My daughter’s birthday is in two weeks. We’re having the party on a Sunday, and most of the good bakeries within a decent driving distance are closed on Sundays. And then I noticed that Costco does sheet cakes for like $17 that serve 40 people. I just don’t know if they’re complete crap. Has anyone tried one of these? Does it have that waxy, overly-sugary icing that the other grocery store cakes have? Or is the quality reasonably good? I don’t expect it to be like a bakery cake, but for about half the price of a grocery store cake that serves the same amount, I’m hoping it’s passable.
I think it’s the equivalent of a grocery store cake. IIRC, it has the “overly-sugary icing”, but I think I recall it being better then the office ‘giant’ cake, but not as good as the office ‘wegman’s’ cake.
I’ve never bought one, but I have tasted several that were brought in for office parties and gatherings and they’re not bad. They do have that thick, overly-sweet frosting, but the cake itself is moist and tasty. Not gourmet at the least, but more than passable. Personally, I think they’re better than the grocery cakes around here, but YMMV.
We get them a lot here, though we haven’t gotten one in a while. They’re pretty good and a good bargain, imo.
You get a nice handful of choices for the cake, frosting, and between-the layers. Where we go, you can preorder or just pick one up when you’re there, so I assume that’s the same at other locations. Of course the icing is sugary, that’s what icing is.
I don’t like them, but there’s never any leftovers when someone brings one to the office. My coworkers eat it with no complaints.
Costco cakes are much better than average grocery store cakes. The icing on an average grocery store cake tastes and feels like Crisco whipped up with sugar. Costco frosting is very good. The cakes themselves are also much better than typical grocery store cakes. IMO, Costco cakes compare very favorably with many bakeries.
We had 2 Costco sheet cakes for our wedding reception; one was chocolate w/ white frosting and the other was the carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting. The chocolate sheet cake comes w/ 2 pounds of delicious pudding in it, the carrot cake w/ apricot filling instead of pudding. They are easily, hands down the best deal around for very good cake at a fantastic price. Also, the cupcakes that are the same price are the same thing, w/o filling.
It’s beyond passable and you may never buy a cake elsewhere if you can avoid it.
I’m guessing they’re the same at every location; I used to get the big carrot cake every year for my birthday. It was my favorite. Now we go to a local bakery and get a more fancy (and smaller) carrot cake, since my parties are just family/girlfriend, maybe one other friend. I haven’t done a big “invite everyone I know” birthday party since my undergraduate. But if you have the numbers they are a fantastic cake, IMO.
Mom’s bringing one for my son’s birthday party on Saturday! We like 'em. And there’s just no beating the price. As already mentioned, the cake is actually quite good, and the frosting isn’t bad at all. IIRC, you can get either whipped creme (maybe it’s “cream,” but I doubt it) or buttercreme, and I believe the whipped creme is lighter and not so sweet. Don’t quote me on that, it’s been a while since I ordered one. But I bet if you asked them at the bakery, they’d tell you, and maybe even let you sample a bit.
My biggest complaint is, at least last time I tried, you couldn’t call or fax in or order online. I had to go into the store and order it and then come back the next day to pick it up. (Or you can take your chances with the premade cakes, but my kid was very specific about what kind of cake, filling and frosting he wanted, and I didn’t want to disappoint.)
The cakes, as people upthread have said, are actually quite good. The main problem I have with them is that (at least where I live) you can’t change the decorations at all - you can only pick from a limited number of types (flowers, balloons, etc).
To my taste, they’re pretty much comparable to grocery store bakery cakes. Their mousse fillings are less cloying than frostings. The cream cheese frosting isn’t bad. They’ll let you taste all their flavors, so you can get a pretty good idea of how you’ll like it.