All the cakes for Target stores are baked near me in Indiana.
I'm shocked that no one knew this. Most of the grocery stores can't afford skilled bakers, so you have to assume nothing they make is from scratch to include: breads, pastries, cookies, muffins and doughnuts. Most of their items arrive at the store already prepped, just gotta throw them in the oven (or proof box) and bake. Most cakes come with the icing already on them too. Just add a border and writing and violá.
That's why people on this website are adamant about not comparing your prices to grocery stores, they don't compare.
I'm shocked too... I thought this was more common knowledge.
At Sam's not only can you buy frozen cakes but also brownies, cookies and bread. If I wanted I can buy frozen sheet cakes undecorated by the case also 9 or 10 inch round undecorated.
At Sam's not only can you buy frozen cakes but also brownies, cookies and bread. If I wanted I can buy frozen sheet cakes undecorated by the case also 9 or 10 inch round undecorated.
*shudder* A case of Sam's cakes. *shudder again*
We only have 2 grocery stores here and they both make their cakes from mixes in full sheet sizes every few months. Into the walk in freezer they go. As they get an order they just lob off the size cake that is ordered and decorate with icing from a 5 gallon bucket, then toss it back into the freezer until pick up. Their ice cream cakes are made in another state and will sit for months on end in the freezer until they are sold--never removed because of any expiration date.
My sister worked in one of the "bakeries" in the store and they had a wedding cake ordered. They went ahead and took the order, even though the lady in charge said she had no clue how to make one. They pulled out an instruction book and stacked 3 round layers on top of each other. They slathered it with regular whipping cream and covered it with neon pink roses.
My sister said when the bride came in to pick the cake up the day before the wedding she let out an audible GASP because the cake was tilting and the regular whipping cream was melting down the sides of the cake.
Other than that there is just me to supply my made with fresh ingredients, to order, custom design celebration cakes and NO I AM NOT CHEAP--DON'T EVEN GO THERE LOL
I worked at a wal-mart 10 years ago and was told at the time that they had just recently stopped baking cakes in-store because it wasn't cost effective. We took them out of the freezer by the case(in 1/2 sheets) cut them into 1/4's for the majority of what we sold and iced and decorated them. At that time we still boxed them ourselves. Today they still do part of their inventory this way, but more and more they get things in that are already done and packaged.
I worked at a grocery store bakery in high school, almost 20 years ago.
We didn't do cakes, but our cookie dough came in five gallon buckets, our brownies were frozen w/o icing and our bread dough cam in frozen lumps.
The only difference in the 'varieties' we offered was what we did to it before we sold it. The 6 different 'breads' came from the same dough, just had different cuts, shapes and so on.
So I guess I'm not too surprised about frozen cakes.
It makes me sad that everything these days is mass produced and bad for us. Healthy and fresh is expensive and hard to find.
Come to think about it, that is why Wal-Mart smells like, uhhhmmm how to put this nicely.... people
and not cookies or cakes baking.Soylent Green!!!
How did I know you'd find that funny... 
Love ya!!!
I live in Wal-Mart country... home office is 6 miles from my house & directions around here are given using WalMart stores, warehouses & layout centers as landmarks... WM & Sams both use frozen cakes. Really gross when you think they are frozen at the manufacturer, thaw in transit to the warehouse, frozen again, thaw to the stores, frozen again in bakery freezer, thawed, decorated, then frozen until put out to sell. BTW - cakes can set in the freezer un-iced for 6 months, then refroze as a decorated cake for up to a month. I hate to admit I used to work as a decorator at WM, so I got really freaked when I heard people say they loved the taste of the cakes - what taste - FREEZERBURN??? Makes it hard for people to break from the "I can buy it from WM for 1/2 the price you charge" in this area. But at least I can sleep knowing my cakes are fresh, non-freezer burnt & my kitchen is clean & roach free! That story is a whole other thread!!!
I started working in a local grocery chain about 2 years ago as a baker's apprentice,then moved on to a decorator's apprentice (which I still am and will probably never get moved up or have them finish my training-a whole other story)
Our donuts and bagels (which I was responsible for in the beginning) come in flash frozen from our plant in Lakeland. I would then bake them every morning.
Now as a decorator apprentice I am responsible for putting all the pre-packaged pies ( like key lime) out and other baked goods we get in. Some are from our plant and some are from outside vendors. ALL our cakes come in frozen in big boxes, packed up individually. We don't sell boxes , since it has the company logo on it. However, we do have plastic dome boxes we do sell. I fill our specialty case of the pastries we decorate and decorate the stores custom cakes and sometimes make back up cakes for customers to buy.
We make our own whip topping, buttercream and chocolate ganache for icing the cakes.
Our bakery only bakes the breads fresh in house. They have so much bread to bake on a daily basis, there is not time, or room in the ovens to bake cakes. There use to be days when we would have up to 45 custom cakes in one day with 2 decorators and on apprentice! Try baking all those cakes in one day! They don't really taste bad, they are actually kind of moist, I eat the scraps all the time LOL!
I am actually quite surprised so many here are so surprised by the fact that they are frozen?? Do the math and you wouldn't be surprised at all!
Just a note to add: I am not sure of the time the cakes get in the bulk box they come in, but once we decorate them they have a 10 days freezer life and a 3 day refrigerator life. They are very strict about this . You can't imagine the waste. I work so hard making these specialty cakes to display and sell and then they don't and we throw them away and I start all over again! It's very sad and disappointing!
I forgot to add that we visited friends in Denver and their daughter works at Coldstone Creamery. She said the cake portion of their ice cream cakes are shipped to them already frozen. One of her jobs is to assemble the ice cream cakes at the store and frost them to sit in the freezer until purchased.
There's a video on YouTube that shows a factory where they frost these mass produced cakes in a few seconds. It's fascinating.
The cakes look perfect (before someone puts stupid balloons and streamers all over them) because they are made by machines.
Just a few months ago I went to a well known *local* *family* *farm* to pick up some homemade items for dear friends funeral. My friend Ella loved all their goodies and I really wanted to have some on the desert table at her wake.
One of the things I wanted to order was a carrot cake. So I ordered the cake and then proceeded to tell them how I would like it decorated. To my horror I was told the cake arrived at the store decorated and there was no way to decorate the cake differently.
I stood there...completely dumfounded!!
They did offer to *move the decorations around* by using a warm knife.
As Im processing all this info I think dear lord Ella, youre not even in your grave yet and youre already rollin over.
The grocery store I work at does get some cakes like this (pre-frosted) and they are ONLY used to cut of for individual cakes slices that sell like crazy due to the economic times it's all some people can afford.
I did see a show on the food network one time (that one that Marc Summers does-Unwrapped I think?) and it showed a factory where they do mass produced cakes and it is rather fascinating.
I have been wondering if my store does any kind of field trip like thing to let us go see the plant. Maybe give us a better understanding of why we don't get some of the stuff we order sometimes and why they send us 10 of something we DIDN'T order! LOL!
phoenixphillips, that is rather disheartening. Do they portray themselves as homemade, or was that just the assumption because it was a 'family farm' type place?
I agree that the clip with the 'icing machine' is quite fascinating. I wish I had one, but with my delicious cake and icing. I'd love a machine to do that cruddy tedious part. And it really makes it smooth. How much fun could you have just doing the fun decorating!?!?
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