There is a bakery near me that advertises wedding cakes that can be ordered up to 24 hours before the reception. I used to think this was just crazy. Then, I wondered how many people actually take advantage of that. What bride decides to wait until the day before her wedding to take care of the cake? I would think that would be a detail that would be hard to forget but that's probably giving people too much credit since we often get people wanting birthday cakes the same day they order because they 'forgot their kid's birthday'... or bridal showers/baby showers. People order those same day too. wait, what? Doesn't planning usually go into those kinds of things? I'd have to assume that'd be a pretty lame shower if it was thrown together hours before it happened

Anyway, just a thought.

What?!? That's nuts. I'd be curious to see what brides expect to get in 24 hours, and even more curious to see what kind of cakes this bakery is putting together in 24 hours. And how much they charge!

If it's the one I'm thinking of, they are a huge operation and can probably do it. If it's the one I'm thinking of, they also advertise the cakes aren't frozen, but it's the very same bakery where my co-workers bought me a birthday cake ("because you've just GOT to taste this bakery's cakes!") and it was so frozen our supv returned it, stood there and made them cut into the replacement so she could see it wasn't frozen. By the time she got it back to the office, there was condensation on top, indicating it HAD been frozen (and my birthday is in January, so can't blame it on the outdoor heat!).

BTW, as they all gathered round my desk to get my opinion, I took one bite, suppressed my shudder and said, "Tastes like any ordinary bakery cake that I can buy anywhere!" Big whoop.

I'd like to know how many of these "24 hour notice" cakes they've actually made. Really, how many brides order their cake that close to the date of their wedding?

I think the surge in amateur cake decorators probably brings them some business.

About 25% of the people I've been in cake decorating class with have been there with the goal of making their own or a relative's wedding cake in the very near future. Some of them had the skill to carry it off. Some of them were going to be in WAY over their heads.

I can certainly imagine someone realizing the day before the wedding that the cake they are making would be an embarassment, and calling the bakery at the last minute.

I wonder if it's a ploy to let brides think they don't have to book their cakes in advance anywhere else, because "so and so" bakery does it in 24 hours. Surely if I order it somewhere else a few weeks or a month in advance that will be plenty of notice.

When they find the other bakeries are booked 2-6 months in advance, they are forced to go to the 24 hour place that started the whole rumor that you can book your cake as close to the date as you want....brilliant, in a way.

OMG!!!
The shortest notice order I have ever taken is 1 week & that was only because the place that was making it burnt to the ground & they had no one & it was all choc so it was do-able.
There is noway I could do one in 24hrs.

Gee, wish I knew about that bakery. I could have referred a bride to them. I met with her back in March - signed contract with specific instructions about deposit. MOG was going to pay. To make a long story short, after numerous emails and phone calls, 4 weeks before wedding - no $$$. Finally sent a notice that I had cancelled the order because I needed to special order several items. Oh, yea - check was in the mail (but of course, I never received it.) Bride sent me a nasty email calling me a bi*** - Hmmm - takes one to know one. She deserves a frozen bakery cake!!

He-He I always wondered that about that place (if indeed I am thinking of the same one ) Everyone around here loooves it as if they use a magical ingredient to make it taste like a dream come true. Similar to Debi, I've tasted it...it tastes like plain ole cake.

I could see something like that going over really well in Vegas, but Indiana? Seems odd!!


I had a girl call me (on behalf of her sister who was the Bride and couldn't speak because she was so upset!) who said their cake decorator cancelled on them, it was 5 days before the wedding!

They called wal-mart for a cake after calling all the bakeries where they live (about 40 min. from me) and even wal-mart said "we need at least 3 weeks notice, because the cakes have to be shipped in"

I felt so bad for the girl that I agreed to do it if she agreed to pay in full by the next evening (she was at my door THAT night with full payment IN CASH)

The only reason I had the weekend open was because I had "booked" it so I could be involved with an outreach at my church, wound up I could still do it...just had to leave right after it to deliver the cake.


OH and.......the baker that cancelled was a family friend (MOB best friend) and has been on Food Network/TLC cake challenges (as I'm told), and was supposed to be making the cake "at cost" and 5 days before when the MOB called to see "how's the cake going?" The baker responded, I don't have time to give away cakes this weekend, I've got TOO MANY paying customers to contend with" and that was IT!! Left them high and dry!!!

Terrible!! They also needed cake to serve 300 so it was no small feat for me 5 days beforehand, but I pulled it off and they were ecstatic with the outcome!

