Charm City Cakes

I love watching Ace of Cakes, and my family knows that!! So once we became engaged right away, my parents wanted to surprise us/me with a wedding cake from Charm City Cakes! I didn't put two-and-two together when my mom wanted to know what I wanted from my cake even before we started even looking at venues, so I was very emotionally surprised when I saw our wedding cake and was told that it was made by Charm City Cakes! My parents had to order months in advance and they drove it down from Maryland! Totally yummy and beautiful!

OMG!!! ive never eaten such an expensive, yet completely original wedding cake. This company can pull off anything, any theme, size, or color. If your having a space-cowboy themed wedding and you cant find a cake, call Charm City Cakes.

Who wouldn't want their wedding cake done by Chef Duff? We actually got lucky and were able to book Charm City Cakes to do our cake through a referral from our DJ. We had seen Ace of Cakes on the Food Network so we knew what kinds of cakes Duff and his team could do but we didn't want anything totally crazy for our wedding. We decided to do a classic wedding cake with a few twists - it was going to be square, with sugar flowers that replicated the 3 flowers that we picked to be set in 3 square glasses on our reception tables. We were excited to see what he was going to come up with to represent our idea. And he certainly delivered with his ability to take our loose concept, sketch out the design by hand, and turn it into a fantastic cake! The realistic looking flowers coupled with our funny cake topper (a bride dragging the groom through a sugar flower bed), was definitely a discussion point at the wedding! Everyone raved about the way the cake looked and tasted!

We worked with Charm City to create a replica of Giants Stadium (Meadowlands) as the grooms cake. It was AMAZING! People stood and looked at it for hours - literally. The attention to detail was amazing and everyone did an great job getting it perfect. This vendor was a pleasure to work with! Although it was expensive, it was very very cool to have at our wedding!

Had the groom's car made as a surprise groom's cake. Working with the team was very easy, the pumpkin cinnamon cake was delicious, and the cake itself was just amazing. It was absolutely worth the price I paid to see the surprised look on his face and to hear the great compliments from all of our guests. We couldn't even eat it until after the reception because we were too in love with it.

Charm City Cakes created my wedding cake and my grooms cake. The grooms cake was a lego castle equipped with a lego bride and groom and even an alligator! Their attention to detail and ability to turn my silly idea into a magnificent cake was amazing!For our wedding cake, we went the more traditional route and it was equally as amazing! We had five layers and wanted five different flavors and they didn't mind doing that for us! They were very accomodating and responsive!The flavors are also INCREDIBLE! Everyone raved about how good it tasted :)

Not only did our cake look amazing, but it was also delicious. The cake was beautifully sculpted to be exactly what we requested. Everyone gushed about the appearance of the cake and then devoured it. There wasn't a single piece left over at the end of the night. Beautiful, unique, but best of all, delicious. Charm City was professional and a provided a fun experience in selecting our wedding cake. We would highly recommend them.

Our wedding cake was a HUGE hit!! It was absolutely perfect. Meeting with Elena and discussing the design was so much fun! It was definitely one a very memorable experience. Our topper was personalized right down to my hair style and dress! The cake design was beautiful and it tasted fantastic! Graham was so great about answering questions and getting all the details from us to make everything perfect! We chose our venue so that we could get a Charm City Cakes wedding cake and it ended up being everything we could of wanted!

Charm city cakes was amazing. They worked with us to develop our dream cake. The design process was a lot of fun. I had found a cake on the internet I liked andthen added in a few details of my own. I would just tell them what I liked and they made it happen. I also had a grooms cake made and that was amazing. It was real hit at my wedding. My groom was very happy with his star trek cake. They seemed very excited about my groom cake. It was a little expensive but worth every penny. I would use them for other occasions in the future.

What can one say? Charm city cakes didn't get their own TV show by making " average cakes ". Our cake was FABULOUS! It was so close to what we had envisioned , that I swear they read my mind. It was a very moist, tasty pumpkin cinnamon five-tier extra tall square- rotating matte chocolate cake with hazelnut butter cream frosting. Communication was EXCELLENT & swift -- at all times, not at ALL the " too busy because we have a show " sort of thing at ALL. Always VERY personalized, professional & extremely easy to get along with WONDERFUL group of artists & staff. Set up was right on time & our wedding guests were simply FLOORED by it.

