BAKERIES
Baker's Perfection (Rockaway, NJ)
WEBSITE
REVIEW - philleej: September 2011. Baker's Perfection - A++++++
This was the bakery that my venue uses for their cakes, and I was so impressed and happy with my cake. The people at the bakery helped me create my perfect cake, the design and even included red velvet cupcakes for my husband. The cake was delicious and so beautiful. It was definitely an amazing focal point in the wedding!
REVIEW - philleej: September 2011. Baker's Perfection - A++++++
This was the bakery that my venue uses for their cakes, and I was so impressed and happy with my cake. The people at the bakery helped me create my perfect cake, the design and even included red velvet cupcakes for my husband. The cake was delicious and so beautiful. It was definitely an amazing focal point in the wedding!
Bovella's Pastry Shoppe (Westfield, NJ)
REVIEW - katetw: May 2011 wedding. We went with Bovella's because they have a deal worked out with Bretton Woods, but I would have gotten a cake from there anyway. We had vanilla cake with lemon curd and whipped cream icing, and it was amazing. My hobby is baking and I'm pretty picky, so I was ready to not like it, but it was great. They were also very prompt about returning calls, easy to work with, and very nice.
REVIEW - Reilly626: They did a great job on my wedding cake. It was so delicious. We did a
white cake with whipped cream icing with raspberry puree and mousse. I
can say Bovellas is just a great stop for delicious European
coffee/desserts if you are in the town of Westfield.
REVIEW - akmackay: May 2010 wedding. We got a mixture of
vanilla/red velvet/whipped cream and fudge (yes, all in the same layer
for every layer of the cake). It was the best cake ever!! Love it, and
they did a great job decorating. It was just what I wanted. However, we
opened (and began eating, hence I’ve gained like 10 pounds since
Saturday haha) our anniversary cake. We were disappointed that it was
not our top tier, and even more disappointed to find out it wasn’t our
cake at all in the inside! It was chocolate and vanilla, and not nearly
as good. I was so happy that we didn’t wait for our anniversary to open
it b/c I would have been really upset. We plan on getting a replica of
the top tier for our anniversary though.
Cafe Pierrot (Sparta/Andover, NJ)
http://www.cafepierrot.com/
REVIEW - music11: October 2012. We ordered cupcakes and a small top cake from them. Half of the cupcakes were red velvet, and the other half chocolate. They were delicious, everyone loved them! Cafe Pierrot went above and beyond to accommodate my requests. I showed them a picture I had found online of cupcakes with a leaf cutout on top, and not only did they not have a problem replicating the design, they went out of their way to find the EXACT SAME leaf cut out. I would highly recommend them!! A+
http://www.cafepierrot.com/
REVIEW - music11: October 2012. We ordered cupcakes and a small top cake from them. Half of the cupcakes were red velvet, and the other half chocolate. They were delicious, everyone loved them! Cafe Pierrot went above and beyond to accommodate my requests. I showed them a picture I had found online of cupcakes with a leaf cutout on top, and not only did they not have a problem replicating the design, they went out of their way to find the EXACT SAME leaf cut out. I would highly recommend them!! A+
Cake Fiction (West Orange, NJ)
REVIEW - jcg98: November 2011. Groom’s cake: A+ I contacted Paula on a Knottie recommendation. I wanted to surprise my H with a groom’s cake at the RD, although I let him pick the flavors since I didn’t want him to miss out on the fun of a tasting! And OMG what a tasting, Paula has the most delicious cake and buttercream pairings. I wanted a cake in the shape of a Scrabble board, with letters spelling out all of my H’s favorite things. She was wonderful to work with and easily translated my vision into a yummy reality. Highly recommend, I will certainly be contacting her again for future events!
Review -37butterknives: April 2011 wedding. We used Paula because she offers discounts for events at our venue. And she really was extraordinary. Our cake featured a colorful and intricate design that surpassed our expectations when we saw it on our wedding day. And we were very pleased with the taste. Highly recommended!
