A Spoonful of Sugar

It's hard to write this review. I really liked Kathleen and it's clear she cares a lot. And her cakes taste great. Full disclosure I did tell her "I wasn't too picky about particulars as long as it was pretty" and "wasn't worried about things matching" when she asked to me about matching the flowers. I went wrong here, I didn't realize that not wanting to be picky meant she would throw out 100% of the things she said she would do for our cake out the window. She pointed these things out to me when she said she felt she did nothing wrong. She did ask me if it was ok to do two of the four tiers as fake (with sheet cake), which I said I didn't mind. She ended up doing only the bottom tier as cake. The design, goodness, was bonkers. Pictures say more than words, so including them here. Why she would show us her portfolio, know we liked delicate design and mauve colors... and make this colorful, childlike cake is beyond me. We expected what she called the confetti, but what she created was nothing like the confetti she showed us. For reference, top right photo is her cake we picked as a reference, bottom right the colors we said we liked, and the left is what she delivered. Our other vendors were all super concerned about the cake ruining our photos. Guests certainly made comments about it. People liked the flavor, but the cake just looked ridiculous. It looked rushed and sloppy. Given that she texted me about the decorating at 12:30pm on the wedding day for our 3pm delivery is enough evidence to me it was rushed. On our honeymoon she was anxious we didn't like the cake, and offered to "rectify", but when we reached out she refused to offer any amount of refund. I wasn't asking for the full cake to be refunded. Paying $1300 for this cake is a HUGE ripoff considering the cake was 3 tiers of Styrofoam, decorated last minute, looked nothing at all whatsoever like what we asked for... at the most, I think this was worth the $600 it would have cost to buy a plain cake from someone else. It was after all almost no decoration work and mostly a sheet cake. The cake flavors tasted good. People ate the cake. But the experience tasted disappointing.

The cakes my fiance and I tried at our wedding cake tasting were amazing. A Spoonful of Sugar was the third place we had taste-tested and Kathleen's cakes were the only ones that blew us away. Even the verbal estimates she gave us seemed pretty reasonable.HOWEVER, after not hearing from Kathleen or getting a written proposal after a week and a half, I decided to send an email reminder that we were still waiting. It took her a few days to respond that she was extremely busy, was going to hire an assistant to help with her workload, and asked if it would be ok to get the proposal from her another few days later. By that time, it would have been more than two weeks since our appointment. (Our wedding has since passed, and I never did receive that written proposal.)As much as we both loved her cakes and her prices, I already had reservations about her reliability if we hired her. Kathleen cancelled our original tasting appointment the morning of, so we rescheduled for the following week. And on the rescheduled day, she texted saying she was running 15 minutes behind. Maybe it was just bad timing/bad luck, so I was hopeful that if we ended up working together it would be better. But I see from other Yelp reviews, this is common practice for her.What makes her lack of communication even worse, is the fact that I follow(ed) A Spoonful of Sugar's Instagram account and could see multiple and very prompt postings/interactions. Maybe her lack of communication was a passive-aggressive way of weeding out clients she didn't want to work with...

Kathleen is amazing and I am so happy she was the one to make our wedding cake! I met her through a bridal fair and after taste testing a few other popular wedding cake bakers, it was a no brainer that Kathleen's cakes were the winners!She offers a variety of flavors from staple favs like red velvet to more unique flavors like banana caramel (my all time favorite!), strawberry rhubarb, blackberry lemon, and even flourless/vegan options. Compared to other places, her cakes are moist and the flavors are rich and complex. Its really the best cakes I've ever had and I am a big dessert type of gal! For our taste testing, she gave us generous amounts of all different flavors and offered us coffee and milk. When it came to decide on flavors later on, we couldn't decide bc they were all so good! She happily offered us a second testing which we couldn't pass up! We got a 3 tier cake that came with 3 different flavors. As for the design, I showed her a pic of a cake I liked online and she recreated it beautifully. Even the fondant tasted yummy! We liked her so much, she also made our favors which were big chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with sea salt. Our guests said it was the best choco chip cookie they have ever had! She even individually wrapped them and added our personalized stickers on them for us. Bottom line: You have to taste her cakes!!!! Highly recommended!!!

I had worked with Kathleen many times before on photoshoots and her cakes always looked amazing so I knew I had to ask her to design my wedding cake when the time came. I didn't have strong opinions about how the cake should look like, but I pinned a few cake images from instagram and she somehow read my mind and made me a cake that blew me away (as well as everyone else!) I had so many people say ''I thought those were real flowers''. She makes the most amazing, delicate sugar flowers that elevates any wedding cake. :D Not to mentions her cakes were DELICIOUS. I ate all 4 sample flavors even though I was on a 'wedding diet'. I just couldn't stop and I don't even have a sweet tooth. We choose the Rocky Road flavor and lemon and marionberry. It was a hit with everyone! :D

Absolutely loved Kathleen's "non-dairy" coconut cream cake! It was beautiful and arrived without any hiccups or delays on the day-of. I'm not sure what the current trend is (and I thought that cake-related flowers were the florist's job), but I was particularly surprised by how the sugar flowers turned out. They looked almost like the real thing! In the midst of hectic wedding planning and the vendor search process, I found that Kathleen was the most responsive and accommodating among several bakeries that I had contacted. She will definitely be my go-to baker for future "non-dairy" cravings for special events.