Two words...YUMMM and BEAUTIFUL!

Charm City Cakes did such a tremendous job with our wedding cake! Everyone was completely blown away by the attention to detail and the fabulous cake topper. We initially met with Mary and she was great. We came in with some general ideas and some magazine pictures and she sketched out a design. She really helped us take our big vague ideas and get them down onto paper. We really wanted to incorporate elements of Baltimore into an elegant wedding cake. In the end we decided on a cake topper that had us sitting on a bench on Federal Hill Park with the Baltimore skyline as the backdrop and famous Baltimore signs on the other tiers of the cake. We sent them a picture of us and the likeness of the cake topper figures was spot on! There are definitely some very talented individuals working for Charm City Cakes!We really felt that the people making the cake wanted it to be the best that it could be. One of the cake tiers was supposed to have yellow and white candy lettering spelling our names, but the grocery stores did not have the correct color candy. We got a call from Charm City Cakes a few days before the wedding to let us know and that they were going to make candy letters out of fondant to look like the correct colored candy lettering. I can only imagine the time it took to put everyone of those little dots on the lettering. We really felt that was going above and beyond!Not only was the appearance of the cake awesome, but the cake itself was so delicious! We were able to take home samples of flavors we had selected at the initial meeting and every flavor was so delicious it was almost hard to narrow them down!The cost of Charm City Cakes is a little pricey. We were fortunate enough to have them make our cake as part of our wedding package at the Renaissance Hotel. However, for what they provide they are definitely worth it!Loved, loved, loved working with Charm City Cakes!

We met with Chef Duff in April and we went over sketches for the cake. He went over each detail and was great fun to work with. We were instructed to order special flowers for the cake - which we did. We were contacted by the bakery a week or so before and all of the details were finalized. The cake arrived on time and by the time the wedding party was done getting ready the cake was finished and in place. It was picture perfect - it looked like a stack of wrapped gifts covered in roses with a big burgundy bow. It was absolutely stunning. Thank you Duff and all the folks at Charm City Cakes.

When we decided to have our wedding in Baltimore, we immediately thought about getting our cake from Charm City Cakes (admittedly, in large part due to their Food Network show, "Ace of Cakes"). Not surprisingly, their cakes are more expensive than the average baker, but I must say that we felt we got our money's worth, and then some!First, the experience of ordering a cake was wonderful. The staff is responsive, respectful, and very professional. Our cake consultation went very smoothly; Anna was able to take our ideas about having a crossword-themed cake and she designed a cake that reflected exactly what we were looking for. On the day of the wedding, we and our guests were blown away by the cake! It looked amazing, and it was so unique and special to us. And--most importantly--the cake was DELICIOUS! Whenever a food product is made creatively into something beautiful, one always wonders whether it actually TASTES good. We are still getting comments from guests about how delicious the cake was! We cannot wait to dig into what's left on our first anniversary.Again, we feel we got more than our money's worth, and would recommend Charm City Cakes to anyone looking for a unique cake design.

Our cake was beautiful, and tasted fantastic.

We used Charm City Cake for our wedding cake. We wanted something different but still unique and boy did charm city deliver. Our cake was AMAZING!!! We had a ton of compliments. Not to mention it tasted fantastic, we had 5 different flavors (brownie, smores, pumpkin chocolate chip, lemon) and all were crazy. I would recommend Charm City Cakes to everyone they were amazing and really gave us that WOW factor at the wedding. AWESOME vendor!

