I was searching the net and an ad for publix cakes came up, I holidayed in Florida and am familiar with publix, I live in Philadelphia, anyway, they have beautiful wedding cakes but no prices, is anyone familiar with these cakes? and their prices, this would put a crunch on smaller bakers in the area. any idea on taste.

I worked at Publix in Charleston SC for 3 months. The wedding cakes that they made during that time were the same pre-made/frozen cakes that they used for the 1/4 sheets in the display. The buttercream was the same also. So, flavor wise it's pretty much what you could buy in the display (the pre-done birthday cakes).

As for decoration, they do take more time and effort decorating a wedding cake - hence a higher price. I don't know for all stores, but the minimum basic cake was 50 servings and I *think * the price was $3.75. Now, I could very well be wrong (I never took a wedding cake order), but I think that was the price.

Overall, the cakes were well received. But I don't think that the independant bakeries around here have much to be worried about. Most people that have tasted the other bakeries don't go back to Publix. (I"m not bashing them, just stating what I noticed.) Personally I made a cake (no selling involved) for a friend who used to love Publix, and after she tasted it she tried to get me to make all her cakes.

HTH!
~Jim

I am currently employed at Publix, and make wedding cakes almost every weekend. Many consider the cakes really good. I haven't had a "bakery" or from scratch cake, so I would not able to tell if they would be better or not. The adage you get what you pay for applies there as well. The better the decorator the better looking the cake.

My wedding cake came from Publix...that was before I started baking. It tasted good, but not as good as mine now. The cost was well under what I could charge for the same thing, but I remember being pleased with the cake overall. (Under $100 for a two-tier beach themed cake)

There are Publix stores every couple miles in my area. I'm not sure the prices for their wedding cakes, but their celebration cakes have something of a cult following around here. People go nuts over their buttercream frosting. They have even started to selling little tubs of it next to their cakes and I know people who've purchased it to eat it by the spoonful.

While popular for birthdays and celebrations, I haven't seen one at any wedding I've attended. They have display wedding cakes in each store, I could inquire on the prices if someone doesn't get back to you sooner. I have always been curious anyway.

I would like to know the prices as well. I saw an ad inside Albertsons another chain store here in Florida. I took one home with me and their wedding cake prices start from $189.99 to $499.99. The lowest cake serves 118 w/o top layer and 134 w/top layer. Their highest priced cake serves 266 w/o top layer and 282 w/top layer. They go by the standard wedding cake slices.

BTW, Publix cakes are really good but now that I've been making my own cakes. I would rather have my own. So I guess it depends on if your client likes homemade or store brought as a preference. I think once they get a good taste of homemade, they prefer homemade better. I made my SIL a believer of homemade.

I had an Albertson's wedding cake back in 2005. A friend of my husband's offered to make us our cake as a gift (she used to do wedding cakes professionally before going back to accounting for more income). Two weeks before the wedding something came up and she realized she wouldn't be able to do it. She offered to buy us a cake but with short notice told us to go to a grocery store and recommended Albertsons. Our cake was 3 tiers and I believe fed about 130-150, not sure exactly. It cost $300. It was cute and I thought it tasted great, well at least the lemon filled tier. I wasn't a fan of the chocolate filling.

I know the Beloved cake here in SC is $425 after the $50 stand fee is returned.

thanks everyone, it is good to know that thers at least an option for brides not to pay thousands for a cake. In Philly, super market cakes are pretty awful as are some really popular bakeries.

there is, lol

Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back, I was out of town. I have a couple of prices for you. The most popular size is 6 9 12. That starts at $255. For fondant covered, add 50 percent on top. Gum paste and fondant deco is all alacart. We recently did a 14 double stack 10 and 7 with strawberry and custard filling gum paste flowers and fondant bow for $450.
I hope this helps you.

So that is $2.50 a serving, if you use the Wilton Chart, and $3.33 a serving if you use Earlene's. Kinda pricy for a grocery store cake!

You have to give 4 wks. notice, an option for some especilly if the taste is good. Thanks everyone for your responses. If you are lucky you might get a beautiful cake, if not you might end up ith a hot mess.