cake tasting...cross posted.
UPDATE:
Bella Baker ruined my wedding cake!
I was supposed to have a castle cake with a 3d silver road outlined in royal blue circling the whole cake up to the top where it would end at the doors of my castle topper. Instead, they delivered a lop sided cake that had crooked blue lines on it. They delivered it very late. They were supposed to deliver it at the reception hall at 3:30, which was before the ceremony started (the ceremony being at a different location). Instead, they delivered it after guests had already arrived to the reception hall, which had to have been after 4:30. Then I guess the cake started to lean and fall. A layer had to be removed because the dowels weren't put in properly. I had a family friend cut the cake, and she has made many tiered wedding cakes in her life, and she said it was very awkward to cut it because the dowels were so crooked.
When I saw my wedding cake, I almost cried. We didn't have a ton of money for the wedding, and we did a lot of the wedding things ourselves, or had friends do them. The cake was one of our "professional" things, and it was supposed to be a focal point of the reception hall. It was a really big to deal to my husband and me. I absolutely hated my cake. It looked nothing like it was supposed to. It did taste delicious and many, many people told us it was the best wedding cake they ever had, but my castle cake was nothing like it was supposed to be.
My mom talked to the baker, and she gave us a full refund; however, she did not take responsibility for any of it being wrong. She said her employees that delivered it said it was almost 90 degrees in the hall, and so it was too warm for the frosting to hold, which was a bunch of a crap. The hall's air conditioner is set at a low 70something 24 hours a day, and it was very cool in the hall. At the time my mom talked to the baker, the baker said she didn't know if the design was wrong or not until she saw pictures. She also said she warned us our cake topper was too heavy and tried to convince us to use a different one, which was a huge lie. She never said such a thing, but she did tell us how much she loved our cake topper and how excited she was to use it. The cake was supposed to be cut a certain way to create a 3D road around the cake so that you could actually set something on the road, and it wasn't cut any special way at all. It was just plain round cakes.
Luckily I am not the kind of bride to go crazy over something so wrong with my wedding, but the cake really upset me, and I didn't want to cut it in front of everyone because I didn't want people looking at it. I hated it that much.
So in sum, I hate the Bella Baker!!! I cannot say enough awful things about them now.
We found our baker on Sunday, The Bella Baker in Stockton, CA. It's a good 100 mile drive roundtrip, which is a lot considering how many bakers there are in a major city like Sacramento, but they came highly recommended.
We had a formal cake tasting with fine linens, china and candlelight service....sooooo much nicer than our previous cake tasting at Cake Castle Bakery where they had some little cakes in a styrofoam to-go box, had us take a few bites and then asked, "so whatdoya think?"
The head baker/owner sat with us for over an hour answering all our questions, which were a lot, especially from my mom who doesn't see the point in ordering a cake from such a fancy place when we could get one from Safeway. We know when they bake the cakes, what ingredients are used in the recipes we're considering, how they monitor the temperature in their delivery vehicles, where the baker studied (all over Italy, France, Belgium, etc.), why the prices are set where they're at based on the baker's overhead costs and time to prepare, etc, etc.
Their prices start at $3.00 a serving for basic flavors/fillings/frostings, but they do easily jump up depending on what you want. They will really work with you to get a cake within your budget, and they show you exactly how the price is broken down, so it's easy to decide what you can do without to bring the price down.
Since we are on a small budget for the wedding, especially for a guest list just over 200, we've been going to discount places for everything, and I've been very underwhelmed after meeting with different vendors. It's been nothing like what I see on TV! Meeting with Bella Baker was the kind of vendor meeting I'd been hoping for. I only wish I had remembered to take pictures during the meeting of the cakes and everything.
It was also special because it's the first time we've gotten fiance's family involved in the planning. Fiance's grandmother had a ball being involved in something so fancy and new to her. As she said, "I'm the grandmother of the groom; I just get to sit back and enjoy all of this!" She's the kind of grandmother you'd expect Beaver Cleaver to have- so sweet and cute. And I know fiance's father enjoyed all the free cake, and he told us he was very impressed how professional the baker was, and how she makes sure to coordinate times with the photographer, florist, and other vendors.
We tried five or six kinds of cake out of their 300+ recipes. We are going to go with carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and lemon cake with cream cheese frosting, with buttercream for the outside frosting.
We are having a castle cake to go along with our fairy tale theme. Yay, they just emailed me the sketch. It's going to be four tiers making up the mountain, with a road circling up the cake to the castle on top. If we want to pay an extra $75, the road is going to be a cobblestone road. Either way, the road will be silver outlined in royal blue to match our colors and really pop.
The inspiration for the road up to the castle came from this picture, but the road will go all the way up. The rest of the cake will be pretty different with about a four inch difference to the next tier for a more dramatic look, and the castle is going to be much bigger and more colorful.
This cake topper will sit on the table at the bottom of the road.
(This is their new location, still under construction, not open for business yet, just cake tastings.)
For fun, here is my bridal shower dress for my first bridal shower on April 28th:
My first bridal shower is my pamper the bride with bath stuff and lingerie shower with my girlfriends. It's going to be a princess tea party. I'm excited!
ps, bridesmaids, remember to check the website. i posted a message to you guys. basically, let me know when you need all the addresses. i figure you want to get the invites out asap, right? let me know who to send the addys to.
