The Cake Artist’s Studio

They did both cakes for our wedding and a birthday cake as well. Absolutely top notch from taste to design! They also have killer cupcakes and cake pops

We ordered our wedding cake through the Cake Artist, and were happy with the appearance and taste for our 200 person wedding. However, the cake topper that we hand delivered to the bakery was MIA on the big day. I would recommend this bakery for a wedding, but please ensure that you have a back-​up plan in the event that this mistake happens again.

Six years later, and I am thrilled The Cake Artist’s Studio is still thriving and rocking it in the cake world!
Things I thought to myself on THIS visit:
— «Stuffed cupcakes! Those are new. I want one!» (The $ 5.50 stuffed cupcakes are jumbo, about twice the size of a standard one, and have fillings injected into the cake!)
— «Brown sugar oatmeal is still available! Love the torched, burnt flavor of the coconut topping!»
— «Petit fours!!!»
— «Pretty packaging.» (My 3 selections — in their individual plastic cupcake holders — were placed inside a colorful, floral printed plastic bag. Nice touch.)
Standard gourmet cupcakes are $ 3 now, and more flavors are available than I recalled. I’ve recently also tried lemon lime, salted caramel, and peanut butter mousse. Generally, I’m not a huge buttercream fan, as it usually is too heavy on the butter for me, so the lemon lime and salted caramel were not my absolute faves.
If I lived in this area, I would definitely want Ashlee to make my wedding or any special occasion cake!

They said my sister’s wedding cake would arrive at the venue at 2pm.
It’s 2:30… It’s 3… It’s 4:30…
At this time, my mom called and politely asked for an update on the delivery of the cake. The woman who answered the phone said 4:30. But, it was 4:37, which my mom pointed out. The Cake Artist’s Studio shot back with, «Well, what time does the reception start?» I’m not sure how this matters when you promise a delivery of 2pm. She then HUNG UP on my mom.
Some of the staff of the venue commented that this business is notorious for being late for weddings. Being late happens, but I felt that it was handled really poorly and rudely.
The cake tastes great but you don’t want to deal with this on you or your loved one’s wedding day.

For my wedding in 2010, we had a small cake and several tiers of cupcakes made. We had fondant flowers in pink, aqua, and purple on the cupcakes as well as edible pearls. Very simple and elegant. Only minor hiccup was the purple color didn’t quite match — ours was a bright purple and the frosting was a dull purple. But honestly, it didn’t matter. Guests were raving about how delicious they were. It was all very affordable, and they delivered the cake and cupcakes to the reception.

Not worth the drive because it’s closed a lot of times, such as when the owner competes in contests or goes on break. They have cookies, brownies, cupcakes and $ 30 cakes all the time, but rarely something in between those price points and quantities. The cakes are good but smothered in too much icing. If they made lightly frosted cakes, we’d be friends.

One of the best cakes I’ve ever had. Ordered a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and it was so delicious. The cake was moist, light, and not overly sweet, which is what tends to happen. It was around $ 30 for a medium sized cake but it served over 10 people and still had a lot left over.

They made my wedding cake 7 years ago and delivered it to my venue. The price was very reasonable.
The cake was delicious. There is no other bakery that has butter cream as good as theirs.
I traveled from Chicago to get their cake for my son’s first birthday because it’s that good.

Hands down the best cake I have had in my life! The brown sugar oatmeal/​coconut cake. I went to this bakery while I was staying in champaign for a few months because I’m always on the search for sweets. To my surprise I tasted a sample of this cake and was in LOVE! I ordered a cake for my friends surprise birthday party and it was absolutely beautiful! And affordable for the quality of work that was put into the cake.
It was so delicious that I had to bring a sample home to NJ for my best friend. She lives in NYC and has tasted some treats from top bakeries in the area… but she was shocked and as in love as I was. I am going to see if this bakery will ship a cake but if not I may be willing to pick it up… It was that good!
A must visit if in Champaign…

I was introduced to this place by my boss, who has a big sweet tooth and has bought cookies from this place more times than he probably knows. Just the cookies alone are done expertly and are so pretty.
Because of that, I ordered a custom cake for my fiancé’s birthday last year, and it was so incredibly delicious (and pretty!) that I ordered another one for a party. What I thought would be a simple layer cake with white buttercream turned out to be one of the best tasting desserts I’ve ever had.
When I went in to order the latest cake, I took a couple of cupcakes home so we could try different flavors of buttercream and so far, there hasn’t been a single thing we don’t like.
The staff is friendly and professional and the custom cakes are reasonably priced for what you get.
A+++

I ordered my daughter’s 2^nd birthday cake here. I asked that they design it with Calliou and they did such an amazing job. It was a round red velvet and cream cheese cake. It fed our guests and we had left-​overs for the next day. I will come back again and again.

