Kara Kakes — Attraction in Franklin Lakes

STAY AWAY!

My husband and I got married on 6/25/21. We ordered our wedding cake from Kara Kakes. Despite thorough descriptions of the request, OUR WEDDING CAKE FAILED TO MEET OUR EXPECTATIONS! :(

The color scheme on the wedding cake was not what it was supposed to be and appeared more like kids’ PLAY-DOH. We also requested and PAID FOR EXTRA cannoli cream filling, which did not appear to be the case. Further, the inscription of our names was overly SLOPPILY written. This review just lists a few reasons.

THE STAFF AT KARA KAKES APPEARS TO BE VERY UNPROFESSIONAL. Prior to the wedding, my husband and I tried diligently to call and keep in touch with the Kara Kakes staff. Many of the representatives would often take messages and promise to return our calls, but they FAILED to do so. We also had to keep explaining the cake description over and over again to the bakery as notes and emails appeared to be misplaced by the staff.

One representative said on the phone that she was unable to decipher what her co-worker had recorded, allegedly due to the co-worker’s ILLEGIBLE HANDWRITING. During another call, a different representative even APOLOGIZED FOR IGNORING US and letting our order fall by the wayside. In addition to calling and emailing the bakery, we even drove to the shop and spoke directly to two different representatives on two different dates.

Growing weary before our wedding due to the LACK OF COMMUNICATION by Kara Kakes, we called the bakery on about three separate occasions to see a picture of the wedding cake. At least one representative said she would speak to the manager and return our calls, but as usual no one from the bakery contacted us. The last representative we spoke to ultimately said this was against policy, which is convenient for them.

We were constantly given INACCURATE INFORMATION by Kara Kakes, and worst of all their UNPROFESSIONALISM is reflected on our WEDDING CAKE, which was quite the EMBARRASSMENT, especially since we looked forward to it very much and were charged an exorbitant amount of money for it!

After the wedding, we emailed Kara Kakes to express our concerns, and they demanded we provide the dates and times we called them to review all communication, a process which they said would “TAKE A WHILE.”

We forwarded email correspondence, however, we emphasized to them that there were NUMEROUS PHONE CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY DIFFERENT REPRESENTATIVES, many of whom allegedly took messages and notes of our cake description and many of whom promised to contact us back regarding our inquiries/concerns TO NO AVAIL. We also emphasized that we both even drove to the bakery and spoke to two different representatives in-person on two separate dates.

THE BAKERY’S RESPONSE WAS: “We’re sorry but we didn’t see any dates in your previous emails of when you called! Please let us know the dates so we can review the conversations.” We said that we cannot possibly review phone logs to list every specific date we communicated with their establishment via phone, especially since we called from different phones and often stayed on hold for long periods of time. Several times, the hold music even played out and we were disconnected. Therefore, given the long hold time, even if we had access to specific phone dates, we would be unable to determine on which dates we even got to speak to a representative or for how long.

WE HAVE BEEN BURDENED ENOUGH BY KARA KAKES, ESPECIALLY ON OUR WEDDING DAY! Asking us now to provide phone dates merely adds to this burden and further complicates the matter.

Still, we asked the owner to review what we provided and touch base. Unfortunately yet not surprisingly, to date, Kara Kakes has not contacted us. We are HIGHLY UPSET and dissatisfied by both their customer service and our wedding cake, which was a VERY FAR CRY from what we described and requested.

Since our wedding cake failed to meet our expectations and the bakery’s staff is highly unprofessional, WE DO NOT RECOMMEND KARA KAKES, especially not for customized...

Got a birthday cake here, told them it was for 25-30 people. We took home the whole bottom tier after the party, it was enough for 60 people easy. The cake looked beautiful, although they didn’t follow instructions on what to write on it and had to fix, delaying us at pick up. If only it tasted as good as it looked - thick, hard frosting in the center broke and crumbled into pieces like dry play-doh. Cake itself was pretty dry and crumbled with each fork cut. For the amount of money we paid, it’s gotta be better quality. Won’t be going back.

