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Grocery Store Cakes - Page 3

post #31 of 56
7/8/05 at 6:50am
I don't know if this is true mainly in Canada or also the case in most countries. Here, most of the grocery stores get the icing in already coloured. Now they also get the white and if you run out, you can colour icing. However, the icing colours are horrible, extremely bright or dark shades of everything, no pastels, no pretty colours, just these really loud colours. Now children tend to like bright and primary colours, but adults don't generally want Cookie Monster blue roses or Barbie Rink and Big Bird yellow.
I remember when my daughter asked her manager if she could get different colours or mix her own shades. He said that customers liked those colours. Hhmn, wonder if he ever thought to ask them?
Heehee, guess that is a pet peeve of mine too, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly
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post #32 of 56
7/8/05 at 6:54am
Quote:
Quote:

and to sweetart who was complaining bout mixing with ur arm.... sorry to say this.. must alot of bakeries always make buttercream along with other items in xlarge bowls and scrape the bowl with their hand .. i used to make xlarge batches of white chololate mousse at my one bakery i was at.... it called for 24 qts of cream and 22lbs of white cholote and we folded in the chocolate with our arm... up past our elbows to incorporate air .. and i never shaved my arm.. lol then again i dont have a hair problem like the bakers where u were.. lol



I was not complaining simply stating. People who have never worked in a bakery wouldn't know this. I know that is just how it has to be done. My point was that you have to wash your hands before working with the food, but they did not wash their arms before putting them in. I had to use my hands to remove bettercreme from the wire whisk, but they were washed. And shaving should have been considered after it was know the hair was a frequent problem. It had been done in other stores.

Don't get me wrong, our cakes were for the most part pretty good, but we were pushed for quantity over quality. That's how they get thier cheap prices.
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post #33 of 56
7/8/05 at 7:21am
Disclaimer: I'm not criticizing the decorators themselves, but the stores and their policies...

Hubbie and I were at some "big box" stores over the holiday weekend. The American Flag cakes were just embarrasing, and actually a discrace to the flag and our country. Pink stripes, and nasty blobs for stars, really sloppy. I mean the flag is something really important and patriotic to our country, especially in the time of terrorism. If you have a tattered (real) flag, you can't display it. Why is it ok to represent it so bad on a cake? Who would actually buy one of those?

If they don't have the time to spend to make it decent looking, then they shouldn't do a flag at all. Just do something with stars or fireworks or something red, white, and blue with a "happy 4th" message! Why couldn't they do an edible image of the flag? Plenty of their other licensed character cakes have edible images on them for the same price.

Sorry, just my .02. I really don't want to offend anyone, but it's been bothering me all week.
Na Zdrowie! To Your Health!
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Na Zdrowie! To Your Health!
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post #34 of 56
7/8/05 at 7:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetArt


The cakes were made there, but they were made with a mix, water, oil, and processed eggs from a bucket. The first time I saw our baker pouring the eggs into the mix, I stared in horror. I almost thought is was vomit, I'd never seen such a horrible thing. icon_surprised.gif

The cakes are frozen and thawed and refrozen many times. When I took a transfer to their other bakery it was even worse. They rolled out an entire rack and left it next to the decorator, and their it sat all day. What was not used was put back into the freezer at the end of the day, and the process was repeated the next day. New cakes are put on the same rack as older cakes, so you don't know which ones need to be used first.

The problem with that is when mixing, they had to stop and scrape the shortening off the sides, but there is no spatula big enough for this job, the the baker had to use a hand held scraper and stick his whole arm in there to reach the bottom of the bowl. These bakers do not wash or shave up to their elbows, so we were always pulling hair out of the frosting. We told the baker (also my boss) about the problem, he didn't do anything about it, so we told the store manager, he talked to the baker. Nothing changed and we were told to basically get over it. icon_sad.gif




Oh, my goodness!!! icon_eek.gificon_eek.gif I don't know what to say here... This is such a horror story... YIKES!!!! Did you work at the same store, or is this your experience at different stores....

Oh, my, I haven't had a store bought cake in a loooong time, and I think I never will....

I do see the Winn Dixie (in Orlando) bakers where this guy there makes the cakes in front of you. They look really clean and hygenic.