Kathleen made our wedding cake. I visited several shops with friends and family before this, and nearly selected one of them before a comedy of errors resulted in me ditching them and going in search of Option 4. Kathleen is down-to-earth and makes good cake. Sold! My main criterion on this thing was that it *taste good.* We received numerous compliments on the cake (both looks and taste) and we all went back for another slice for dessert the day after the wedding. See? Not cardboard! We requested two flavors -- chocolate with chocolate buttercream, lemon with lemon marionberry filling -- and they turned out very nicely. Also, when we started getting RSVPs back, we found out we had a guest with gluten intolerance, someone with a severe dairy allergy, and a couple of vegans, and Kathleen was able to throw in cupcakes to meet those needs as well. Way less fuss than me having to find someone to go to Sprinkles on the morning of the wedding and buy things to meet their needs. Oh, one more bonus: No "$25 deposit for cake plate" blah blah fussiness that a lot of other shops do. She comes in and sets up the cake and you are done. Find the shop on Facebook to see pics of her cakes. Good stuff.

Kathleen is really talented! I am really glad that I was able to work with her. I worked with Kathleen on a styled shoot recently. She is very creative in creating many selections for us, and they taste amazing. She is very talent in putting ideas into her beautiful work to match with our theme. I didn't have to ask more at all, it was an awesome experience to work with her. Looking forward to working with her in the future!!

Kathleen is absolutely AMAZING! Her cakes are so moist, fluffy and unique. We tried 2 other well known bakeries in the bay area and we thought her red velvet and chocolate cakes were soooo much better. I don't say this lightly. Our guests were raving about our chocolate cake for a long time. I wish I can have a bite of her cake everyday!I first met her at a bridal convention and tasted her red velvet cake. OMG so good! So we scheduled a tasting with her. We tasted about 5 different cakes and chose 3, red velvet, chocolate/chocolate, and carrot nut cake. We had a light pink cake with lace trim and pink peonies. It turned out so beautiful;) She delivered right on time to Hakone Gardens, Saratoga.

I purchased a voucher through Gilt City since I thought brioche donuts was a novel idea, and I can't turn down anything maple bacon, especially not cupcakes! It was a plus I could sample everything half off, and I was able to place my order with Kathleen easily. She responded to my emails right away, and I was able to set up a pick up time with her for a Saturday at her kitchen in the SOMA. I ordered:-Lemon Coconut Cupcake (Vanilla Cake Filled w/Lemon Curd, Topped w/Coconut, $20/Half Dozen, http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/a-spoonful-of-sugar-san-francisco?select=-LGAmxGs0tUh6oVpR46nAw#-LGAmxGs0tUh6oVpR46nAw): Good, but not amazing. The cake wasn't as fluffy as I was expecting, but I liked the lightness of the frosting, and that it wasn't tooth-achingly sweet. -Maple Bacon Cupcake (Vanilla w/Maple Sugar Buttercream and Candied Bacon, $20/Half Dozen, http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/a-spoonful-of-sugar-san-francisco?select=-LGAmxGs0tUh6oVpR46nAw#npEZ-juHbOo0Mnenq2AAvA): The candied bacon was amazing, but the cupcake itself was just ok. Again, the cake was a little too dense, but the frosting was good.However, I didn't taste any maple flavor. I would order the candied bacon on it's own if that was an option, but I don't think I would get the cupcake again.-Glazed Brioche Doughnut (Brioche Dough Fried, Topped w/Glaze, $3, http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/a-spoonful-of-sugar-san-francisco?select=-LGAmxGs0tUh6oVpR46nAw#YBDQqVJPkpgrL34abtzMMg): I love brioche and I love doughnuts, so was super excited to give a brioche donut a try. However, I was really disappointed! The doughnut was super greasy, and there was barely any glaze on it to cut the grease taste. Skip.-Chocolate Covered Brioche Doughnut (Brioche Dough Fried, Topped w/Chocolate Glaze, $3, http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/a-spoonful-of-sugar-san-francisco?select=-LGAmxGs0tUh6oVpR46nAw#Ws4B-2wYORkBiYuGW6nz0A): The chocolate gave the doughnut a little more flavor, but it was still super greasy and heavy tasting. Skip.I realized afterwards that I actually ordered the vanilla and chocolate brioche donuts, so was bummed that I got the glazed instead of the vanilla. Oh, well. Overall, I think I had too high of expectations, but perhaps it was an off-day for Kathleen since I know she was busy with a wedding that week. I will have to place another cupcake order in the future for more of that candied bacon!

***To be clear, my husband and I did receive a full refund for our wedding cake***We booked Kathleen to bake our wedding cake in January for our wedding in June. At the first tasting, we booked Kathleen; her cakes were so delicious, full of unique flavor, and soft and fluffy. A few things throughout the process leading up to our wedding went wrong, but nothing that caused us to rethink our decision-- Kathleen canceling our first tasting the day before due to being sick, not responding to emails for several days or even a couple of weeks on more than a few occasions, canceling our second tasting the day of because she didn't order an ingredient with enough time (but she did deliver a few samples to us the next day). Because of these inconsistencies, I checked in with Kathleen 3 days before our wedding to make sure everything was on track for our wedding cake. She responded with, " Yep! Yep! Yep! Can't wait!" Going through with A Spoonful of Sugar cakes was the biggest mistake; we literally hated our wedding cake, which cost almost $1,000. The cake showed up late, after our guests had been seated for the reception. The frosting wasn't even fondant (which we paid for) and it was messy and uneven, with holes and gaps. There were leaves stuck haphazardly around the cake, and we had specifically ordered white sugar flowers to be flowing around the cake. In addition, the flavors were off, and the cake was dry. Please see photos (last few photos are our wedding cake, first photo is our "inspiration" cake that had previously been made by Kathleen). Our entire wedding was beautiful and elegant, and then there was the cake--completely opposite of everything it was supposed to be. I was so angry that I emailed Kathleen the night of our wedding. She responded that she was going through a health crisis and she apologized for the cake not meeting her usual standards. After she didn't offer one, I asked for a refund, and she gave one to us. We got a refund, but our wedding photos include the cake, and it literally makes me sad and disappointed every time I see photos with the cake.