Kakes by Karen is absolutely AMAZING!! I cannot tell you how she exceeded my expectations at every level!! The cake not only looked amazing, but people raved about the flavors!! She is a sweetheart to work with and the cakes are as fresh as right out of the oven! This is the person to do do your event!! You will not go wrong--no one in southwest florida does it better!
Karen was the only cake vendor my husband and I met with. We went for a tasting at her shop in Naples and knew from the first bite that this was the vendor for us.
I honestly had not ever tasted cake so delicious and moist. Karen was amazing to work with and took my rough ideas and turned them into a beautiful cake.
I asked our venue to make sure that our sweetheart table had one slice of each tier of the cake. I wanted to make sure I had them all :).
The cake was so beautiful and all the guests commented on how delicious it was. I unfortunately got so busy on the dance floor having a good time that I only had a bite which I thought was amazing. I can say what I did eat of it was DELICIOUS, it looked like a piece of art and everyone LOVED it!!! A little tip for fellow brides, make it a point to eat your cake or have some saved for you, I so missed out on mine and was so looking forward to eating it!! Karen really did do an amazing job!!
We had a tasting with Kakes by Karen several months prior to our wedding and we were blown away by how moist and delicious her cakes were. She made the mini sample cakes separate from the filling and the icing so that you could mix and match different flavors to choose your favorite cake. She is incredibly personable and friendly, her designs were gorgeous, so it was a no brainer to hire her.
I ordered one of her designs but we changed it slightly by adding a little color to the fondant. At the tasting they made a copy of my color swatch, which was a very light lilac color, which would have added just a slight purple hue to the fondant. The cake was supposed to be mostly white, with just this accent of a light purple hue on some decorative fondant draping. It was going to be gorgeous- my cake was one of the things I was looking forward to most on my wedding day.
Fast forward to wedding day. I walk into my reception and my cake looks like a hot purple mess. Not to mention they put bright green orchids all over it (instead of white). It did not match anything in my wedding and I almost started crying when I saw it.
Also, be careful about buying into the hype of the super moist cakes at the tasting - on a larger scale, they come out very dry and it seemed as though they forgot the filling or icing other than the fondant.
I contacted them after the wedding to communicate my disappointment with the cake. She argued that the color was an exact match of my swatch and that it photographs darker than it was in reality. Hmmm... sorry, I saw it with my own eyes. Apparently they made a color copy of my swatch at the tasting and her printer must of darkened it 18 shades. They must need to adjust their printer settings. Bottom line, it was all wrong. I was very disappointed on my wedding day and even though the day is history and it can't be changed now, a partial refund would have made me feel a tiny bit better about it. Unfortunately, she was unwilling to do anything about it.
If you read this review and still decide to use this vendor, make sure to be VERY specific and make sure they write it down because clearly they didn't remember our meeting or the color of the fondant they showed me in person on the day of the tasting.
Kakes by Karen, LLC responded with the following comments:
Dear Morgan,
Thank You for your review and congratulations on your wedding! This is a review I find hard to respond to because I respect the privacy of my customers, including yours and there are allegations that prompt us to keep this file (minus personal information) available for any public questions that may arise from your review.
Unfortunately the information provided by you in this review is not necessarily what your contract, original color swatches on file (ORIGINALS provided by you), original tasting notes from your meeting with our Office Manager, along with pictures of your wedding cake, etc. reflect. All of which we have already kindly shared with you over e-mail and over the phone.
What surprises me the most is that on your review you are: 1. Placing blame on us over the fresh floral used on your cake (we used the floral provided to us by your florist and coordinated by you through her) and 2. you are going after the quality of our cake by saying "it was dry" when in fact, we have not only booked a cake tasting as a result of your wedding, but have also NOT HEARD this allegation from you during our conversation on Oct. 27th and your follow up e-mail to us, and our follow up that same day (as quoted below).
Per your e-mail to us dated October 27th (weeks after your wedding/ the same day of your call) you wrote: (and I quote): "I hope there are no hard feelings, because I'm looking forward to that anniversary cake next year. Just please don't make it purple =)"
Sincerely, Morgan"
**(NO mention at all of your discontent with the quality of our cake other than your discontent with the color of the "sugar drape")**
I will end my response by saying that not only did we provide you with pictures of the "purple accent" you approved, but matched the icing drape effect to the ORIGINAL swatches (not printed copies) you provided us with.
To our future customers: As mentioned on our FAQ area in our website, we will do our very best (which we did in this case) to come close with our icing to the color of your "fabric" or "paper" swatch but make no promises of an "exact" match as we are not working with fabric or paper, but icing.
If you are thinking about using fresh floral: we ask all of our customers (per our contract) to coordinate these directly with the florist of their choice. Although this an added step on your list of Things To Do, we find it works best for all, as we work then ONLY with the floral your florist provides us with, which hopefully is what you and him/her agreed and paid for.
