The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers, Carmel City Center — Restaurant in Carmel

Valentine's Day 2024. I left work at 5:30pm on the dot and made the treacherous drive from the south side of Indianapolis dodging potholes and zoning out in traffic on my way to my residence in the desirable Hamilton County where I happily greet my Fiance with a cheap card from CVS and a $3 box of Ghirardelli chocolates that currently cost me $16.99. I should have put more effort into my gift giving because when I got home I passed along my last minute overpriced gift and was asked to get ready for our reservations at the Cake Bake Shop that she reserved back in May of 2023. With haste I quickly sprinted to the bathroom of my 870 sq/ft apartment to comb over my balding gray hair laced mug. I thoroughly brushed my teeth, looked into the mirror whilst firing my finger pistols I uttered to myself, "It's cake time!" From the kitchen my future wife shouted out loud "what did you say?" In that moment I pulled myself together and tamed my craving for delicious sweets. We left our 1 bedroom, 2 person, 2 cat, humble abode a little bit early so we could find parking in the ever growing Carmel area. Once we traversed the map from the projects of Fishers to the "East Egg" Carmel we quickly and easily found parking at the conveniently positioned parking garage that's so very close to the Cake Bake Shop. Once we casually strolled into the establishment I found myself yet again in a situation I was unprepared for. Being a blue collar middle aged man wearing the attire of a simpleton I was greeted by the very friendly, nicely dressed, smiling employees that asked for our reservation which was ready about 10 minutes early. We were seated immediately and provided menus in the upscale, bright white, glorious dining area. Shortly after our drink order was taken followed by our dinner order. My finances drink was very delicious. I even thought the water was great too! (Seriously, does anyone else think Fishers water taste weird? I've always thought this being I grew up down yonder. The yuppie water taste like water from Geist but this Cake Bake Water tasted like the Lord himself blessed it in the kitchen before our server brought it out.) Anyway, I got the Chicken Piccata. I thought this was a pretty good dish. Not the best pasta dish by any means but good and with good presentation. Taste reminded me a lot of how my granny from Kentucky would make her homemade chicken and that's really how it was. The pasta was good and the arugula salad was a nice touch. My fiancee got the Roasted Leek Pasta. I'm personally not a big fan of leeks but her pasta and sauce was delightful. After we gourged ourselves we didn't leave room for dessert. Our server came to the table and asked if we were interested in dessert to which I looked my beloved Valentine straight in the eyes and uttered "there's no quiting at halftime" and just like Taylor Swift cheering for her boyfriend this past Sunday night her face lit up as I said "yeah, we'll have the red velvet cake please." Shortly thereafter a big ol honkin' slab of freshly butchered red velvet came out to our table. With a very nice light pink frosting this cake sure looked the part for Valentine's Day. So, how was the cake? It was pretty gosh darn good I'll tell ya what. Not the best red velvet I've ever had but definitely good. The pink icing is very light on texture and flavor but the actual cake is loaded with sweet, soft, comforting sweetness. The cream cheese icing between the layers paired with the little chocolate chips had me feeling like Guy Fieri making my way to Flavortown, USA! Shortly after battling it out with my fiance over the shares of the cake collectively we conquered the beast and denied any need for a to-go-box. Overall our experience here was quite good. Anyone looking for a good date night or Valentine's Day date? This is a great choice. Looking to try something a little nicer - check this place out. I gave the Cake Bake Shop 4/5 stars. The service and ambiance are great. The drinks & cake were really good. The food was also overall pretty good. -Your friendly...