I had a MOB call me around 6 p.m. on a Friday evening...in tears. They had called me a couple of months before pricing cakes but never got back with me. The Bride had moved the wedding date up an entire month and her grandmother "used to make cakes" so they decided that she was going to do the wedding cake. When the MOB called me, her and her elderly mother had been working on this 3 tier cake for 2 days and everytime they tried to stack the 14" x 6" base cake with anything else, the sides fell out of it. I think they went through a whole case of Betty Crocker cakes mixes before they figured out that it wasn't stable enough by itself to hold together, let alone support two more tiers on top of it. Long story short, I was looking forward to a weekend off, only had a very simple smash cake for a 1 y/o the next afternoon. The MOB was on my doorstep at 8 p.m. with cash in hand. And I ended up doing a 20" tall wedding cake by 1:30 the next day. I didn't have the heart to tell the lady no and was glad that I could help her. Would I advertise 24 Hr Wedding Cakes?....Heck no!! Too much pressure to get something that big done that fast.

I wonder if maybe they rent out their display cakes and then cut sheet cakes? That would be doable.

I received a call last Tuesday from a bride wanting to set up a consultation for a wedding cake. She lives about 2.5 hours from here, but this is where she grew up so the wedding is taking place here. As a result, she asked if we could set the appointment up for June 11 because she would be in town that weekend.

Then I asked when the wedding was: June 25
I asked "of this year?" She told me yes, this year.
So, now I am thinking "oh, it must be a small, quick wedding".
Nope. It is for 200 guests at a really nice hall in the area. She didn't say that someone else backed out or sound stressed at all that she wasn't having her FIRST tasting 9 days before the wedding.

I figure with this schedule, it is either me or a grocery store - if they can even fit her in.

I did a very small wedding cake in 7 hours for a very dear friend. Her step-son was marrying his (ahem, pregnant, lol) girlfdriend, and they just decided to "be spontaneous." Yeah. Anyway, I did it for my friend, had a great time, and considered it a challenge haha!

It was a simple square 10/6 with BC. My friend said that the brides color choices were red/white, but that she would just have to be happy with ANYTHING I wanted to do! But, I had been practicing Edna's RI petunias so I had tons of red flowers on hand. So I just iced the cake white, decorated it with those red petunias and it looked great! The bride was thrilled...and I was thrilled with the tip my friend gave me over the price of the cake for making it on CRAZY short notice!!! But I don't know if I'd do it again...

I have worked, as a coordinator, a few very small "courthouse weddings" that ended up happening because the groom ended up being deployed early and they wanted to be married before he left and didn't have time to actually order anything in advance...so the dress was off the $99 rack, the food was either co-op from family friends and if there was no one to make a cake for them then they would do without or get a bunch of cupcakes from the store...so a 24 hour availability would be great in those instances. Recently my friends daughter, engaged for a few months but had not made any plans yet, found out she was pregnant. All of a sudden they decided to move the wedding up and move it to where the grooms parents live (7 hours away from home) and within 3 weeks. They ended up with no wedding cake because they couldn't find someone down there to do it for them. I volunteered but the mom, my friend, didn't want to be holding a wedding cake on her lap for 7 hours...and I can understand that). There is also the case where Aunt Marge said she'd do the cake and it turned out to be a disaster or just too much in reality for Aunt Marge to handle so there you are two days before your wedding with no cake. So, no, not ideal situations but all reasons to use that 24 hour service. Cat

I love reading the stories from all of y'all who helped out people at the last minute. Good for you! Sometimes things happen, and there are perfectly nice people who just need a cake. I'm glad you could help them out.

I am curious if this is the bakery I am thinking of. Is it on the east side of Indianapolis? Ive never had a cake from there but I do like the cookies or did in high school at least. I have only done 1 order for anyone but my aunt asked me if Id make the cupcakes for my cousins bridal shower and I jumped at the chance and said yes it would be my gift. I only made 50 cupcakes and still had that months notice of it. Some people are crazy but I can see the situations where it would be nice ot have someone able to do that.

Since I still work my dayjob until noon, my hubby mans the shops until I get there. I got there TODAY and he said that a couple came in inquiring about a wedding cake for Saturday, yes, this Saturday, less that 48 hours away.

Hubby, being quite the cake man now, asks them how many guests. This actually happens to be a light weekend so if it's small, might be able to throw something together. They didn't know how many guests. What?!?! It's 2 days before the wedding and you don't know how many guests you even invited.

Then, they wanted to know how much notice he needed. At this point in the story, I was almost laughing in disbelief. He said, "we bake on Thursday for a Saturday delivery, so, we need to know pretty much NOW". They needed to go home and figure out what they needed. He was right when he said he didn't think that they would be back.

I read lots of odd stories but I'm glad he handled them because I'm afraid I would have laughed at them. Sorry to hijack. I just wanted to share