Again Morgan, thank you for your review and for allowing us to share our side with prospect customers. We wish you the best in your marriage life and send many blessings for you and Mike for health, love, joy, and prosperity.Dear Morgan,
Thank You for your review and congratulations on your wedding! This is a review I find hard to respond to because I respect the privacy of my customers, including yours and there are allegations that prompt us to keep this file (minus personal information) available for any public questions that may arise from your review.
Unfortunately the information provided by you in this review is not necessarily what your contract, original color swatches on file (ORIGINALS provided by you), original tasting notes from your meeting with our Office Manager, along with pictures of your wedding cake, etc. reflect. All of which we have already kindly shared with you over e-mail and over the phone.
What surprises me the most is that on your review you are: 1. Placing blame on us over the fresh floral used on your cake (we used the floral provided to us by your florist and coordinated by you through her) and 2. you are going after the quality of our cake by saying "it was dry" when in fact, we have not only booked a cake tasting as a result of your wedding, but have also NOT HEARD this allegation from you during our conversation on Oct. 27th and your follow up e-mail to us, and our follow up that same day (as quoted below).
Per your e-mail to us dated October 27th (weeks after your wedding/ the same day of your call) you wrote: (and I quote): "I hope there are no hard feelings, because I'm looking forward to that anniversary cake next year.
Just please don't make it purple =)"
Sincerely,
Morgan"
**(NO mention at all of your discontent with the quality of our cake other than your discontent with the color of the "sugar drape")**
I will end my response by saying that not only did we provide you with pictures of the "purple accent" you approved, but matched the icing drape effect to the ORIGINAL swatches (not printed copies) you provided us with.
To our future customers: As mentioned on our FAQ area in our website, we will do our very best (which we did in this case) to come close with our icing to the color of your "fabric" or "paper" swatch but make no promises of an "exact" match as we are not working with fabric or paper, but icing.
If you are thinking about using fresh floral: we ask all of our customers (per our contract) to coordinate these directly with the florist of their choice. Although this an added step on your list of Things To Do, we find it works best for all, as we work then ONLY with the floral your florist provides us with, which hopefully is what you and him/her agreed and paid for.
Again Morgan, thank you for your review and for allowing us to share our side with prospect customers. We wish you the best in your marriage life and send many blessings for you and Mike for health, love, joy, and prosperity.
With the craziness that was our wedding (we changed the date twice, both times within 2 months of the date) I'm surprised any vendor was willing to work with us, but Kakes by Karen went above and beyond. When we went for our tasting, we knew we had made the right choice, but we never could have imagined how great the final product was. When we finalized our date for the last time, Karen informed me that she would be out of town and her sous chef, Aydian would be making our cake. We were not worried at all and we put our full trust in him, and he completely blew us away. He went above and beyond, putting all sorts of wonderful details we didn't expect (example: we discussed pink sugar flowers to be like cherry blossoms, Aydian made white flowers and air-brushed the centers pink to make them look like real cherry blossoms). When I walked into the reception venue and saw the cake I leaned over to my husband and whispered "I want to hug Aydian for the amazing job he's done on our cake" Not only was the cake beautiful, it was beyond delicious, which is a rarity for wedding cakes, which are usually one or the other. I have never had fondant so delicious, or a cake so moist and flavorful . Not only would I HIGHLY recommend Kakes by Karen to other brides, but I plan on using them the next time I need a professional cake.
Karen was so helpful from the start! Having a destination wedding was more challenging then I thought, but when we flew down six months earlier to review vendors, Karen came in to make sure there was a tasting set up for us even though she was not feeling well and took the week off! She also gave us great ideas on places to save when you are working with a strict budget, which was important since we were paying for our own wedding. After leaving her bakery my fiance (at the time) looked and me and said, "well I think we can cancel all of our other cake appointments today!" Karen made an amazing cake for us that was absolutely delicious and all of my guests thought it went perfect with our theme. I will always remember walking into the ballroom with my dad before the ceremony started and telling him that I had the most beautiful cake!!! Loved it! Thank you Karen for all of your help, and I hope the kids are well! :)
We LOVED our wedding cake and so did all our guests. Karen worked with us to design the cake of our dreams and we couldn't be happier. The cake looked beautiful and the tasted even better. I cant wait for our aniversary to try the cake again.
My husband I were recently married at the Pink Shell Beach Resort and Spa in Fort Myers Beach. Karen made our breath taking cake. When I saw the cake as I entered the ballroom I was moved to tears. I had only given Karen a picture of what I was dreaming of, but her rendition was far superior and truly exceeded my expectations. The guests at my wedding gushed about how beautiful the cake was and even more importantly the raved about how delicious it was. Her cakes really do melt in your mouth, they are to die for! At weddings I have attended there is usually cake left over. We had only 85 guests and I ordered enough cake for 110, shockingly there was no cake left over. We provided cake boxes to the resort so that leftover cake could be taken home if the guests so desired (and they did!). In addition to the cake being beautiful and scrumptious, Karen is truly a gem. She has so much passion for her craft and will spend hours, if you're willing listen, telling you all about cakes and frostings. Every conversation with Karen left me feeling valued and she made me feel as though she cared and was as invested in making every detail of my day perfect, including my cake. Since our wedding was a destination wedding I truly valued Karen’s responsiveness. If she missed my call I would receive a call or text usually within the hour and definitely no later than the end of the day. Karen also provided my with recommendations for other vendors. In addition to providing insightful recommendations about other local vendors Karen was able to assist me in selecting cake for my Cuban/ American wedding. I truly cannot thank Karen enough for the magnificent cake and for being so wonderful to work with. I highly recommend her for your wedding if you're in the area. My husband and I are already looking forward to returning to Fort Myers for our first anniversary and to get out top tier rebaked! Infinite thanks to Karen and her team!!