REVIEW - Danes983: I found her online. One
of my BM and I went to check out this place and it ended up being a
house hold business. We met with Paula who is the owner and baker. Her house and kitchen were awesome with fake cakes displayed as well as serious mixers, ovens, the works. This was no rinky dink operation. I wanted a poker table cake for 30 people with my husband and I sitting at the table. She
did this for $300 and it looked amazing. I was quoted $800 from other
bakeries. This cake looked like a Cake Boss cake but tasted amazing. If you are looking for your wedding cake or a specialty cake for something call Paula at Cake Fiction. I know I will be calling her again.
Chocolate Carousel (Wall, NJ)
REVIEW: -cutiepie12702: August 2011. A - This was the bakery our venue provides their cakes through. Our cake was GORGEOUS and exactly what I asked for, despite me making changes after the appointment! It tasted very good too. I did upgrade my filling and I had Swarovski crystals around each layer and it was so worth it! Our guests kept commenting on how beautiful the cake looked all night.
REVIEW - SpillerExtraordinaire: Used for June 2010 wedding. Price included with reception venue. We
worked through the Mill at Spring Lake Heights to get a cake with
Chocolate Carousel. We were not looking for a beach cake (which they
specialize in) and they were very flexible to come up with a design
that fit our idea for the day. The end product looked gorgeous and
tasted delicious. They were also flexible because we could provide the
extra pieces needed (ribbon and flowers) instead of making us purchase
it through them. This allowed us to find it at a lower cost.
Cinderellie's Sweets (Flemington, NJ)
REVIEW - flochan07: May 2011 wedding. This vendor was recommended by other Knotties. Ellie was an absolute doll to work with. Her buttercreams were absolutely amazing, delicious and not overly sweet. She was easy to contact and responded fairly quickly. We paid $450 (including delivery fee) for a 3 tiered cake that would feed 100 people. Ellie also was willing to place flowers that my florist provided onto the cake on the day of as well as place my custom made cake toppers. She presented the top layer of the cake in a separate box so the venue wouldn't have to worry about saving the cake during cutting time. I would not hesitate to work with Ellie again.
D'Anna's Pastry Shop (Garfield, NJ)
REVIEW- MCRM22011: August 2011. I provided pictures of the cake I wanted to the baker at D’Anna’s and they copied it perfectly. The cake was delicious and we received many compliments. The fillings and cake flavors were exactly what we choose. They are a long-standing establishment in Garfield and I understand why. Their cakes are classic (buttercream, no fondant) which I was perfectly happy with.
Diane's La Patisserie (Cherry Hill, NJ & West Berlin, NJ)
REVIEW - dinnaming: July 2011 wedding. I’m giving Diane Nussbaum a B+ because, even though she is quick to respond to e-mails, there was some confusion about the price of the cake in the contract. In the end, we paid what we thought it was supposed to be but the lack of clarity was a bit of a turn off. Plus, although the cake tasting was delicious, I thought the actual cake was way too sweet and had much more icing than expected. I also think it wasn’t the colors we had discussed but that wasn’t much of a problem for me as how it tasted. On the other hand, maybe all our other vendors were so awesome that I’m just giving her a hard time.
Gigi's Cupcakes (Scotch Plains, NJ)
WEBSITEREVIEW - jcg98: November 2011. Cupcakes (Shower): A+ They have a really nice variety of flavors, and the cupcakes were delicious, especially the red velvet.
Highly recommend.