Bella Baker ruined my wedding cake!
I was supposed to have a castle cake with a 3d silver road outlined in royal blue circling the whole cake up to the top where it would end at the doors of my castle topper. Instead, they delivered a lop sided cake that had crooked blue lines on it. They delivered it very late. They were supposed to deliver it at the reception hall at 3:30, which was before the ceremony started (the ceremony being at a different location). Instead, they delivered it after guests had already arrived to the reception hall, which had to have been after 4:30. Then I guess the cake started to lean and fall. A layer had to be removed because the dowels weren't put in properly. I had a family friend cut the cake, and she has made many tiered wedding cakes in her life, and she said it was very awkward to cut it because the dowels were so crooked.
When I saw my wedding cake, I almost cried. We didn't have a ton of money for the wedding, and we did a lot of the wedding things ourselves, or had friends do them. The cake was one of our "professional" things, and it was supposed to be a focal point of the reception hall. It was a really big to deal to my husband and me. I absolutely hated my cake. It looked nothing like it was supposed to. It did taste delicious and many, many people told us it was the best wedding cake they ever had, but my castle cake was nothing like it was supposed to be.
My mom talked to the baker, and she gave us a full refund; however, she did not take responsibility for any of it being wrong. She said her employees that delivered it said it was almost 90 degrees in the hall, and so it was too warm for the frosting to hold, which was a bunch of a crap. The hall's air conditioner is set at a low 70something 24 hours a day, and it was very cool in the hall. At the time my mom talked to the baker, the baker said she didn't know if the design was wrong or not until she saw pictures. She also said she warned us our cake topper was too heavy and tried to convince us to use a different one, which was a huge lie. She never said such a thing, but she did tell us how much she loved our cake topper and how excited she was to use it. The cake was supposed to be cut a certain way to create a 3D road around the cake so that you could actually set something on the road, and it wasn't cut any special way at all. It was just plain round cakes.
Luckily I am not the kind of bride to go crazy over something so wrong with my wedding, but the cake really upset me, and I didn't want to cut it in front of everyone because I didn't want people looking at it. I hated it that much.
So in sum, I hate the Bella Baker!!! I cannot say enough awful things about them now.
We found our baker on Sunday, The Bella Baker in Stockton, CA. It's a good 100 mile drive roundtrip, which is a lot considering how many bakers there are in a major city like Sacramento, but they came highly recommended.
We had a formal cake tasting with fine linens, china and candlelight service....sooooo much nicer than our previous cake tasting at Cake Castle Bakery where they had some little cakes in a styrofoam to-go box, had us take a few bites and then asked, "so whatdoya think?"
The head baker/owner sat with us for over an hour answering all our questions, which were a lot, especially from my mom who doesn't see the point in ordering a cake from such a fancy place when we could get one from Safeway. We know when they bake the cakes, what ingredients are used in the recipes we're considering, how they monitor the temperature in their delivery vehicles, where the baker studied (all over Italy, France, Belgium, etc.), why the prices are set where they're at based on the baker's overhead costs and time to prepare, etc, etc.
Their prices start at $3.00 a serving for basic flavors/fillings/frostings, but they do easily jump up depending on what you want. They will really work with you to get a cake within your budget, and they show you exactly how the price is broken down, so it's easy to decide what you can do without to bring the price down.
Since we are on a small budget for the wedding, especially for a guest list just over 200, we've been going to discount places for everything, and I've been very underwhelmed after meeting with different vendors. It's been nothing like what I see on TV! Meeting with Bella Baker was the kind of vendor meeting I'd been hoping for. I only wish I had remembered to take pictures during the meeting of the cakes and everything.
It was also special because it's the first time we've gotten fiance's family involved in the planning. Fiance's grandmother had a ball being involved in something so fancy and new to her. As she said, "I'm the grandmother of the groom; I just get to sit back and enjoy all of this!" She's the kind of grandmother you'd expect Beaver Cleaver to have- so sweet and cute. And I know fiance's father enjoyed all the free cake, and he told us he was very impressed how professional the baker was, and how she makes sure to coordinate times with the photographer, florist, and other vendors.
We tried five or six kinds of cake out of their 300+ recipes. We are going to go with carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and lemon cake with cream cheese frosting, with buttercream for the outside frosting.
We are having a castle cake to go along with our fairy tale theme. Yay, they just emailed me the sketch. It's going to be four tiers making up the mountain, with a road circling up the cake to the castle on top. If we want to pay an extra $75, the road is going to be a cobblestone road. Either way, the road will be silver outlined in royal blue to match our colors and really pop.
The inspiration for the road up to the castle came from this picture, but the road will go all the way up. The rest of the cake will be pretty different with about a four inch difference to the next tier for a more dramatic look, and the castle is going to be much bigger and more colorful.
This cake topper will sit on the table at the bottom of the road.
(This is their new location, still under construction, not open for business yet, just cake tastings.)
For fun, here is my bridal shower dress for my first bridal shower on April 28th:
My first bridal shower is my pamper the bride with bath stuff and lingerie shower with my girlfriends. It's going to be a princess tea party. I'm excited!
ps, bridesmaids, remember to check the website. i posted a message to you guys. basically, let me know when you need all the addresses. i figure you want to get the invites out asap, right? let me know who to send the addys to.