With The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers now soft-opened, we grabbed a few cake slices to try from the bakery. Our total was $93 for just four slices… was it worth it? Keep reading to find out.
The Cake Bake Shop Restaurant
Exterior
The Cake Bake Shop soft opened on Thursday, October 24, 2024, starting with the bakery side in the morning. The restaurant side will be soft open for dinner later in the afternoon.
Interior
The bakery is on the smaller side as far as space. Pink and gold stanchions are set up to organize guests into a queue to peruse the caseline offerings before making their purchases. Merchandise is also set up at the front of the bakery.
Dessert Menu
The Cake Bake Shop lowered its pricing earlier this week following viral outcry online. Compare the new, updated cost of the menu to the previous pricing.
Dessert Review
Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Pie – $16.99
Crushed chocolate wafer cookies mixed with Callebaut Belgian chocolate. Filled with a mixture of heavy cream, peanut butter, and cream cheese. Topped with melted Callebaut Belgian chocolate ganache, edible gold glitter, and roasted chopped peanuts. Contains peanuts, dairy, wheat, soy.
The packaging for the cake slices (as well as the free tote bag) is quite nice, though the napkins and cutlery could be of better quality.
The pie is very soft. Peanut butter pie is something you can get in a lot of different places, but this is definitely an elevated version of the dessert. It’s definitely a heavy and large slice, and we think it might almost be too much for one person; it would be perfect to split between two to three people.
The filling is quite creamy; we get the peanut butter cheesecake comparison, but it doesn’t quite have that cheesecake consistency. The chocolate on top complements all the flavors very nicely — but would we have known it was Callebaut Belgian chocolate without reading the item description? Probably not.
The crust is a chocolate wafer, and is good but extremely sugary. Overall, we’re disappointed about the price, but think the pie is fantastic.
Rating out of 7: 7
Gwendolyn’s Famous Earl’s Court Chocolate Cake – $24.99
Three layers of Valrhona French chocolate cake filled with Callebaut Belgian chocolate ganache and malted chocolate cream. Topped with Callebaut Belgian chocolate fudge and Fleur de Sel from Ile de Re in the South of France. Contains dairy, wheat, egg, soy.
Our slice didn’t travel very well, and was a bit melted by the time we actually got to eat it. It’s certainly not bad, but we’ve had better cakes made from the Betty Crocker box with Betty Crocker icing. The cake just isn’t moist or soft enough.
The icing is the best part of this cake. The sea salt and chocolate flavors combined are perfection, all of the flavor that the cake has to offer is here. That being said, the cake itself is not as good as its icing. To us, the cake almost tastes like a Hostess cupcake, rather than something more elevated.
Rating out of 7: 3
Gluten-Free Oprah’s ‘O’ List Mint Chocolate Chip Cake – $22.99
Three layers of gluten-free Valrhona French chocolate cake filled with Callebaut miniature chocolate chips, mint buttercream, and Callebaut Belgian chocolate ganache. Topped with mint buttercream and decorative peony flowers.
This slice tasted much more fresh and moist than the Famous Earl’s Chocolate Cake. We really enjoyed the icing and can see why fans of mint would love this. We’re not personally huge fans of mint desserts, but it’s not an overpowering flavor at all.
There’s just enough kick from the mint on the back end, with the rich chocolate flavor up front. Also, the flower is not edible, please don’t eat it.
Praise aside, it’s still not worth the cost and doesn’t achieve the level of special it would need to meet that value.
Rating out of 7: 6
Millionaire Cake – $22.99
Three layers of Valrhona French chocolate cake filled with Callebaut Belgian chocolate ganache, homemade salted caramel sauce, vanilla buttercream, and homemade butter shortbread cookies. Topped with Callebaut Belgian chocolate fudge, more shortbread, and salted caramel sauce. Contains dairy, wheat, egg, soy.
Out of all of our slices, this one held up the best against the Florida heat! It was also the best slice of cake out of everything we tried. It’s incredibly moist and has a really nice chocolatey flavor. The shortbread cookie is magnificent. This is definitely a three-person cake, thanks to how rich it is.
We say if you’re going to try a slice from The Cake Bake Shop, this is the one to get. Of course, the pricing is a factor, and we’re not going to race out to get a slice all the time. But would we get a slice for a special occasion or a birthday? Absolutely. This is exceptional.
Rating out of 7: 7
Overall
There is nothing out of the cake slices we tried where it felt worth what we paid, even the Millionaire Cake (though that came close). Obviously, you as a customer have to decide if the treat is worth the cost — especially when there appears to be an inconsistency with the aging and texture of the cakes depending on how long they are left to sit out.
With theme parks, you can charge anything if the quality is exceptional and beyond anything you could get elsewhere. Three of the four dessert slices we tried were not exceptional beyond anything else we’ve ever had. One out of four is not winning odds when your cake prices are more than $20 per slice. The Cake Bake Shop has to consistently deliver something of an exceptional quality for it to be worth it.
Review Video
Watch our video review to see Tom and our studio manager, KT, review the slices we picked up from The Cake Bake Shop:
Have you tried anything from The Cake Bake Shop during its soft opening? Do you think any of the menu items are worth the price? Share your thoughts with us in the comments and on social media.
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