Charm City Cakes was the Best choice in making my wedding cake, the Staff is so friendly and out going. They did exactly what I envisoned for my cake. When I first arrived there to test the cakes, I didn't really "know" what I wanted. Mary Alice, Took me under her creative wing, and once she heard my dress was black and white, she was off and running. I couldn't have asked for a better wingman in deciding what are centerpiece for our wedding would look like. I would advise everyone to use Charm City cakes. Aside, Chef Duff uses household tools rather then bakery supplies. How cool is that ???~Heather & B.J. Knox 5/19/2007

If you love the food network like I do then you may have seen the show "Ace of Cakes." I got hooked on the show and never in a million years thought they would be able to do our wedding cake. I got online and realized they had our wedding date availalbe. All it took was one email and phone call. We had a consultation with Duff, he helped us design the wedding cake of our dreams. Our wedding was beach themed and the cake matched our theme perfectly. We had approximately 115 guests and we probably had enough cake for 400!!! It was beautiful, unique and delicious.

Charm City Cakes made the Groom's Cake. They did a fantastic job! I was very detailed and particular about what I wanted - it was to be a very unusual cake. It was, also, a surprise to my husband. He knew he was getting the cake, just not what it was. They did a wonderful job working with me on the details. They made sure that they got every little detail that I asked for. When the cake came, I was stunned. It was better than I had even imagined. Everyone loved the cake, itself. My husband chose Bananas Foster, for the cake. I believe they cater to picky people, because their selection of cake flavors is the largest I've ever seen. No matter how picky someone is, they'll be able to find a cake flavor they like from Charm City Cakes.

Ace of Cakes did our groom's cake for the wedding, a red Corvette! The cake became the hit of the wedding and looked amazing... it tasted great too!

They were so great and made a fantastic cake that was unforgettable. It not only was a work of art but tasted out of this world!!! Super Wonderful Job!!!

I feel blessed to have had my cake made by someone who was able to capture my vision for the cake and make it a reality. While not as crazy as some of the cakes he's made (and which I think are absolutely fabulous) my cake was a departure from the traditional. Everything from the flavors (brownie and carrot) to the icing color, to the details was perfect. It was one more element that helped make my wedding everything I dreamed.Also, they were willing and able to adjust the size of the cake right up to the last minute as we finalized our guest count.

Duff and his team created the most beautiful Mehndi (Henna) design cake for my Islamic wedding. I was able to give him my vision and colors and he worked his magic and the cake was delicious.

From my first meeting with Duff to delivery of my outgrageous fuschia and aqua cake with butterflies and dragonflies shooting out of it, I was thrilled with my cake and it was the talk of the wedding! All four tiers were delicious flavors and the best part is Charm City will make a fresh anniversary cake for us next year - no freezing required!

WOW!!! The created a cake that looked amazing and tasted even better, all for a reasonable price! They were so enthusiastic - I think they enjoyed making the cake almost as much as we enjoyed eating it! I'll be ordering cakes for all of my big events from them from here on out!

We are big fans of the Ace of Cake show, so as soon as we were engaged I contacted Charm City Cakes to inquire about a our wedding cake. If you love the food network like we do then you may have seen the show "Ace of Cakes." We are hooked on the show and my wife never expected they would be doing our wedding cake until I told her about that is who I booked. I got online and saw that they had our wedding date available. All it took was an email, phone call and our consultation with Duff. He helped us design the wedding cake which was a vision in my head to the reality when we saw it at our wedding reception. The cake was a combination of different symbolic items which tied my wife and I together. We had about 100 guests and we probably had enough cake for 150!!! It was well worth the expense to make a dream become a reality.

We LOVED our wedding cake. As the Food Network show illustrates, they are very creative and we asked them to recreate the scene where my husband and I first saw each other (at Band Camp) and they did a great job! It was so cute and we loved it. Our guests are still talking about our cake three weeks later. The only downside is that it was a little expensive, but we expected that so we weren't sticker shocked. :) However, Mary Alice is very quick to get back with you via email and they are very flexible. We had to change our delivery time a few days before the wedding, and they were willing to accommodate us with no problems. The best part was that Duff, Geof, and Mary Alice offered to get a picture with us during our design appointment!

What can I say, Duff is the best. I have used Charm City Cakes three more times after our wedding! I just love them!

My husband and I were actually not planning to have a wedding cake (just a big desert bar). However, my parents surprised us with an amazing cake from Charm City Cakes. It was awesome! It was a replica of my parents boat (with my step dad driving and 2 dogs on the bow included) with my husband and I wake surfing behind the boat. There were also two crabs getting married in the corner and a back drop of the Chesapeake. It was great. My mother also informed me that it was a pleasure to work with Mary Alice and the crew there. Thanks Charm City!