Just to preface, I have been to Cake Bake before on multiple occasions for lunch, dinner, and just a snack. My wife loves the seasonal cheesecakes and their lavender lemonade. For the many times we have dined in, this was the horrible outlier that has stained our opinion of Cake Bake. We had called at 7:00 PM to see if there was any tables available and we were told that their earliest available was at 9:00PM. We were also told that we are welcome to wait in the lounge before 9:00PM to see if a table would become available sooner. As to not trouble the restaurant we made our reservation and kept occupied until then. We had made a reservation at 9:00 PM and had arrived at 8:45PM. As soon as my wife, daughter and I came in, we confirmed our reservation with the host stand and I went to the washroom while my wife went to peruse the cake showroom. When I came back 3 ladies in the same room are being assisted with their purchase while my wife looks at the cake stands. The ladies then leave with their goods, and the attending staff behind the counter proceed to retreat to the corner and chat while on the phone. My wife and I remain in the showroom for another 10 minutes until our reservation is called and neither my wife or I had single word spoken to us by the staff behind the counter. As we are leaving a pair of women walk in and are immediately greeted by the staff on their phones. Felt like a slap to the face. Once seated at our table, we were greeted by a lady bussing a table who said our server was checking out another table and would be with us shortly. After 10 minutes of waiting we finally had the staff who was bussing the table come by to take our drink order, and that our server was still busy checking out another table. ( And I very much appreciate this woman) . I ordered a rose cappuccino as my drink and it wasn't until the end of the meal that I tasted rose in my cappuccino. All the rose had sank to the bottom and all I had was a regular cappuccino for my meal and a rose flavored shooter to pair with my dessert. Highly dissatisfied. For my meal I ordered the cavatappi and I had the option to include a protein. Shrimp was an option, and seeing as I quite like shrimp I had it included with my meal. When it came out the shrimp was curled all the way from head to toe signaling it was overdone, and upon tasting it, the shrimp was reminiscent of algae water with sour undertones. The rest of the shrimp was removed from my dish and I only managed to eat half of what I had ordered. This was not the only problem with the food. My wife had ordered a cup of the chicken velvet soup, she had heard great things about it Everytime we had came into Cake Bake but had never ordered it until tonight. When the soup came out it was cold. Feeling shy and embarrassed my wife asked me to talk to the server about getting a hot soup. Our server got us another soup but to our dismay when it came out it was only slightly warmed, my wife told me to leave well enough alone and we did. The best dishes we had was the fontina cheese, which was overly salty compared to past experiences, and our peanut butter pie. As hard as our food was to enjoy, my three year old toddler, wife and I had to hear the inappropriate, loud music coming from the kitchen, melded with the classical music over the dining room speakers which made this whole experience even more of a huge disappointment. My Wife and I wanted to treat ourselves and our three year old daughter out to a nice time out. Time that we rarely get to have together to slow down and enjoy ourselves. Now I don't know if it was due to the hour at which we had come in, but regardless I feel as if we had arrived in enough time that we shouldn't have impeded their closing. Even if the restaurant was in the process of closing, I shouldn't feel as if the restaurant is closed to us. I still tipped 20% on a 120 dollar bill out of decency, and didn't complain to management as to not make a fuss, but driving home I became more upset the more I thought on my...

The Cake Bake Shop had been suggested to me by several friends and I was excited to try them out. I will likely be a repeat customer. However, I am not likely to be a regular for several reasons. My 360 evaluation below.

The very good: the atmosphere is delightful. The outside and inside of the store are clean and bright while still being warm and inviting. The constumes the staff wear are pretty, immaculate and enhance the environment. I totally see from a visual perspective why this shop is opening a branch in Disney. It feels more like an experience and less like retail. Also there is staff to greet you and ample service staff in the shop to give eaxh customer 1 on 1 attention.

Also good: the lemon, raspbery and magic bars are some of the best I have had. They are beautiful, the pacagung is lovely, and the taste, quality and size are what you want them to be at that price point. Honorable mention to the macarons. While a bit high in price for the size of the cookie they are super yummy and again lovely visually.

The not great: I live in Kokom and our local cake shop J Edwards has both a substanially better selection, and comparably as delicious and in some cases more delicious set of Gluten Free offferings. I hink the store is beautiful and every item was beautiful and came in lovely packaging...but not worth it for me at twice the price or higher for less delicious. That said, all their GF stuff was more beautifully presented and packaged than our local place. Also, while the boxes and bags were beautiful the care in packaging was not as good as my local shop. Some of my items were squished, or otherwise the worse for ware in transit which was simply a 40 minute car ride...no bumpy back roads or anything. Thwt strikes me as a customer service oversight. Also the side seam on the paper bags for bakery items splits super easy making the bags pretty but not very functional. The boxes were sturdy though.

Also not great: I asked to buy an Italian cream soda while I was browsing. They looked like they did not know what this was. So I said, it is just soda or sparkeling water with flavor syrup and a splash of cream. They said they could not do this. Literally on the other side of the wall was a bar area and behind the bakery counter an espresso maker and a bunch of flavor syrups. They had everything on hand to accomodate my request but refused. They were polite but again when paying a premium one does anticipate premium and accomodating service.

Also not great: out of my large order two items were missing. When I called, they took my transaction info checked it. After checking the order info they offered an apology agreed to refund the price of the misssing items. I did mention that I live about 40 minutes away. There was no offer to make up for their error past a refund for items not included. No can we mail you the missing irems can we comp you on your next visit...nothing.

This rubbed me the wrong way...perhaps this is standard, but I did not like this way of doing business. When I fidt got there I expressed interest in buying a whole cake. Despite numerous whole cakes being abailablein the display they said that I had to order 48 hours in advance. But Iwas informed I could buy up to 5 slicea of each cake at the higher slice rate. I was not impressed.

In conclusion...if you want an experience this is a great place to dine in. If you want amazing bars eat in or take out, also highly reccomend. If you are hosting an in home event and the beauty of the cake is of primary importance. More than that, if you are willing to pay a premium just for prettty. I mean beautiful i ternal layering and the whole nine, this is the place to buy. If you want a tasty cake to treat you family, your local, less swaky option is likely to taste just as good in the whole cake department. Although to be fair I have not tried all their cakes...there may be exceptional highlights in there. But the black and white GF cake was...