Justin absolutely loves Publix cake (for those of you who don't have a Publix, it is a grocery store chain). And, with good reason, because it is delicious! We definitely want to consider it as an option. Thankfully, Publix offers complimentary cake tastings, so we were all over it!
When I called the bakery to place the order, however, the woman who I spoke with was clearly not used to the ordering process…or was in a hurry and didn’t feel like taking five minutes to talk to me. When I said I wanted to try some cake and filling flavors, she quickly asked me, “ok, so which ones?”
“So, could you tell me how exactly you set up the tasting samples please?”
“You just tell me what cake flavors and fillings you want to try.”
"Do I need to tell you combinations or anything?"
"Nope."
Hm, seems simple enough. I named every cake flavor on the list (chocolate, marble, vanilla, and red velvet), and then the fillings that I would like to sample (cannoli crème, vanilla crème, lemon, and chocolate pudding). I also asked her if they could do a sample with the almond flavored cake that I absolutely love. I have asked for it in the past for my birthday cakes (from the same exact store), so I know that they make it. However, the bakery lady assured me that they don't have that flavor. I was a bit peeved, but decided to just leave it be for the moment...as I could always do another tasting. So, the order was done! The woman at the bakery told me to come and pick the samples up the next day.
When I went to pick up the cake samples, I was a little confused when I looked into the box. I figured (foolishly) that they would give me slices of the cake, and the fillings on the side so that we could test them out in different combinations....or something like that. Wrong! There was a long, thin strip of each cake flavor. Each strip contained ALL of the filling flavors with buttercream frosting on top (except for the red velvet cake, which had only cream cheese frosting). Right off the bat, I wasn’t thrilled. I had asked to try lemon filling, and it was featured throughout the samples. Ummm chocolate cake with lemon filling? Ewwww. And, I also noticed that the filling that I was most looking forward to tasting, the cannoli cream...which I specifically requested that I was most interested in, wasn’t included anywhere. Single tear.
See the lemon creme in between the chocolate cake and marble cake? Yikes...
Despite the confusion, we soldiered on and sliced up the samples. Our verdict? I’ll admit, I was kind of disappointed. The red velvet cake was the hands-down favorite (it is fabulous). Other than that though, we could take it or leave it with the rest of the flavors. The chocolate pudding and vanilla crème filling were fine, but pretty bland. In the end Justin and I agreed that we would prefer buttercream frosting in lieu of a filling.
So, what did we take away from this? Publix could be a good option for the cake. We would definitely need to taste some more flavor combinations beforehand though! Budget-wise, Publix would be a very checkbook friendly option as well, so that is another plus! We decided to keep Publix in the running, but to keep an eye out for other options that arise in the meantime.
Did you have a hard time deciding on a bakery for your cake? How many tastings did you have before solidifying your choice?
