leave my ceremony early to go fix the cake!!! She did the best she could with what she had to work with. My mother tried calling Clarissa repeatedly with no answer. The cake was hideous, not what we ordered AND leaning, not to mention the top layer falling off completely. I was shown a picture of the cake on my way to the reception and could not believe my eyes! I cannot believe that a so called "professional" would leave a cake looking like she did! I could not even bring myself to go near my own wedding cake on my wedding day. We didn't do the traditional cake cutting and we didn't save the top layer because I absolutely did not want to remember that horrible DISASTER! Some of my guests tried the cake and said that it was NOT GOOD AT ALL. They said it was dry and crumbly and some of the worst cake they had ever tasted.
I brought all of this to her attention and she seemed very apologetic. She said she would return our money. Our wedding was June 26, 2010. She told me on July 26th that I would receive they check that week. Here we are on August 31st and still no money and she will not return any emails.
I am warning anyone looking for a cake vendor for their wedding or any occasion... DO NOT USE THIS VENDOR! YOU WILL BE VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

soelrich · November 2010

Wow I wish I would have checked on here before booking with her. I just had my wedding on October 8th and the cake also almost fell over and was nothing like the picture we had given her. It also tasted as if it had been frozen and lacked the fillings as per our contract. She was so hard to get a hold of and not at all professional. I have been trying to get a hold of her as well is the Madison (where our reception was) but she has not returned any calls. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Buerau and am considering small claims court. She needs to realize she is ruining a very special tradition for American brides!!

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