Baking Grace — Restaurant in Hawthorne

Mixed bag! I ordered two cakes for my husband’s birthday dinner. Service was very friendly. I picked up the two cakes but the person who helped me never mentioned to keep the cakes refrigerated. Some bakery cakes hold up at room temp while in a restaurant and some don’t. I ordered a red velvet and a German chocolate cake. They sat out at the restaurant while we ate the meal. The Red velvet held up well but the German chocolate had completely melted into a big mess. If I had know, I would have asked if the restaurant could have put it in the fridge.

Overall, my husband said that the red velvet was not good. The cake was more like a cornbread. I think people were being polite because no one commented that the cake was good. People at our party actually really liked the taste of the chocolate cake but it was extremely messy and the presentation was poor because of the melted mess. There was literally chocolate frosting everywhere! I was covered in it trying to serve it. My husband is admittedly hard to please when it comes to cakes because he comes from a family of talented bakers. He didn’t think either was very great.

I’m gluten sensitive so I can’t say either way. I did taste a small amount of the chocolate frosting since I was covered in it and it did have a good flavor. Not sure about the cake part.

All in all, I would probably not return and may end up having to continue to go to Staten Island or NYC for cakes because I can’t seem to find a decent cake...

The cake was good compared to other bakeries I've tried in this area. They were prompt in replying to my emails and available when I called. I kind off got a feeling that they deliberately hid the fact that they charge $20 for the delivery until they were ready to charge. It's not about the money but the way they went about it. Here is the detail of what happened so that people can understand where I am coming from. I called them to inquire about delivery option and the lady on the phone wouldn't tell me the fee right away, which was understandable at the moment coz it may vary with address. She ensured that she'd call back with the details. She did call back but only to say that she had already sent my order. I must have asked about the fee a couple of time but she kept beating around the bush and kind of tried to slip in the fee with the order without actually having to mention it separately. I finally agreed to just pay the fee but would have just drove and got it myself had she confirmed with me before sending out my order. Their cake tastes good, why would they want to spoil their reputation by showing such behavior for 20 bucks? probably the person is still in training but they should know that...

Drove over an hour to get here and when I went in, they had no cake, no order, no nothing. They then repeatedly asked if it was under a different name because who doesn’t order something and put it under someone else’s name? This has happened there before and each time, they scurry about and try not to look panicked or pretend to be busy so as not to deal with me.

In the end, they offered to make up a cake, at no discount and it was frozen, not fresh. Quite frankly, it was not good. Now I want to support local places I really do but dang, I want to be treated like I matter. Here’s an idea, take the order then fill the order. You’ve got the take the order part right but seem to be lacking on the rest. Avoid this place. It’s a disorganized mess where nobody wants to be held...