Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart -- How Are Their Cakes?
Decorating By hktaitai Updated 3 May 2007 , 3:34am by randipanda
I've used Frostin' Pride and Pastry Pride. Both are great in a pinch and taste good. They need to be used cold and melt while you're working with them from the heat of your hands. I didn't know this at first and labored over a beautiful cake and then the decorations melted on the way. I'm anxious to try Rich's Buttercream, as neither of the others are very stable for detailed decorating. They come in milk-carton containers, frozen. You have to defrost them and then whip them before you use them. My friend's sister has her own bakery and uses them all the time, however, and is where I found out about them. We buy them at Smart and Final.
I do like Costco cakes, specially the one with cream cheese filling and frosting.
In two occasions, I order the cake just plain white (no decorations) and I just decorated it my self, everybody loved it.
I don't sell my cakes, they are all for family and friends.
I just called Rich's and they said that they don't sell their products in retail stores, only to bakery's that use their products to decorate their cakes. When you have purchased Rich's Bettercream/Buttercream from Sam's club, did you have to ask for it in their bakery?
We really love the taste of Costco cakes. You can't beat a filled cake for $15! Everyone else is right though, the designs are so simple and there's not much character to the design of the cake itself. People that really care about the details understand what they're paying for and won't complain about paying a little extra for something as beautiful as what you make.
I am also thinking that the cakes can vary from store to store/state to state. Costco might be fabulous in MN but might not be as good in IL. The Costco cakes that I have had are fabulous and decorated very nicely. I am excited because I found a bakery that will sell me Rich's Bettercreme and Buttercream for about $1.00 a pound.
yes you go to the sam's bakery and ask for their rich's bettercreme you can get it in either vanilla or chocolate its about 16 lbs for 22 something. it works really well for piping just dont leave it sitting out it works best when its been in the fridge and you can freeze it and keep it for several months
I used to think that Costco cakes were OK. Definitely a bargain. Since I started making cakes, I never really want to eat a cake from a chain like that again. They are OK for kids because cake is cake to many kids. I think they kind of taste like a twinkie which is not what I like in a cake. And there is little to no customization. Costco cakes are less expensive than a grocery store bakery and both are much less expensive than a bakery. You get what you pay for.
We don't have a Costco here, but we do have a sams and a wal-mart. Their cakes don't taste as good as homemade cakes do. They don't even bake their own cakes, they get them in pre-baked already frozen. I have worked for a local bakery here and new customers would always bring up how cheap grocery store cakes were and we would just explain that our cakes were fresh and much better. People don't realize all the detail work that you put into the cake. They just see a cake and want to get it as cheap as it is at wal-mart! Usually once they taste your cake they realize they are getting a much better quality cake. 
ok i do have a question for all the people that say that because sams and walmart dont bake there cakes they arent as good as freshly made. how is this any different then one of us baking a cake wrapping it and putting it in the freezer. i do this all the time and people love my cake. the frozen cakes are baked from scratch at the head bakery and we get shipments every 3 days so they are still pretty fresh. sorry if this is ranting but i really would like to know
i work in a supermarket bakery. i think it just depends on the store and the people. no we dont spend hours and hours on one cake. we cant on saturdays we can have 20 or more orders and 1 or 2 decoraters so we have to move as quickly as we can, but i would never give anyone a sloppy cake. i know there are some stores u go in and the cakes are ugly there is another store in the next town from me the same chain i work for and they have the ugliest cakes i have ever seen anyway my point is i agree homemade is better, but as far as store bought it just depends on who and where u buy from
I,m not saying that sam's or walmart's cakes are better I agree that homemade cakes taste better, but what's the difference we also freeze our cakes.
At walmart we don't have the time to be making or cakes from scratch, we have about 25 orders saturdays its only two cake decorators we have so many things to do not only decorate one or two cakes like at home.
Perhaps its the quality of ingredients and care for the process? I don't know what they use, but mass produced usually equals inferior quality. That and the facts of simple economics - the less it costs them to make the cakes, the higher their profit margin. However they also have mass produced on their side, they can use higher quality ingredients because they can obtain them cheaper because they're buying in bulk. So, its a toss-up.
