Sugar Bee Sweets Bakery — Restaurant in Arlington

I have NEVER felt so out of place at “Sugar Bees” My fiancé and I decided that it was time to start looking for our cake. We came across “SB” and instantly wanted to set up a cake tasting with them . We arrive, All of us is extremely excited, my bridesmaids and I are looking at the cakes that they have on display and talking amongst ourselves. Alicia finally comes out, we introduce ourselves and instantly I can tell that something is wrong. she is very dry and barely communicating- no excitement at all. She then starts to ask us questions in regards to our wedding: venue, date, day, etc. and becomes mute ( I’m thinking maybe she’s new, etc. ) she then says we can try the cake. Keep in mind we are in a conference type of room, picking up the plates and sliding them back in forth while she is sitting with her left elbow on the table with the palm of her left hand on the side of her face, giving us little to NO Communication. We are now down to our 2nd to last piece of cake… to break silence I asked her (after my fiancé and I taste it) whats in this cake pointing to it. Alicia tells me to WAIT! Taken back, I chose not to say anything at the time since my guests were there and I didn’t want her to feel intimidated or feel as if I was attacking her with all of us being in the room. At this time we are done tasting the cake. We sit there for maybe 2-3 minutes looking around, VERY Awkward. I start mentioning the cakes I like and let her know that one of their cakes have caught my attention. Alicia, does not ask me to show her, shes just really not talking.. I then ask her if I can show her the cake she gets up very bothered and I politely asked her outside the room if everything was ok. It was then that I told her I felt unwelcome and that this experience has not been pleasurable for me or my guest. I told her how short she was in conversation and when it came to disgusting the details of the cake it seemed like she wasn’t even interested. Alicia, seemed bothered from the time we introduce ourselves and I didn’t understand what it was. After the conversation, Alicia immediately said no one has never said that to her… and I’m thinking, well it’s clearly because you provided them a different experience than what you are showing us. says she will send an email with everything. Now, at this point if she didn’t want to make my cake I would have understood.. Sunday goes by, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.. finally I decide to call due to the fact that I didn’t receive and email or a call like she said she was. After 4-5 minutes Alicia comes to phone and says, “I talked to the owner about what happened and we decided to not make your cake.” I’m baffled. Here’s the thing I wouldn’t take a cake from them If it was free. What bothers me the most is the way I was treated. The owner prosecuted me without ever giving me a call. No one never called me or emailed me and said, they didn’t want to make my cake… and you run a business. My fiancé had to reach out for a refund, and the owner reply is Alicia was really upset and we choose to not make your cake. Never, once did she apologize just for the way Alicia made us feel. Not once. I absolutely did have a conversation with Alicia, because I felt as though it was important for her to know how “we” felt and how “we” were treated. it’s shocking to me that as a cake designer you have a hard time with constructive criticism. The owner believed whatever Alicia told her and that was it. The owner, nor Alicia didn’t even give me the courtesy to call me after I took time out of my day to come to her place of business and when I asked Alicia why no one called me she said, “ WE DIDN’T THINK YALL WOULD BUY ONE.” I have never been the one to place race in the mix but I truly believe they had a problem with us being black, I truly believe from the moment Alicia saw us she did not want to make our cake. Here’s the thing, if you want to keep your business “WHITE only then say that too.” After looking at their IG, it seems that are only interested in making...

Gluten free item variety is gone, now their weekly sweet menu only ever has gf cupcakes/cake pops, when they used to serve other gf items that weren't just those two things. It's been a year since they have made anything gf on the sweet menu that wasn't just gf cake pops/cupcakes, I've been keeping track. I guess if you want anything other than gf cupcakes/cake pops, you need to do a special order which is inconvenient, since I am the type that prefers to just stop by for something small every now and then.

PREVIOUS UPDATES In 2020 I got a couple of their Chocolate Pecan Pie slices and it was so amazing, I wanted to get a whole pie of it! But now that I am gluten free I'm not so sure if they take proper allergen protocols for since they aren't an entirely gluten free kitchen after all. Every week they update what is available in their sweets rotatation on Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes they have a gluten free item in the sweet rotation, but I am too paranoid.

UPDATE (7-8-22) So I caved and got one of their gluten free vanilla strawberry cupcakes, though it had a lot of glaringly sweet icing, I was pleasantly surprised it had some filing, and it did end up satisfying my cake cravings.

THE NEXT DAY: I think I might have visited a little bit too early because when I came around 8 AM on a Saturday, right when they open, they told me that they had only just finished baking the cupcakes and it was a bit a bit early to ice them. They explained that usually they have everything ready by 10 AM.

UPDATE (7-12-22) Tried a slice of their gluten free Peach Amaretto Cake, which was $7. To be honest, I don't know if the slice was work $7, but the cake was good, especially the peach filling, however I still think that the icing is too sweet and abundant.

UPDATE (8-2-22) Tried a slice of their gluten free lemon cake that has lemon buttercream icing, I'd say the icing for this cake was done better since it's not glaringly sweet. Something about the lemon flavor in the icing balances the sweetness...

If I could leave negative stars I would. Spoke to someone who's name starts with an "A", at first she was nice but then when I started to ask more complex questions that she really didn't give answers for, the ruder she got. I ordered a custom 2tier bday cake with only flowers. The price was outrageous for what I was getting. I also noticed that on their website, a larger cake was offered for the same price with 20 more slices, so I was trying to get an understanding from her as to why and all she did was tell me I agreed to the price they sent me via email, and their website was "worded incorrectly" and needed to be changed. Seems like there's some false advertising going on. I asked for an understanding in the difference in pricing on these particular cake prices vs, the one I got so I'd know for future reference when I order again, she said I really have to go I think I'm going in circles and repeating myself. Well probably because she never really gave me a straight answer in the first place, but made a point to repeat that I agreed to the price I already got. Also, fondant is now the same price as buttercream as it used to be more. They don't mention that when you order so before you think you're going cheaper with buttercream like before, think again. When this person mentioned that she's not a cake person and would never spend $300 for a cake, I mentioned well I ordered from a person on FoodNetwork before, and it wasn't this expensive. She then told me to feel free to go order from her. What!! This was just having back and forth conversation as she shared she wouldn't spend this amount of money, and I shared my experience and that's what I got from her. I've ordered from this place for years, my job, family and friends that I've referred. NEVER again...