A deposit is required for your initial consultation. However, the deposit is applied to the final balance. Duff was great to work with. He made both my husband and myself feel very comfortable during the design process. And the cake flavors are awesome! The best part is that you can choose a different flavor for each layer and there's no additional charge. The pumpkin spice tastes just like pumpkin bread.

I met with Duff, the owner of Charm City Cakes months before my wedding to get the perfect theme. Since I was having a zoo wedding I didn't want a traditional wedding cake but something original and unique. After talking to Duff we decided on a tier cake with animal print and peacock feathers from the top (the bridal party theme was peacocks). After deciding what the cake looked like and Duff did a sketch we took home samples of the cake flayers I chose ahead of time. We tasted them all and they were all delicious. The cake was delivered to the ceremony on time and set up and got a lot of attention. Many people see Duff on TV on the Food Network for Ace of Cakes and although some might think his cakes are pricey they are WELL worth it. We have gone to him since for our special occasion cake needs.

Loved our cake. The taste. The decorations. The craft of it. It truly represented who we are and was in the tradition of charm city cakes (Ace of Cakes). We had carrot and almond amaretto. Both were fabulous. Your biggest problem is that everyone wants to sample both cakes. :)

Charm City Cakes made a groom's cake for our wedding in the shape of a police car - with working police lights! The cake was fantastic looking - we as well as the guests were impressed! We provided photos of ourselves along with photos of the police car that my husband drives. They did such an amazing job of making "us" look like us on the cake and the car was exactly the same as the photo! We were very, very happy with the grooms cake - it was perfect. It added something very unique to our reception and was a big hit. It was pricey - but worth it to us.

Let me just say this...Charm City Cakes was AWESOME! It was truly a pleasure to work with them!!! Mary Alice and Duff are both as nice as they could be! They were so wonderful. No doubt in my mind, they were the best of all of the vendors. They created the Groom's Cake for our wedding. I'm from S Louisiana and married a Baltimore-girl. I'm also an architect, and wanted a cake that would remind me of my life...so I chose to have a recreation of Oak Alley Plantation...it was so great! Geoff did an excellent job and a lot of research and really made it so perfect! I couldn't believe it! It's still, to this day, the talk of the wedding guests! It even made it on their show...which was cool because we were able to see the behind the scenes stuff with the cake. All and all...I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Cake looked amazing. Exactly likie I wanted it. Tasted great too.

Being a fan of "Ace of Cakes," we were very happy to have them as our vendor. We lucked out early in the planning process because we won a $1000 gift certificate from them (we paid $600 for it, it was an auction). If we didn't have that, we probably wouldn't have used them since they are very expensive.We had a consultation with them, and they used the picture we gave them and reproduced it very faithfully. They advised us on how to keep the cost down and gave us as many opportunities as we needed to try their many flavors and pick a few. The cake ended up being gorgeous AND delicious, and they delivered it right on time and everything went very well.

They can bake or create ANYTHING you want...they are incredible artists and a lot of fun to work with!

We had a walle and eve cake. Cake was about two ours behind delivery schedule but I didnt know about it until I was ready yo walk down the aisle and they were about 10 mins away. When we walked back in 30 mins later the cake was set up. The cake could have only been done justice by them and every expectation was met and surpassed. The responsiveness could have been better but we understood that if calls weren't screened and emails we not written the right way they may think it was just someone who wanted to get attention. Cake was lemon and awesome. Would use again.

My cake was a hit!!! VERY yummy; most of my guests each had a piece...little leftovers which is not normal for weddings!! I even purchased "to-go" boxes thinking there would be a lot to bring home.My only complaint is that I had requested a few decorative GOLD dots be spread throughout the cake. They made them purple which wasn't what we decided on. No biggie, but for the amount of money we paid, I feel we should have gotten exactly what we asked for. I would definitely recommend Charm City Cakes. They were very professional, and extremely responsive to my phone calls. They also obviously know what they're doing...they have a hit show!!Mary

I worked with the Charm City team to create a very special groom's cake for my wedding. From the planning through to the execution, they were extremely responsive and professional. The cake looked and tasted awesome. With the big name comes big price, but for that special day, I say splurge and go for it! Charm City made our day even more special with a one-of-a-kind creation, special for my husband. It was wonderful, and a huge hit with the guests!