Le Gateau Suisse (Orangeburg, NY)
REVIEW - kristen8040: May 2011 wedding. This bakery doesn't get mentioned all too often on here because he is located in NY right by the Palisades Mall. Rolf is the recommended bakery of Ramsey and it is clear why Micahel continues to use him. Rolf has a tasting where you sit down and go through pictures and ideas of what you want your cake to look like. From there a few months later, I picked up our sample cake, which is a 7x7 cake which Rolf decorates in a bunch of different ways. He does half fondant, half butter cream, and then all different designs so you can pick the one you like best. Also included with Rolf's cake is an anniversary cake, so this way you can eat the top of your cake at the wedding and it helps with cost. I also ordered a grooms cake which was a simple 12" round cake, which Rolf still decorated amazingly, and I fell over when he told me the cost ($40!!) you can't beat that! Rolf then amazed one more time with a birthday cake that my mom ordered for me. Rolf was incredibly reasonably and an awesome guy to work with! Oh and the cake tasted AMAZING! He's known for his chocolate and white chocolate moose filling. DH's cake was chocolate cake with cannoli filling.
Le Petit Gateau/A Little Cake (Park Ridge, NJ)
REVIEW - N/A: June 2011 wedding. The cake was delicious and beautiful - best cake Ive ever had at a wedding and heard that a lot. Only complaint was that I told them specifically that I did not want flowers on the top of the cake and even showed them my cake topper and picked a cake with no flowers on top but somehow wound up with flowers at the top of my cake. The Venetian relocated the flowers and still used my cake topper though.
REVIEW - rr2011: May 2011 wedding. One of the Seasons options for wedding cake vendors. I loved our cake, exactly what we asked for as delicious.
Monteleon's (Jersey City, NJ)
REVIEW: September 2011. ON POINT! We had red velvet cake and NO ONE makes it the way they do. They were able to get my vision with the cake and pulled through 100%. Price, taste and appearance were excellent.
Palermo's Bakery (Ridgefield Park, NJ)
REVIEW - cindyn9178: September 2011.(A+) We had gone for a tasting and loved the devil's food cake with chocolate fudge filling. The cake was exactly as pictured, and even prettier than I had hoped. The cake tasted AMAZING - everybody commented on how delicious it was. I would HIGHLY recommend them.
REVIEW - gymchick05: June 2011 wedding. Our cake was included from our venue and we went to Palermos for a tasting and to pick our design. The cakes taste delicious and even though I only had a bite of our actual wedding cake everyone was saying how great it was. My now husband picked the design and I wasn’t crazy about it, but Palermo’s explained to me how we could dress it up with ribbon banding, rhinestone broaches, etc and on the day of the wedding it was the most beautiful cake I had ever seen! I also loved that they didn’t try to upsell us. Some of the stuff I wanted on a cake they told me would cost an extra $500-$1000, but they explained to me how we could use ribbon, etc to get the same look and they were right. Amazing cake!
REVIEW - N/A: June 2011 wedding. Seriously the best wedding cake I’ve ever eaten. Being that our cake was included in our package I expected to go there and have to spend money to upgrade to the kind of cake we wanted – nope! The girl talked me out of sugar flowers as the cost to make those was very high and said I should just get fresh flowers from the florist which are cheaper and will look nicer. I gave them a picture of the square tiered offset cake I wanted and they made it exactly the way it looked in the photo. It wasn’t anything crazy, but because it was so simple I actually think it would be easier to screw up. Any imperfections would have been glaring as there was no decoration to cover it up, just clean lines and the cake looked awesome – and it was delicious!
REVIEW - Babycakes SE: May 2011 wedding. Cake was good, but not amazing. I have had better. It was included with our venue, but I had a really cute (simple) design I wanted and when I showed them the picture they told me it would be $400!!!! Good god, its just icing!!! And they had the shape cutters to do it (they brought it out for me to see) so they would literally just have to stick it on. Once we heard the price, we settled for a design they already make, but I was kinda disappointed.
REVIEW - smw42: October 2010 wedding. Our cake looked exactly how we had designed during our tasting and we
were pleased. The tasting provided was very thorough and they
accomodated our every design request without any extra charges. We had a
four layer wedding cake (including in our reception venue package) and
had two layers of vanilla with nutella and two layers of red velvet with
oreo. The vanilla with nutella was very enjoyable and moist, however
the red velvet was incredibly dry and a bit disapointing. I'm not sure
if this was because of our flavor selection or a quality issue. In the
end the cake was gorgeous and we were happy.
