La Farine French Bakery

We wanted to go with LaFarine in Oakland, we found out they make wedding cakes at a bridal faire in Claremont Hotel. We made a cake tasting appointment soon after the bridal faire. We tasted, pre-ordered our cake and wanted to leave a deposit the same day but Marianne did not take the deposit telling us that we still have time, a few weeks later I called her to give her the deposit money for the order and she told us that she was making the cake for someone else and therefore couldn't make our cake. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and told her that why she didn't want to take our money when we wanted to pay her that day. She said yes, but I also told you that it was first to come first serve basis. We couldn't believe that she did not honored our agreement. We even had our cake size and flavors in paper. We feel that she could at least call us before she accepted that order that she was talking about. Perhaps was a bigger order, closer to Oakland or any other reason. Whatever the reason was she was very rude and unprofessional. With all the stress that is around preparing a wedding this is something you don't want deal with. Stay away from slimy people like her.

I actually just bought separate cakes for use as the "cutting cake" at the wedding, with nice sheet cakes for the main cake. This cake, the Jezebel, is absolutely indescribably good. I didn't care about the decor (which was nice) - I cared that the cake tasted good. It didn't taste good - it was heavenly! Almond flavored spongecake w/ bittersweet chocolate mousse and apricot jam, finished off with vanilla buttercream. OMG, OMG, OMG!

We're glad to have chosen our trusted neighborhood bakery to make our wedding cake. The cake not only looked good, it tasted great, just like the other goodies at the shop.

I had a very specific image of what I wanted my 4-tier fondant cake to look like. When I reviewed the pictures that were in their book, there wasn't one available to show. MaryAnne brought out the cake pans so it can help us get a visual of what I wanted. Turned out that the dimentions of the square and circle pans she had did not align as nicely as what I had envisioned. We played with the pan sizes so that in the end, the caked turned out much more beautiful than what I expected. If she didn't take the time to bring out those pans and just did what I told her to do, I probably wouldn't have gotten all the great comments about it. The cakes are delicious too! We go there every so often for a slice.

This is my favorite pastry shop, but it turns out it is the best place for wedding cakes too! The prices are reasonable (between $5.25 and $6.00 per slice) and their wedding cake chef is very friendly, thoughtful, and careful to hear you out and understand your ideas!I enjoyed meeting with Mary Anne and discussing my ideas for a wedding cake.

My fiance and I made an appointment to talk about wedding cakes. A couple of days before the appointment, Mary Anne asked us to pick three cakes from their wedding cake list to taste at our consultation. We really liked four of their cakes, so she said she would gladly add the fourth cake to our tasting for free. During the consultation she was friendly, very helpful, knowledgeable, and willing to work with our requirements. We wanted a marzipan finish instead of buttercream or fondant, and we wanted something simple, elegant, and minimalist. She listened carefully and responded in a thoughtful and engaged way.

First we looked at their wedding albums and picked out looks we liked. Then we tasted the four cakes. They were all great! We tried the Raspberry Royale, the Gateau au Citron, the Jezebel, and the Chamonix. We did not want a chocolate-heavy cake, but rather something light that would match the marzipan finish we both wanted. The Raspberry Royale was exactly what we were looking for - white chocolate raspberry mousse in genoise cake soaked in amaretto. The amaretto gave the cake a subtle almondy taste, which we thought would work well with the marzipan (almond paste). The other three cakes were amazing too (they were all full slices!).

Once we were done with the tasting, Mary Anne asked us about the designs we liked and for a while we discussed different decoration techniques and options. She then walked us through the different options - one presentation cake and cake sheets, a bigger cake to accommodate all guests (120), shapes, decorations, and so forth. She gave us detailed and patient explanations and really listened to us. Then, she gave us quotes based on our preferences. We decided to get a three-tier round stacked presentation cake for 115 people and a side cake for 15. The quote for this combination, with marzipan finish, was $746, including delivery ($40). We thought the price was very reasonable and we were very happy with the cake quality and with the service!

June 3, 2008 - UPDATE

The cake looked stunning and it was delectable! Mary Anne did an amazing job creating the wedding cake. We met with her a week before the wedding and discussed the decoration. She listened patiently, asked questions, and was flexible and understanding. She created a marzipan finish for us although they don't usually do that for wedding cake. And she colored the marzipan in a color that complemented the ribbon that went around each tier. She decorated the cake with flowers provided by our florist. The end result was an elegant and delicious cake that we loved!

Cakes are delicious! Bread too... Expect a small amount of requisite french snobbery on the part of staff...