CaraMel's Bakery — Restaurant in Clearwater

My husband and I got married in December of 2023 and I want to warn all the "brides and grooms to be" who are looking for a vendor, to highly consider hiring someone else. The tasting was wonderful, we met with Melian (Chef Mel) “the owner” and she'd prepared a selection of different cakes of different flavors to try. We showed her a picture of a wedding cake I'd liked on Pinterest and it matched our royal blues and had the effect of snowfall to match our winter theme on the water (we got married on the Yacht Starship - also a 1 star review) and she said she could make it happen. We trusted her, ordered a selection of desserts with the cake, and communication was good leading up to our wedding day.

I received notification that her assistant would be dropping off the cake on our day-of, and provided me her name and number to reach out to her which I did on the eve of our wedding day to confirm the time of delivery. I also shared her information with our coordinator (who was supposed to handle the delivery - but more of that in my other review).

The afternoon of our wedding, the cake and desserts were due to arrive and be unloaded at 1:30pm (wedding guests arriving at 3:30pm). After 3pm our coordinator informed us the cake had not been delivered yet and asked me for the name and number of the vendor. We found out that our cake had been delivered to the wrong ship almost an hour away but were on their way - which ultimately resulted in our wedding ceremony and sailing time being delayed an hour!

Not only did this cause an awful ripple effect, including not being able to do a cake-cutting ceremony, but when we saw the cake we were shocked at how cheap it looked. It did not resemble what we had asked the chef to prepare at all - it was more a pale, ombre bluish color with random white pearls scattered around it in clumps (like our own cake had a breakout from the stress it endured) and was smeared like it absolutely had been bumped around or thrown together carelessly.

When we finally cut into the cake, it was dry and was the worst tasting cake I’d ever had, and not one of our guests ate it (it tasted NOTHING like the tasting we had). There was a big red plastic straw of something too so when the cake was cut into, shreds and shards of red, sharp blades of plastic ended up in our cake!

We ended up throwing the WHOLE CAKE AWAY.

I WILL NEVER recommend CaraMel’s Bakery to any bride and groom, and I will never order from them again for any occasion. I was so angry, hurt, and disappointed in them - not only because they never called to confirm the details of delivery proactively, but then spending almost $1000 for something we couldn’t even eat, and after knowing they brought the cake to the wrong location and didn’t end up arriving until close to 4pm when they were supposed to be there at 1:30pm, I never received a phone call or an apology from Melian (Chef Mel)...

Chef Mel did our wedding cake in Spring 2024. I would first like to say that it was very nice to find someone who offered Gluten Free + Organic wedding cake! That was absolutely not easy to find. We went taste testing and it was absolutely phenomenal. We chose almond for both our buttercream frosting and cake flavor. It had the PERFECT amount of sweetness!

I sent her my idea for how I would like the cake to look, and she did a fairly decent job replicating it. (Although I will say the finer details looked rushed and clunky)

The reason for the 3 star review is mainly about how it tasted on my wedding day. It was OVERWHELMINGLY sweet and she added FAR too much almond extract - to the point that it was all we could taste. 😓😥 almost like eating an almond scented candle or something..

I've been reluctant to leave a review because I appreciate her work and love to support small businesses, as I own one myself. But months later and I could not shake the disappointed in the cake on the day of my wedding. It seems that she either doesnt follow a recipe or a mistake was made.

& if I were being perfectly honest, I do completely understand that she did not have her own bakery, but I will say that going to an American Legion to taste test our wedding cake was rather strange. It was dark, dingy & a drunk women was mumbling towards us 😵‍💫

Also the cake she gave us to test was literally 1 small bite served in the smallest paper medicine cup that you can imagine. Upon our arrival she told us that she does not do free taste testing (her website says otherwise?) which is why she gave us such a small portion for testing. If she would have told us beforehand that we needed to pay, we would have.

We paid an insane amount of money for this wedding cake and did not feel this was reflected in the service or...

I have a lot to say. I will mention, there are some things that I didn't enjoy too much, but overall I liked this place. Let me start with the things I don't like - and one that may be my fault. So first of all, The flavor and presentation of the cake is beautiful, but it was a very dense cake. I think this may be my fault because I did order a custom BIRTHDAY cake but did not specify that I wanted a light and fluffy cake (which I would have enjoyed much more) The second issue I had was the size of the cake I got for $150. It says serves 6-14 people, and I don't see how 14 people could split this cake. 6 people- yeah. 8 people - eh. 10+?? No way. Not in my family. It's a 6 inch round cake..... the last thing I didn't like was the location. The pick up spot did not look nice at all, and my driver was being aggressive with me saying I took them to the wrong location or not a real bakery... it took me to American legion post 7... BUT on the bright side, the lady who took my order was so nice, and worked with my budget because the original price was too much. She was able to squeeze me in within a week, which is a very short notice. She was very communicative, and let me pay for it in parts. Overall, I liked this place. If I ever order again, I would ask for a fluffier cake. If not , then I...