A Gift of Taste

I can not say enough good things about A Gift of Taste. My family has been getting cakes from there for as long as I can remember and each one out does the next. My wedding cake was not only gorgeous but delicious! Most of our guests said it was the best wedding cake they’ve ever had and I agree.

First and foremost, our wedding cake was delicious, beautiful, and timely. The owner and staff were also helpful and courteous throughout. So I would definitely come here again! That said, there were some things that should have been improved, which is why I couldn’t in good conscience give a five star review.
We came here after booking our wedding at Wedgewood Sterling Hills. Cake wasn’t included with our package, but we chose to go with the vendor they recommended first. We’re still glad we did, and we’re not trying to be overly critical, but we hope our experience helps others in the planning process.
1) Color: The cake we chose had hand crafted flowers on it for which we had to pay $ 30 extra. That fee is totally reasonable for the delicate artistry required, but what was disappointing was that we were told they could make the flowers any color we chose. We specified red fading into white. When our cake was delivered the day of our wedding, the flowers were actually orange. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it seemed to me that an error must have happened with the coloring, and the professional thing would have been to redo them. Maybe there wasn’t time, but in that case I think the bakery should have reached out after the wedding and offered some sort of restitution, maybe refund the $ 30 or at least give a gift certificate or something. On the other hand, maybe it actually wasn’t possible to make the flowers truly red, but in that case it should have been explained at the time of ordering so we would know what to expect or choose another color.
2) Tasting: I’m not sure what other bakeries do, but I felt there should have been more guidance and information when it came to the set up of this experience. Our actual wedding cake ended up much more delicious than the actual tasting. In fact, we almost didn’t book this place because when we went for the tasting, the sweet frosting was just completely overpowering the delicate cake itself. What changed our minds is that after we had been left alone to taste the 3 flavors we’d chosen and flip through books of photos, the owner came out before we left and I actually asked her if we could order the cake with less frosting. It was then she explained that due to the frosting technique, the actual wedding cake would have less. She said most couples really wanted to taste the frosting and so that was why a lot of frosting was squirted onto the sample slices.
The other thing about the tasting is that one of the cakes we tasted was marble, but no one told us until we were actually there tasting them that the marble cake actually tastes exactly the same as the white cake and the only difference is aesthetic. So since you’re limited to 3 flavors, it would be good to know that ahead of time so you can try a greater variety.

Went through A Gift of Taste because we had our wedding at Wedgewood, Ventura in October. Showed the owner a picture of the cake we wanted and it came out so beautiful. The cake tasted so good, our guests raved about it. I recommend this business to anyone around the area and in need of a wedding cake.

After reading all these great reviews I decided to call and schedule a cake testing and consultation for a wedding cake. The lady i spoke too was completely unprofessional and rude. I wont be dropping a dime into this company!

A Gift of Taste did our wedding cake on October 2^nd. It looked beautiful and tasted great! They were super helpful at our tasting, and gave some suggestions to make sure we had the best cake possible, since we went in not very sure of what we wanted.

Really beautiful cakes… lots of attention to detail
They will make anything you want !!!

Thank you so much for making our vision come alive. We absolutely loved our wedding cake, inside and out:). We received so many compliments, it was beautiful.

I am so over the breadbasket so I thought because of the Unilocal reviews I would try this place and I have mixed feelings. The cake was very light and moist which I liked. The frosting and custard on the other hand was not my favorite. The fresh fruit filling wasn’t as fresh tasting as I would of liked. The berries were good but strawberries were kind of mushy. I called and asked them to change the color of the trim of the cake from pink to orange and they changed part of the trim but not all of it? Thank goodness that wasn’t that important.

After living together for 19 years, we chose to have our wedding aboard the Scarlett Belle on the anniversary of our first date: Saturday 3.14.15
The Scarlett Belle recommended A Gift of Taste and we are so glad they did — the tasting was very enjoyable, there are a ton of pictures to choose from and the finished product was absolutely gorgeous and incredibly delicious! I love cake and our wedding cake turned out to be one of the best we have ever had — we are planning to order a small version every anniversary.
The cake was one of the least stressful, easy-​peasy aspects of the wedding — we will work with A Gift of Taste again in a heartbeat. Money well spent. Thank you!

Always delicious and beautifully decorated cakes. Well worth the out of the way location.

I will start by saying: it’s YOUR wedding! Don’t go into this place and ask the baker Cris what she thinks YOU should do. If you’re going to do that, this place might not meet your expectations.
This woman is a baker, and a damn good one at that! She has a ton of picture books of other previous orders, so we just said «we want this layer off this one, these flowers off this one, and that design from that one» and she totally made it happen! Our cake was absolutely beautiful and so smooth (and we didn’t use fondant). There were at least two guests that I know of that touched my wedding cake because they thought it was fake! That’s how flawless it was! And it was delicious! I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding cake! Thank you!

