# Charm City Cakes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067 "2009-03-02T22:44:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/1 "2009-03-02T22:44:05Z")
Re The Food Network thread that was posted awhile back. My wife watches the channel a lot and one of the shows that has caught her fancy was Ace of Cakes. I’m curious, has anyone ever tried a cake from there? Sure they look pretty, but I’d like to know how they taste. Also what does the frosting taste like? Is it just a plain buttercream frosting with some food coloring in it, or does it actually taste like anything? For example does the red sheet frosting they might use on, say, a cake shaped like firetruck, taste like strawberries, cherries, cinnamon or anything else “red”? ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/2 "2009-03-02T23:10:12Z")
I’ve never had a Charm City cake, but the “frosting” they use the most is fondant, which makes a cake look pretty, but has very little flavor. It’s kind of sweet, but barely. I usually pick it off and eat just the cake. You can get fondant with some flavoring, but it doesn’t correspond to the color of the fondant. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/3 "2009-03-02T23:45:01Z")
They taste like expensive. From Charm City’s website: > [@](#): > > How much are your cakes? > > Because all of our cakes are priced individually by the complexity of their design, we do not have a standard price list. > > Due to the care we give to each cake and the one-of-a-kind nature of each order, we require a minimum of $1000 on all of our cakes. Something else to remember is that it might be more accurate to rename them as Charm City Probably-Edible Sculptures. For your money, you’re getting a work of art - it’s my understanding that a lot of the larger, more “out there” designs get served up as a centerpiece and come with sheet cakes that are actually meant to be eaten. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/4 "2009-03-03T00:07:55Z")
Fondant is technically edible, like Play-Doh. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/5 "2009-03-03T00:17:12Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > For your money, you’re getting a work of art - it’s my understanding that a lot of the larger, more “out there” designs get served up as a centerpiece and come with sheet cakes that are actually meant to be eaten. That’s interesting. What do they do with the elaborate cakes that aren’t eaten then? I don’t suppose you can put them on a mantle. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/6 "2009-03-03T00:18:14Z")
I watched a show recently where parents had piled up their twins’ toys, taken a picture, and asked for a cake in the shape of the toys. For their first birthday party. :rolleyes: I’m betting those parents spent at least $5000 to impress their friends and neighbors. The twins would have been happy with a Betty Crocker chcolate sheet cake with sprinkle icing they could smear in their hair. That said, I think the bakery is pretty well known…they had an episode where they made a gingerbread train for Union Station for Starbucks, to help promote the gingerbread latte. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/7 "2009-03-03T00:21:22Z")
I always assumed they used a fairly tasty type of fondant… as I’ve had fondant that was bleach… and fondant that was tasty. They’ve shown people dig in to their “sculpture cake” right on the show. So, I don’t think it’s necessarily true that the cakes aren’t designed to be eaten. Although, I don’t disagree that they probably do have some that are centerpieces only. $1000 though… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![spoike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spoike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spoike)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charm-city-cakes/488067/8 "2009-03-03T01:16:05Z")
They have over 40 different flavours listed on the [website](http://www.charmcitycakes.com/index2.html), and lots of them sound fabulous (e.g. blackberry sour cream, beurre noisette, Italian orange and vanilla, peanut butter cup, white chocolate ganache, etc.), so it seems as if they’re meant to be eaten. That being said, when you watch the show, some of the construction is made of non-edible things, like styrofoam or wood, or officially edible things, like carved rice krispie square and lots of fondant, that don’t actually taste all that great, so you obviously can’t eat every bit of them. Still, the actual cake parts sound pretty tasty (and should be, given the cost).