**Hi Kara Kakes. I read your comments, and don’t appreciate some of the things you said. Sounds like you took my critiques very personally. What I can tell you is that when I go to pick up something I order, I expect to get it and leave. Anything more than that is a delay, especially when you have other things to do to prepare for a party. So YES, it is a DELAY whether or not you admit it, and whether it be 2 minutes, 10 minutes, or half an hour. It is not FALSE, as you say. Also, my wife is pretty sure she said “I don’t want Birthday Princess” written on the cake. I’ll chalk that up to a misunderstanding on your end, and you made the correction - thank you. As far as the cake itself - you didn’t offer an explanation on why you sold us a cake for way more than 25-30 people. Like I said, the cake looked beautiful, but it was too much for our needs, and we had a ton leftover. The restaurant cut pretty generous, equal-sized pieces off the top tier. Could we have gotten something smaller for a lower price?? And we did serve at room temp as you recommended, and what I described was accurate. I just felt that the center layer of frosting was too thick and unnecessary, and it was not creamy. I felt there was not a great balance of cake and frosting - just my opinion, sorry if you don’t like it. The photos I took were after the cake was refrigerated at home, so I’ll remove them as a courtesy since it looked worse and was cut cold at that time. I do like supporting small businesses, but everyone is subject to criticism or complaints if the customer is not satisfied. You have a very high rating so I don’t think a few negative reviews will affect your business greatly. I changed mine to 3 stars if that makes you feel better. And by writing this review, I AM encouraging you to do better (you don’t have to suggest that to me, but thanks I guess). Everyone has different levels of taste and expectations, so I SUGGEST you keep that in mind going forward. Like I said, the cake was beautiful and we took plenty of pictures that will be in our memory books. I can tell you take a lot of pride in your work and I respect that, but may I suggest dialing down your overly defensive responses going forward? I worked in a small business for many years and my boss always stressed that no matter what the situation, the customer is always right. It was my duty to do everything I could to provide full satisfaction so that customer would return and continue doing business there. I’m still mindful of that and practice it often in my current job, as I know how important it is to keep good relationships with all clientele. Wishing you continued success in the...

I am very disappointed with my experience at Kara Kakes. I was very particular about the cake design for my son’s first birthday party. I spoke to the staff multiple times about design ideas and visited the store on a few occasions. In the end, I went with a cake design that I found on the store’s instagram page. A cake that had been previously made by the store. I asked that the cake be replicated identically to the one in the image. The staff told me what size and detail was needed to replicate the design. We discussed the shiny black coloring, number of buttons, 3-d jacket lapels, shape and size of the collar, design of the white shirt, and most importantly the bow that was the centerpiece of the cake.

Unfortunately, the cake that was made for my son was different.

When we came to pick it up, the cake was matte (not glossy), the collar was missing the front triangles and disproportionately large, it had 3 buttons (not 2), no detail on the tuxedo shirt, the lapels were not 3-d, and the bow was massively disproportionate to the cake, flat, and looked different from the style in the picture. It also had a double center ribbon that looked like lips (horrible!).

After I got noticeably upset, they took the cake into the back and “fixed” the front of the bow to remove the lips and added triangles to the collar (that looked more like sloppy glued on cat ears).

The store told me that it was close enough to the picture (it was a black tuxedo!) and I should be happy with the work. They said That none of my guests would know better. I said fair enough but this is materially different from what we discussed, ordered, and wanted. I came to this store for a custom designed cake based on agreed specifications - this was not what was created for me.

No explanation could be provided for why they made the design changes.

I continued to be very upset and said that at least the bow needs to be fixed. They refused to make any changes and essentially said take it or leave it.

Not that a discount could have fixed this horrible situation, but one wasn’t even offered and when my Husband asked - it was refused.

Left with no option as we needed a birthday cake and it was the day before the party (and it would be literally impossible to find a replacement cake in the short timespan), my husband encouraged me to just take the cake.

I regret doing this and should have just left it at the store. It did not photograph well and tasted horrible.

Save yourself the disappointment and rudeness and go somewhere else....