As far as care for the process....Like someone said on here: the cakes sit out and dry while others are taking their turn at decoration. What if you're the 25th cake down the line? And they don't take the extra steps to insure moistness: simple syrups or kahlua or ? brushed on top?
So yes, they may freeze them the same as we do, but that doesn't mean their freezing the same cake.
Its all a matter of personal opinion. There will always be people who will never pay more than the $15 for their child's birthday cake and will always go to wal mart, costco, etc, but then there will be those who are willing to pay $100, and they will come to the quality bakery that will spend hours on their cake. Its pretty much the same with everything in life: cars, clothes, food, etc..
I agree with cakes by monica, everyone here (CA) seems to love costco cakes. Maybe the stores in cali are different than in the east? I don't know...my Wal Mart doesn't sell cakes so I don't know about those. And I think Sam's Club is a club membership by WalMart, so their cakes are probably similar to each other.
I used to work at a bakery here in Texas. In our town everyone knows the name of the bakery by its name- its sort of a prestige thing. They have different days that they bake cakes like mondays are german and milk choc, tues are white and lemon and etc. After that they go into the freezer. The decorators then pull them out and ice about 20 of each flavors on different days. They are fresh because they just came out of the frezer, but then they are put into the display case for who knows how long. If a lot of people buy that type of cake then they are apt to be pretty fresh, but with so many people moving the cakes around and if its just a slow selling cake they may not be rotaded like they should have been. The cakes and cookies are put on the "day old" rack after they have been in the cooler. Yes, they are still fresh if like I mentioned before they were rotated correctly. When customers asked if the cakes were fresh we were told to say yes we bake cakes every day! People don't realize that just because its a couple of days old its still fresh. I know bakery cakes on average are pretty good cakes depending on where you go. However, through a cake decorator you can get a more personalized cake. Our wal-mart only makes sheet or cupcakes for birthdays. You can't get a shaped cake or even decorated round cakes.
Your kind of cake would never be found at walmart, Sam's or Costco. They don't do 3-D cakes. most of the cakes are just borders, flowers, and toys on them. However, I do love the German Chocolate cake from Sam's. That's the one my sis buys for my birthday when I don't feel like making my own 
. Most years, I do make myself a cheesecake and those store cheesecakes will not do! I never freeze the cakes I sell; they are made within two days of the pick up day.
I think someone was just trying to step on your moment of glory with that cake. I looked at your pic and it was a lovely cake.
Before I started to get into cake decorating, we would sometimes get a Costco cake, and we always really liked them! I got them for my son's birthday parties when he was younger because most 5 & 6 year olds don't even finish a whole piece, and even those that do wouldn't appreciate how much time and effort goes into making a special one. One year we were having the "friends from school party" on Saturday, and the "family" party on Sunday. I didn't want to have to get a half sheet cake for each party, so I ordered the cake with just the white icing and border on it - no decorations. I was planning on cutting it in half to have one half on Sat., and the other on Sun. When I picked it up, I asked the man in the bakery section if I could purchase some extra icing so that I would be able to ice the cut edge, and he gave me enough extra icing to do amost another whole 1/2 sheetcake - for FREE! So I used that to ice the cut edge, put on my own decorations, and had two great cakes for two parties! Everyone loved the cake, and I wasn't exhausted! (We could be the poster family for Costco, though, because we buy sooo much stuff from them, not just the cakes).
We have Sam's club and Wal-mart here in Nebraska. I don't really care for their cakes because the cake is brought in frozen. I know this because I work at a different grocery store as a decorator and that was what we were doing until we hired a new baker. Also all the stores here sell tired and 3-d cakes. they range anywhere from $40 -$300.
I used to buy birthday cakes from our local superstore for my kids birthday. The last couple of cakes I got I wanted them to add more on the cake, but no one really knew how to do too much (basic icing and flowers) That's what made me want to start doing my own cakes. And there are a lot of people who feel the same. I know my kids don't realize the hard work that goes into the cake but they sure like to tell people that Mommy made this cake for them. 
hktaitai
My husband lived in Hong Kong for a time and was wondering if you were talking in Hong Kong or US dollars? He said that he thought you'd definately be able to find a western cake, a really nice cake for $100 Hong Kong, or about 20 dollars US....Granted, he may not be correct, it has been a few years since he lived there. Like I said, just curious.
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