I can say for anyone else, 'cause I don't see them decorating in front of you...
Its always about cake!!
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Its always about cake!!
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post #35 of 56
7/8/05 at 7:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newbie

I think I just lost my lunch.......



you mean, your apetite for lunch? icon_lol.gificon_lol.gif
Its always about cake!!
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Its always about cake!!
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post #36 of 56
7/8/05 at 7:39am
You have a beautiful flag, but also one that is intricate in design. It is a flag that takes a lot of time to duplicate as a cake decorator. Can you imagine trying to duplicate that lovely flag in 2 minutes or less? That likely explains why these cakes are not well done. I agree, it would be better for the stores to offer a simple cake and perhpas a small real flag that is safe to insert.
I wonder if the general public has just gotten used to seeing these store cakes and doesn't realize that they could be better done. However, would they be willing to pay for the extra time taken to do a better job, that is the question.
Ooh, all this talk about hairy arms, hhmn! Interesting because it appears that these folks are not wearing baker's uniforms. I am a big fan of gloves and hair nets and hats and such in industries where food is handled.
Hugs Squirrelly
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post #37 of 56
7/8/05 at 7:54am
SO gross!! Mmmm... I'd to order a 1/4 sheet hair with a little marble in it to add that cakey flavor. icon_lol.gif

I had a lot of cake orders with flags and fireworks. It was actually pretty simple. Just make a larger quantity of blue and red and keep them in airtight containers (they'll be gone in 2 days anyway) I found it very easy and effortless. I think it was just a matter of poor coloring (for the red) and laziness. I mean, how hard is it to put a star tip on a coupler? I applied a small square of blue with an angle spatula and used balloon tips for the stripes. I used an angled spatula to flatten and smooth them and then added stars with my star tip. It took me about 15 min. from icing to finish (which also incluedes mixing the colors)
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post #38 of 56
7/8/05 at 8:13am
Gee Calejo, you are fast. Hhmn, want to work at an in-store bakery, haha! Just cut 13 minutes off your time and you are all set, haha!
Actually, though, perhaps their icing came in pre-mixed and that was the colour they were stuck with.
One thing, when you have worked at these places, you do speed up considerably, I know my daughter is much faster than her old mother!
Hugs Squirrelly
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post #39 of 56
7/8/05 at 8:17am
you would think that after the first few times of getting hair in the buttercream , maybe they would have someone else scrape the bowl.. icon_surprised.gif
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post #40 of 56
7/8/05 at 8:22am
ooo and some of the premixed colored icing are hideous!!!!!!!!!!.. the pink was hot pink.... the green was lime green ... even though we werent suppose to.. we'd mix colors using a tiny bit of the colored with white buttercream.. otherwise we didnt have a pastel color.. everything was really dark or neon
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post #41 of 56
7/8/05 at 9:01am
Magentaa, that was the word I was searching for, yes, the colours look neon. Now neon is pretty cool if you are under 12 years old, or so, haha, but some of us can go into heart failure when things are that bright, haha!
Hugs Squirrelly
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post #42 of 56
7/8/05 at 9:12am
yeah, our bakery has precolored red (which we rarely, if ever use) too, and it looks like an orangeish (sp?) red (very ugly). but it is definitely red. Perhaps it was a poor assumption on my part, but I thought that if they did use pre-made red, it would be darker than the pink that was described.

Which also makes me wonder if it was a whipped topping cake?
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post #43 of 56
7/8/05 at 9:23am
Haha, I do find that the red isn't quite red, maybe they should be asking us how to get a real red, haha! You know that is a good point, many of the whipped toppings don't colour as deeply.
Hugs Squirrelly
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post #44 of 56
7/8/05 at 9:43am
This topic has really created quite a stir hasn't it..........okay, I'll just give one more thought I have......

How in the world can grocery stores call cakes "decorated" when:
they are sprayed to the max; have candy and/or ribbon tossed all over them ; and have borders 4-5 inches long? I walk by those display cases and just shake my head.........

Why do people buy that crap? If they really knew what went on behind the scenes they would NEVER purchase another "freshly baked, decorated cake" from "our bakery".

I've said enough....... icon_smile.gif

My blood pressure will go up if I don't stop now
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post #45 of 56
7/8/05 at 10:01am
i must confess that when my boys, now 14 and 12 were little, my dad would always ask them what kind of cake they wanted for their birthday...then he would go to walmart and buy a cake with plastic characters on it. they loved it!!!!
now i decorate cakes from home and have a two and four year old and would NEVER buy a walmart cake or any other grocery store cake again!!!! i actually laugh to myself when i walk by the decorated cakes.
i guess it all boils down to how informed the customer is. years ago i thought the walmart cakes were great, now i dont....i think they are horrible.
so i guess we need to educate the public on what a good cake is, so they stop buying the crap, and order from us! icon_biggrin.gif
www.sweetcreationsbymelody.com
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www.sweetcreationsbymelody.com
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