Have Store Cake Quality Gone Down Or Am I Pickier?
Decorating By berryblondeboys Updated 26 Oct 2006 , 8:25pm by aligotmatt
I SWEAR that store cakes used to look MUCH better. Roses used to look like roses, writing used to be so neat and everything looked so clean and sharp.
Now, no matter what store I go to, they look sloppy. The frostings almost always look droopy, like they are too wet when piping. Roses are deformed and "wilted" and colors are bleeding all over the place (saw a really "scary" Halloween cake yesterday).
Is it that they are trying to decorate so fast that quality has gone down or that now that I'm making my own cakes and hae learned some things, I'm more critical of store bought cakes.
I always knew home made tasted better, but always feel store bought were pretty - not so any more.
Plus, I SWEAR, as a kid that the flowers on cakes used to be hard and not creamy. Did they switch from royal icing flowers to buttercream in the last 20 years? Maybe that's part of the reason they look sloppier?
Melissa
I think you're just more experienced now, and have a more critical eye. I was on a local bakery's website, checking out their cakes, and was amazed at how few I liked! All the decorating was over-the-top. Too much of everything. I used to love the cakes from this bakery, and even wished I could work there. Now, I wouldn't want to have to produce such fussy cakes!
I wonder if they all buy a buttercream mix or something and then they over 'water' it. They look almost frothy too - fluffy.... Hmmm.... maybe it's that the stuff that is fluffy for spreading on the store cakes just isn't meant for piping? The store cakes have some SERIOUS uglies. I KNOW they didn't used to be that way. First I thought it was just one store, but it's several and not just one chain.
Now the bakery down my street has a beautiful wedding display cake. My grocery store has one too and I'm embarassed for the store to have it there - so awful - again that fluffy frosting that droops. I'm going to have to take a camera with me so you all can see!
Melissa
I think the quality has gotten a lot worse and the prices have gone up. My friend ordered a 1/4 sheet cake from Bi-Lo for her son's b-day party and picked it out of the picture book they have. When she picked it up it was airbrushed red (the picture was grey and blue) and it had a plastic batman included in the box...not on the cake. In the picture the cake had a little city scene that included this batman figure. Also, the cake was not a double layer cake, just one layer! I told her that this will teach her to buy cakes from the grocery store and not from me. Oh, and they charged her $25, so it wasn't even a bargain for a one layer 1/4 sheet cake.
My teacher told me to check out the cakes everytime I go to a store or bakery......she said now that I have some knowledge cakes will never look/taste the same. I have also noticed that since I have been making my own icing that I don't like bakery icing anymore. I use to love it but mine tastes soooooo much better.
Part of it is decorating yourself, if you don't do it everything looks better than it really is, just like we can see all our flaws we can see others too.
That isn't saying that some places might not be going downhill. One of our local grocery stores recently cut the height of their 1 layer sheet cakes but not the price ($18 for a 9x13). It can't be any taller than 1.5" with the icing on it now and they've been slapping mouse pad on so they don't even have to arrange the figures. Another store is getting a little more elaborate in their sheet cake decorations, still nothing great but they've been doing a little more.
I suspect that it would be a combination of both.
I know that in most businesses, there are fewer employees but the same or busier workload.
How much attention can you pay to any one cake, when you have xxxx expected in an 8 hr. day at the superstores.
I'm sure bakeries are also experiencing the same time/cost restraints in an attempt to stay competitive with the big boxes.
I'm sure this isn't a consideration for Colette Peters, etc., but I would say she is one of the exceptions, and not the rule.
Also as you become more aware of a particular subject, because of personal experience, research or business exposure (whatever) - your standards change.
As you develop as a baker/decorator, you will scrutinze other bakery products more closely.
What's so great about a consumer economy is that there is a place for all types of bakers/decorators depending on your needs whether it be for quality, quantity, convenience or creativity.
(As another CC'er says, I know I talk too much.... 
)
I remember all decorations being crunchy too! I guess maybe they thought making them rather than buying them made them better?
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