Contract baking in LA?

February 22, 2016 3:22 PM

Can I pay someone to make 30 of a specific cake? Is that a thing?

Hola hivemind!,

The ladyfriend and I made a cake the other week that so spectacular that we decided it should be the cake we serve at our wedding. The problem is that we live in a 1 bedroom apartment, the recipe is a little labor intensive and we'd need about 30 of them.

Short of spending 3 days straight baking, I was wondering if there's a service of some sort where I can say, "Here is the recipe, here are the ingredients if it helps, make me 30 of these".

Am I crazy? Does this exist? Or do we need to settle for a downscale dessert?

posted by GilloD to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

I don't see why a normal bakery wouldn't fulfill this request.

Besides that, I suppose you could post an ad on craigslist or equivalent and rent a kitchen, or a small semi-professional caterer.
posted by FallowKing at 3:28 PM on February 22, 2016

Sure. The problem isn't the cake recipe, it's the 30. If you don't want a traditional (or non-traditional) tiered cake, it's more typical to have your baker make sheet cakes to feed the thousands than to do 30 individual cakes. Layered and topped cakes can also be made with this method.

So is there a reason they have to be 30 rounds instead of 3 or 4 sheets?
posted by DarlingBri at 3:31 PM on February 22, 2016

You need someone with access to a commercial kitchen. Many specialty bakeries don't have a storefront, but do have access to a shared kitchen. Any of those can likely execute your request.

However, 30 individual cakes is going to be pricey. Lots of labor for both baking and decoration.
posted by 26.2 at 3:34 PM on February 22, 2016

[after this question, I think you're pretty much obligated to share the recipe.]
posted by mercredi at 3:37 PM on February 22, 2016 [16 favorites]

This is the person/company you want.

Bountiful Bakery. Ask for Denise. She is the only person in LA I would trust with your request (don't worry, she'll make these better than even you could if you made all 30 w/ unicorn tears.) I haven't seen her in ages and I had to hunt around for her info for you... Like, if Google didn't find her, I would not have recommended anyone else for this particular task, even tho I know lots of bakers and professional chefs.

So, there you go. Congratulations on getting married!
posted by jbenben at 3:55 PM on February 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Great advice all around- It could totally be 3 sheets as opposed to 30 rounds or whatever. Good to know this is a somewhat common request!
posted by GilloD at 4:13 PM on February 22, 2016

Cake Divas made our wedding cake from our recipe, and they are now known as Joanie & Leigh’s Cakes. And Semi Sweet Bakery has reproduced (and improved) the cake for our anniversary more recently. So another vote for it being a request that didn't seem very remarkable to the bakers we've asked to do it.
posted by jimw at 5:38 PM on February 22, 2016

There are tons of hobby cake bakers here. You can look them up on facebook (or look up the FB group Party Mamas LA to find ads from bakers) and then ask 3 or 4 or 5 for bids. Normally for funky stuff like this I would farm it out to CL but in this case you need an experienced baker rather than "hey, I saw your ad, sure I can bake a cake!".
posted by vignettist at 10:19 AM on February 23, 2016

Crumb Fairy Bakery in Van Nuys might do it for you! They do lots of weddings and custom orders.
posted by Bella Sebastian at 10:23 AM on February 23, 2016