Our wedding cake was remarkable! Karen brought my image of the perfect cake to life. I brought in this fantasy pink cake, with glitter sprinkles, peonies, with ruffles and a bow. She didnt know if it was possible at first due to the orginal design being done on cardboard but with much research to her mentors was able to make it work beautifully. The cake tasted just as great as it looked with strawberry filling :) It was so perfect! We got compliments all night on how wonderful it looked. Highly Recommend!
Because we were having a small destination wedding in Naples, I had to coordinate everything with Karen by phone and email. I never had the chance to do a tasting or meet her in person. Her cakes were beautiful on her website, so I had to trust she could do the same for me and that her cakes would taste as good as they looked. When our cake arrived, it was absoloutely beautful. It was the centerpiece and a true show-stopper for our small, intimate reception. And, yes, it was delicious.
Kakes by Karen, LLC responded with the following comments:
Dear Tina, It was such a pleasure working on your special occasion cake, you were an absolute joy to work with and we cannot be any happier you chose to work with us!!!! I wanted to thank you as well for your patience with our e-mail correspondence, as we are so busy during wedding season and our response time takes longer than we wish it would (we receive 64-72 new e-mail inquiries a day which I answer personally in between orders). Since your wedding, we have hired an Office Mgr. to assist with phone calls and e-mail and a Sous Chef to assist with our work load. We afe planing for our response time to improve. Thank you again for your review! We LOVED working with you! PS - I was super OCD in matching the icing color to your daughter's dress :-). XOXODear Tina,
It was such a pleasure working on your special occasion cake, you were an absolute joy to work with and we cannot be any happier you chose to work with us!!!! I wanted to thank you as well for your patience with our e-mail correspondence, as we are so busy during wedding season and our response time takes longer than we wish it would (we receive 64-72 new e-mail inquiries a day which I answer personally in between orders). Since your wedding, we have hired an Office Mgr. to assist with phone calls and e-mail and a Sous Chef to assist with our work load. We afe planing for our response time to improve. Thank you again for your review! We LOVED working with you! PS - I was super OCD in matching the icing color to your daughter's dress :-). XOXO
Karen and her cakes are both wonderful. She created a beautiful cutting cake and delicious cupcakes for our destination wedding. We had to do our tasting with her almost a year in advance because of our schedule, but she was very flexible with changing the number of cupcakes we needed and ideas on how they should be decorated. She has a great eye! Most importantly, the cake tasted fantastic! Karen uses only the highest quality of ingredients, and you can tell she is scrupulous about the smallest details.
Karen is very busy and recently hired an office manager to help her handle the volume of requests coming in, which will no doubt let her creativity and passion flow even more. We're looking forward to future trips to Naples and more of her delicious cake!
Kakes by Karen made cupcakes for our wedding in Naples, Florida and they were absolutely fabulous! I am a HUGE sweets lover and had high expectations for our cupcakes. Karen came through 100%. She made 7 different flavors for us in both jumbo size and mini. She was flexible with changes in flavors and # of cupcakes as our # of guests changed. She delivered the cupcakes on time and set up a gorgeous display at our venue. The cupcakes were incredibly fresh and we are still enjoying them 2 weeks later. Karen is a bit pricey, but worth it. She is very busy and sometimes takes a few days to respond to email, but she came through and helped make our wedding perfect. I recommend Karen with no reservations!
Karen did a great job! Our wedding was a destination wedding at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva and she was easy to work with long distance (from WI). I provided her a sketch of what I was looking for and she made it happen! The cake was also great, excellent flavors (lemon w/raspberries is my favorite). You can tell she takes great pride in her work, it shows in her cakes. Everyone at the wedding kept saying how amazing it was all night! I would use her again, highly recommended.
Karen and her staff are responsive,caring, and wonderful to work with. They answer all of your questions, via email and phone. They designed the perfect cake for my vintage carnival theme. The cake was fun, colorful, beautiful, and delicious. I was a little worried about that since I was planning my florida destination wedding from new jersey, so I didn't get to do a tasting-but the cake was fresh, flavorful, and scrumptious. Even the fondant (which traditionally tastes like play-doh in my opinion) was not only edible, but yummy. We got carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream for something a little off the beaten path, and I would definitely recommend it! A++
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