Pink Cake Box (Denville, NJ)
REVIEW - Laurms15: April 2010 wedding. I got DH a cake in the shape of a glass of Guiness. He was SHOCKED and
he loved it.The cake tasted FANTASTIC! I couldn't have been happier with
how it came out and the whole surprise went so great. All of our guests
thought it was so neat!
The Stuffed Cupcakes Place/The Petite Cafe (Nutley, NJ)
REVIEW - kristen8040: May 2011 wedding. I won a $50 gift card for stuffed cupcake at a bridal show in March. At first it was a bit hard to get in contact with the owner, but once I did they were very easy to work with. I didn't place my order until a month or so before the wedding. We did mini-cupcakes in 8 different flavors for our rehearsal dinner and had them delivered, which they charge a $1 a mile. It only ended up being $10 delivery for us which was incredibly helpful with everything else going on. The cupcakes were AMAZING! Everyone was enjoying them and since it I got the minis it was nice that everyone could try different flavors.
REVIEW - gia0404: February 2011 wedding. Anyone who has had their red velvet cupcakes knows they are the best in NJ. I contacted the cafe & asked about wedding cakes. I hate the taste of any fondant I've ever had so I knew I wouldn't want it covering their delicious cream cheese frosting. Marisa sent me a few designs after listening to ideas I had. She duplicated a cake I found online. The frosting was so smooth I had 2 guests come up to me & ask if it was fake! She did a fantastic job & I ate my wedding cake for a week! Every day it tasted just as it did that night! Everyone who was at my wedding has now become a customer of theirs. And she did my wedding cake for an amazingly low price!
Suzi Cakes (Boonton, NJ)
Sweet Avenue Bake Shop (Rutherford, NJ)
WEBSITEREVIEW - rlavach: April 2012.- A I absolutely love Sweet Avenue. They have the best cupcakes around. They are all vegan and also offer soy free and gluten free options. Since I’m vegan, I knew this is where I’d go. We ordered a 5 tier cupcake tower with 90 cupcakes, a 6” round cake on the top and 40 cake balls on the side. It was a huge hit! Our guests couldn’t believe they were vegan. They’re so tasty that you’d never know. The shop was very kind and let me change my order several times. They were set up beautifully. The only reason they didn’t get an A+ is because they don’t offer free tastings. We had to purchase almost a dozen cupcakes to decide which flavors we wanted. Not a huge thing, but something that is expected in the wedding industry. We saved our top tier & can’t wait to eat it later!
Sweet Samantha (Springfield, NJ)
WEBSITE
REVIEW: September 2011. Grooms Cake – A++++++++++++++++++(x 100000)
Samantha was one of the best vendors, and I never even met her! I contacted her almost a year prior to make a surprise grooms cake for my husband for our rehearsal dinner. She went through sketches with me until it was exactly as I envisioned ( a brain with a bride and groom zombie). The day of I texted her to make sure everything was ok, and realized I had given her the wrong date, the wedding, not the rehearsal. She realized what had happened and had the cake ready anyway. She delivered it on time and texted me to let me know it was there. The cake blew my mind. It was the most incredible cake I have ever seen, better than my wildest dreams. It was BEYOND delicious and everyone at our rehearsal dinner could not get over it!
REVIEW: September 2011. Grooms Cake – A++++++++++++++++++(x 100000)
Samantha was one of the best vendors, and I never even met her! I contacted her almost a year prior to make a surprise grooms cake for my husband for our rehearsal dinner. She went through sketches with me until it was exactly as I envisioned ( a brain with a bride and groom zombie). The day of I texted her to make sure everything was ok, and realized I had given her the wrong date, the wedding, not the rehearsal. She realized what had happened and had the cake ready anyway. She delivered it on time and texted me to let me know it was there. The cake blew my mind. It was the most incredible cake I have ever seen, better than my wildest dreams. It was BEYOND delicious and everyone at our rehearsal dinner could not get over it!