Staff was nice enough. Store looked fairly run down. Only place left open in the whole strip mall. The cakes we tried were pretty run of the mill. Not horrible mind you, just not all that great.

Chris:
Thank you again for the wonderful cake you made for my sons’ birthday party this weekend. As always your cake was loved by all who ate some and everyone was blown away by the giant football on the cake. Thank you for bringing joy to all our special occasions these past eight years!!!
Thank you,
Javier

I hope the owner of the store gets to read this, and see the picture of her cake I posted from my wedding.
My wedding ceremony was on August 14^th, 2014. The day was a magical fairy tale, and the cake was the icing on top (no pun intended). The owner was so helpful and supportive in helping me choose my cake, and she added a round on top of the cake at no extra charge (I was on a strict budget), just to make sure it looked perfect. Shows she not only bakes like a queen, and is an outstanding artist, she has a big heart too. She hoped my day would go perfectly, and it did. When I saw her cake I almost cried tears of joy. My guests were in awe of it, and it drew one comment after another. I made my own base, and surrounded it with floating tulle with flickering electric candle light underneath it, glass slippers, and roses. The effect was stunning!
The owner was worried that I only wanted raspberry jam as a center filling, but the taste went down with tons of compliments from my guests too, saying it made it perfectly sweet, without being too sweet (which is what I was aiming for so yay!), Everyone asked where I got the cake from.
She did an excellent job, and I highly recommend this place for your wedding cake needs. You won’t be disappointed!

Love this place, last October I got married and ordered my cake from here. Getting ready to order my 1 year anniversary cake (cause the thought of freezing something with egg in it grossed me out) and can’t wait. The cake taste it’s self was awesome and they don’t use Nast fondant, just smooth the icing to perfection

I went through A Gift of Taste most recently for my sons 4^th birthday/​baptism and both of the cakes were awesome! Iron man was the theme and she created a picture of him out of white chocolate. We had chocolate with chocolate mousse in one cake and white with raspberry filling in the other and both were delicious. I have been getting my cakes from here since my wedding day and have now bought 6 all together. I have never been disappointed!

Mary from a Gift of Taste has designed all of life’s most important cakes for my little family. Gift of taste was there from my wedding cake to my baby shower cake to my daughter’s first birthday cake. Each one was beautiful, unique, and delicious. If you give Gift of Taste an idea, they can turn it into a really special cake that exceeds your expectations. One last thing that I really appreciated about each of my cakes was the top vegan layer. It made it so I could enjoy the cake along with my friends and family who aren’t vegan.

A Gift of Taste has become the gold standard by which I judge all cakes! My company has hired them several times the past few years and each different was a visual and culinary slice of heaven.
Innovative edible décor, fun and friendly service– when i die I want to go to A Gift of Taste!

Two words. RED. VELVET. ;-)
Cris and her staff are beyond professional. I had a very specific vision and aesthetic for my wedding cake and the finished product far exceeded my expectations from the inside out! (How many times have we all been to weddings with bland cake? :-p) The frosting was as smooth and flawless as fondant, but tastier! The pipework was delicate and beautiful.
So happy.

I was actually introduced to «A Gift of Taste» by our wedding coordinator through the Scarlett Belle. They told me I could get a wedding cake anywhere but they would ONLY recommend «A Gift of Taste». And it’s easy to see why. The best word to describe the cake is «flawless».
Our cake was very simple with very detailed design work on the side. It was white. There wasn’t a lot of craziness to take away from any imperfections. It had to be perfect or it would show. The cake presentation and taste were just perfect. From the juicy fresh strawberries to the creaminess of the chocolate mousse, it was perfect.
And backing up a bit to the cake tasting, that went perfectly too! Made our reservation a couple weeks in advance, told her what we wanted from their very easy selection sheet and when we got there everything was ready. When we didn’t like one of the cakes, it took her mere minutes to whip up something new (that we ultimately ended up choosing) while we enjoyed pouring over their numerous books of previously created cakes. Check out the Zombie cake, it was pretty amazing, but not exactly what we were trying to go for at our wedding…
Back in January, it was my wife’s birthday and I took a chance and gave them a call to see if they could do a small 7−8″ cake for me. To my surprise, they were more than happy to do my small cake order and for only a few bucks more than what I woulda paid at Albertsons (obviously the quality & taste more than make up for the difference).
Decided to write this review today because I just placed my 2^nd birthday cake order for my daughters 10^th birthday this weekend and I’m already more than excited about having a slice.
Personally? I can’t make a cake this good and with the selection of flavors & filings, weekend hours, and really amazing prices, «A Gift of Taste» has our business for life.