Clarissa was great to work with very personable and professional. She offered to help in anyway she could with our wedding. She was very reponsive with returning my emails about the cake and very understanding with the changes I did make. She made it very easy to meet with her for the cake tasting and to give her our flower and ribbon for the cake. The cake turned out just perfect I loved it. Was a Four Teir Cake with the bottom Teir Foam. Two Teirs had scroll work and the other two where plain white. Each teir was a different Flavor of Cake with the bottom Chocolate Chip, Middle Orange Raspberry, and the Top is a Surprise for our One year Anniversary. The Two layers were very moist and flavorful. The only thing my Husband didn't like was the Raspberry filling had seeds. The one thing I noticed that was no done was the white fondant teirs were to have a Shimmer Dust on them, but it wasn't a big deal I orginally wanted it plain white and she had suggested putting on the shimmer stuff. I hope to be able to order more Cakes from her in the Future.

Bottom line - you get what you pay for. I choose Cakes by Clarissa because she came recommended by The Madison but REALLY wish I would have done more research because if you look around at the various websites there are few good things said about Clarissa. She did an AWFUL job! The Madison no longer recommendes Cakes by Clarissa because of how bad our cake looked. The cake was falling over and it was delivered that way. It did not look the way it was supppose to, there were no fillings, it looked sloppy, it was just all wrong! And to make things worse we have been trying to speak with Clarissa regarding our cake but she will not return our calls and we have even contacted the Better Business Bureau but she would not respond to them either. If you still decide to work with her, get ready to be embarrassed!

I had a VERY similar experience as "katers690". Do not use this vendor. She seems nice and polite and professional in the beginning. When we did a tasting with her she was very nice. She brought small pieces of cake for us to try and they were delicious! We were so excited for our cake. We ordered a 3 tier cake with ribbon (which I was providing) for the middle tier. We also were providing gerbera daisy flowers for a topper. First of all, the cake that she brought to the reception was 4 tiers with ribbon on all 4 teirs. She had told me for weeks she was going to come pick up the ribbon for the middle teir and never showed up, so she took it upon herself to go get her own ribbon. The cake had no flowers on top--which is good in a way because the top layer FELL OFF!!! When the lady from the flower shop went to the reception hall to make sure that our flowers weren't wilting she saw the cake. Thank god this was during the wedding ceremony so most guests didn't see it, but one of my guests (who is a chef) was called and had to leave my ceremony early to go fix the cake!!! She did the best she could with what she had to work with. My mother tried calling Clarissa repeatedly with no answer. The cake was hideous, not what we ordered AND leaning, not to mention the top layer falling off completely. I was shown a picture of the cake on my way to the reception and could not believe my eyes! I cannot believe that a so called "professional" would leave a cake looking like she did! I could not even bring myself to go near my own wedding cake on my wedding day. We didn't do the traditional cake cutting and we didn't save the top layer because I absolutely did not want to remember that horrible DISASTER! Some of my guests tried the cake and said that it was NOT GOOD AT ALL. They said it was dry and crumbly and some of the worst cake they had ever tasted.
I brought all of this to her attention and she seemed very apologetic. She said she would return our money. Our wedding was June 26, 2010. She told me on July 26th that I would receive they check that week. Here we are on August 31st and still no money and she will not return any emails.
I am warning anyone looking for a cake vendor for their wedding or any occasion... DO NOT USE THIS VENDOR! YOU WILL BE VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

We loved Clarissa and her cakes and were very excited to have her as part of our special day. But it was a DISASTER. She hired someone else to do our cake (so even though we signed a contract with her she hire someone whom we had never met, and never seen their work, to make and decorate our cake). The cake looked terrible (so bad that even the photographer said something to us). It wasnt decorated at all, the fondant had holes in it and was falling off the cake, our expensive topper was falling into the cake, and the entire thing leaned to one side noticeably. We were devastated, as we had really been looking forward to our beautiful cake.

When we made her aware of our disappointment she apologized, said she would return half of our money and make us free birthday cakes. She seemed genuinely sorry and trying to do the right thing. This was in May and we have never heard from her since in spite of trying to contact her many times. We never received our money back and she has ignored all email about the check and birthday cakes. Be warned, she may hire anyone she pleases to make your special cake, so you never know what you are going to get.

Clarissa was professional and reliable. She was very easy to work with and even seemed excited about what I was requesting - a three-tiered round cake and a groom's cake. The wedding cake was to be white, with silver pearl accents on each tier and was to have lilies cascading down from top to bottom. The cake turned out to be just white - there were no silver accents (which was disappointing because it was one of my wedding colors). The pink lilies saved the cake because they were big and beautiful and made the cake look great. All in all, my mom and I were the only ones that knew the silver was missing - to everyone else it looked really good. I got mixed reviews from guests - some said it was good and some said it was very dry. The groom's cake was a different story - it was a very unique request and I was glad that she was willing to take on the challenge, however the end product didn't look very good. In fact, it looked like it had been put together by a kid. I wish that she would have called to let us know that it was not turning out like the picture that I had given her so that we could have made other arrangements.

We used Cakes by Clarissa for our wedding in February 2010 and were delighted! She made us a beautiful and delicious 4 tiered wedding cake with alternating colors on each layer and with different fillings for each layer. It was amazing! The same cake I was quoted $1200 for from other bakeries cost only $400 from Clarissa. She also made a groom's cake that was a beer stein that was amazing! People actually thought it was a real beer mug!! She was punctual, had great ideas and very incredibly sweet! Would definitely recommend her for anyone!!!

My poor cake. I wanted a simple cake, white cake, slightly off-white icing, brown satin ribbon around each layer, three calla lilies on top. Clarissa is an extremely nice person and I loved working with her. She was incredibly accomadating with me and she did her best to make me happy. When we got to the reception, they asked us to go ahead and cut the cake after our introductions because the cake was tilting. And it was tilting. It was six round stacked leaning tower of cake. The other thing was that there were a ton more flowers on it than I had requested. It looked great - don't get me wrong - just not how I had imagined it. In retrospect, if I would have known what it was going to look like, I would have dumped the original calla lilies and just gone with the mokkra orchids. Oh well... My Mom found out later on from Clarissa that she had set up the cake and left to get the extra ribbon she needed. When she came back, she had found that the staff at the Gardens had moved the cake table to access the stairs it was in front of and as a result there was a big crack and it had started tilting. That's when she used the extra flowers to cover up the crack. She said that was the second time that had happened at the Gardens.
All in all, my cake was really gorgeous, even leaning a little, and tasted good and Clarissa was really great to work with - plus she's incredibly affordable.