Duff and the crew in Baltimore are great, and will really work with any bride to create anything they want, from elegant and traditional to crazy and original. My cake tasted great (pumpkin chocolate chip and raspberry chocolate), and was gorgeous. My only complaint was that I wish my cake was bigger, because people wanted more! They might sound like they are just trying to get you to spend more money on a bigger cake, but this cake people WILL want to eat seconds!

I live in New York and I went to Baltimore for my cake. My husband and I didn't want the same wedding cake everyone else has had, so we went to Charm City for a unique cake that reflected our personality. It was perfect. We got so many compliments on how original and beautiful it was. Not only that, but the cake is amazing. Normally I don't like wedding cake, but this cake it out of this world. The only issue I had was it was far away...but the drive was totally worth it.

We are big fans of the Ace of Cake show, so as soon as we get engaged I contacted Charm City to inquire about a groom's cake. Their prices are higher than most other bakeries, but you're paying for their artistry and not just cake - plus I had a hefty delivery fee for them to come from Baltimore to Washington, DC (Georgetown area). The cake wasn't exactly what I invisioned in my head, but in fairness my description to them my description was pretty vague and the cake did meet the description I gave them exactly and looked awesome. It was a surprise for my husband and he really liked it. I just wish I could have been downstairs for the delivery. I was very happy with how it turned out.

Duff and his staff did an exceptional job creating a masterpiece out of a wedding cake. If you are on a budget then I do not suggest using Charm City since they are the Gucci or Channel of wedding cakes. You definately get what you pay for!!!

CCC was the BEST! They made our Wedding Cake and the Groom's Cake! They were really friendly and willing to try anything in regards to making your cake!

Duff and his staff are super creative and made the cake unique but traditional which is what I wanted. It tasted good as well. A little on the high side for cost but I loved it all the same.

Our cake was beautiful and everyone loved the flavor! Pumpkin spice with buttercream icing!!!

The only downside is that they used a different color 'finish' to the cake than we originally specified. The cake ended up being white instead of off-white which did not match our colors. :( Otherwise, it was fabulous!

Honestly, the cake is very expensive - but we weren't really going for value with a cake from Charm City Cakes. If you're going to Duff, you want something special and, in those cases, you have to pay a little more for it. In that respect, it was worth it.The big problem we had was that the topper - which was a little out of the ordinary and the reason we went to Duff to begin with - fell off the cake before the service even started because of the rocking of the boat (the wedding was on a boat). It may not have happened if the cake would have been delivered to the right location (the boat's marina rather than City Dock in Annapolis). However, they more than made up for it when they sent out a decorator to repair the cake and stabilize the topper - while the boat was on the water. In the end, you couldn't really tell there was an issue (the topper was leaning a little, but the stabilization efforts worked), and the cake was fixed before dinner was over.

Even though I'm from Baltimore, I didn't hear about charm city cakes until I was living in Los Angeles. My husband and I were totally excited about having Charm City make our cake. We decided to keep the cake design a secret, but the guests knew who was making our cake. They couldn't wait to see it, it was the talk of the town! I liked the cake; however, my husband thought that it was a bit boring in design, he had higher hopes for the cake design. I can say that the cake tasted much better than the samples that we tried, which was a relief. We wanted to keep the top of the cake; however, it has already broken, which is sad :@( If you are willing to spend a lot of money, go for it! It certainly makes for excitement on the part of the guests awaiting to see the Ace of Cakes cake!

Our cake looked stunning and exactly what I wanted, but I got alot of complaints that it had no taste. Unfortuantely I didn't really have any, but I was very disappointed by the feedback that I got

We got a cake made by Charm City through the wedding package we had at the Renaissance Harborplace hotel, so that is why I didn't rate on value of cost (But I would say it is a good value of cost). The cake they made for us was AMAZING!!! People were standing around the cake and just staring at it! They took the ideas my husband and I had and made it into the perfect cake. Every time we contacted them they got back to us right away and were so easy to work with. The cake was so delicious!!!! I would recommend them to everyone!

I must say I was a bit disappointed with the cake we received from Charm City. We ordered both a wedding and grooms cake. The grooms cake was great. We had a 3-D camel and it really came out fantastically. However, the wedding cake was not at all what I was expecting. From our consultation, I was expecting a cake with real-looking fondant gerbera daisies in deep, bold colors with an apple and a pear for the topper. We ordered a 3-tier cake, but as we got closer, I was concerned about the size of the cake and I emailed to ask if they thought we should upgrade to four tiers. They said that the three tiers would be ample in size to make an impact.However, when I saw my cake on the day of the wedding, I was devastated. The cake was tiny, especially compared to the grooms cake sitting right beside it. It almost disappeared on the table. The topper was so tiny that my florist didn't even notice it and put flowers right on top of it. The flowers on the cake were also tiny and looked like they had been made using a mold. Worst of all, the colors were pastels! My wedding was designed around gerbera daisies in deep reds, fiery oranges and deep, golden yellows.I will say that people really enjoyed the flavors of the cakes we selected, espeically the pumpkin chocolate chip, and Charm City was good about allowing us to sample multiple flavors since we did not like the flavors we sampled the first time around. Also, Duff and mary Alice were very friendly during the planning process. I don't know where or how the miscommunication ocured, but if you are ordering a cake from them, I would be VERY specific (to the point of being annoying) about what you want.

There were some initial scheduling difficulties and mix-ups, but the cake was decorated exactly as we asked. The boxes left by charm city cakes to take a couple layers home after the reception were too small! I would recommend their services if you don't mind paying the price.

these guys are awesome!

Charm City Cakes came with my catering package. So the payment and everything went through the Renaissance Harborplace. To decide on a cake, we got to sit down with Duff Goldman and brainstorm ideas. I was impressed with Duff's laid back personality and you can tell he really loves what he does. I was also very impressed with how receptive he was when I told him I didn't like his initial idea. Very professional!Our cake was England with a large Big Ben and New Jersey with a large Statue of Liberty as my husband is British and I'm a South Jersey Girl. Connecting the two cakes was a rope with my husband and I "tieing the knot" across the ocean. It was great and everyone at the wedding loved it!! Aside from how great it looked, it tasted great!

Overall I was pleased with the look of my cake. I wish the colors had been closer to the shades I was using and the topper could have been a little better presented. They messed up on one of the flavors I picked but offered to make up for it with an Anniversary cake for our 1 year. We would probably recommend Charm City in the future if you are looking for a unique one of a kind cake that costs a little more then the average cake.

Awesome cake! They are really open to designer your wedding cake, and are up for almost any challenge. A little pricey and they are a little hard to find (they purposefully hide themselves since they get many "visitors" because they have their own show on the Food Network.

I had my wedding cake made by Charm City Cakes in Spring of 2007. I was ridiculously disappointed with my cake, their customer service, and my overall experience. I saw their show on the food network and thought they would be perfect to create my dream of a fortune cookie cake. Boy was I wrong.

We went in for the "tasting" to be greeted by Duff, who was incredibly rude to us and made it seem like we were interrupting his work by giving us our cake samples. Granted we were not their biggest clients, but they didn't need to be so obviously rude about it. He begrudgingly handed us samples wrapped in tin foil and sent us on our way, to walk across the street to a nearby restaurant and try them ourselves. The day before the wedding we picked the cake up. Wow. It looked like a giant elephant turd and tasted about the same (I'm guessing). It was HORRIBLE! What a waste of money. My guests were polite enough not to say anything until much later. I had been telling everyone that Ace of Cakes from the food network would be doing our cake and how cool it would be, HA! Yea right.

Total rip off. They have completely let their newly found notoriety go to their heads and I'd put safe money on the fact that they'll be out of business as quickly as they started. Treating people like that does NOT promote return service. Two thumbs down.