We used The Cake Artist’s Studio for our wedding cake. In retrospect, I wish that I had paid more attention to what it looked like before they whisked it off because the photos of it were AMAZING. I came in with a quirky, abstract idea and they turned it into something absolutely gorgeous. If you are ever nervous about the execution of what you have in mind, don’t be… this bakery can pull it off.
Additionally, the cake was delicious. The cake was moist, the icing wasn’t too overpowering, and the cost was appropriate. Thank you guys SO MUCH for your work., and especially to Ashlee for taking a few basic concepts and turning it into such a wonderful end product!

We ordered birthday cakes for Mom & Dad’s 75^th birthdays — chocolate cake/​peanut butter mousse/​chocolate icing for Dad and carrot cake with cream cheese icing for Mom. FANTASTIC — you will not be disappointed — I thought the carrot cake was unbelievable… although most of our group opted for the chocolate, naturally. The serving sizes they say you get from a cake must be for really big dessert eaters — we barely made a dent in the cakes and had lots of leftovers. Thank you Cake Artists!

My husband (woo) and I were recently married in a small backyard Hawaiian-​luau-​themed wedding. There were lots of compliments on various elements, but the one thing I heard throughout the evening was, «The cake is FANTASTIC!» «This is the best cake I’ve ever eaten!» «Who made this cake? It’s excellent!» And so on, and so forth.
I ordered a 10″ round to feed 25 or so guests. The amount was spot-​on — everyone had more than enough, but we weren’t drowning in leftover cake. I ordered brown sugar oatmeal cake with cream cheese and brown sugar coconut fillings… Delish!
The woman who took my order was very patient and helpful. She helped me find a beautiful beachy shell design that fit right in with our Hawaiian theme. The shells were AMAZING! So many people asked us if they were edible or if they were real shells! I’ll definitely be back for all my delicious, cakey needs.

An awesome little bakery for sweets! I purchase cupcakes or their mini-​cakes for birthdays, but I also love their cookies! Their little mini-​cakes are SO FUN! They have so many different flavors and it’s so nice to be able to choose a couple, share them and NOT have a huge cake left over afterward. (portion control, love it!) They are kind of on the pricey side though, so this is our special occasion bakery.

My husband and I decided on cupcakes for our wedding (2 years ago), and I choose to stop by the cake artist studio, simply because I drove by there every day on my way to school and was curious. I’m not sure that they do this anymore, but they sent us home with a box of cake samples, and they were sooo good we decided to go with them instead of trying anywhere else first.
The buttercream icing is amazing.
We choose vanilla cupcakes with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla (?) buttercream. Some with strawberries, some not, just in case people didn’t like them. I won’t go into too much detail because I am going to post some pictures.
They were amazing, people still talk about them.

Love, love, love the cupcakes here. Also ordered our wedding cake from here a few years ago and they did a great job on short notice. No problems delivering to Jim Gould’s downtown.
My nephew and his wife got their wedding cake here and wanted the White Out cake. I hate white cake and ate the whole piece because it was amazing.
I have yet to try anything bad here.

I walked into the Cake Artist’s Studio exactly 18 days before my wedding and needed a cake. . for 120 guests. My elaborate plan of trying to get cake transported from a favorite bakery in Kansas City. .. . had FAILED.

We called a week before that and they made up a «tasting box» for us: little condiment cups with 16 different kinds of cake for us to taste right there in the store! That alone was heaven! We chose their Champagne White (I am not a fan of typical white wedding cake, but this one is buttery and not as sickeningly sweet — DEELISH!) and their Blackout (chocolate) cake. I also want to go back and get a Brown Sugar Oatmeal cake just for myself :)
Then Ashlee met with us — we picked out a design we liked from the photo albums of her past work and incorporated our monogram into the design. The cake looked EXACTLY like the drawing she showed me — I was SO PLEASED when I walked into our reception and saw it! Also I liked that Ashlee was totally chill and never once gave me any attitude about the fact that it was 18 DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING. Some wedding vendors would’ve rolled their eyes and charged me double. Ashlee’s mom Sue who also works there is super nice too. :)
We did 3 separate layered cakes (I think 7″, 10″ &14″) and rented one of their stands that created the illusion of a stacked cake but without the cost and time requirements. IT LOOKED AND, more importantly, TASTED WONDERFUL. We opted to have a friend pick everything up, so I can’t comment on their delivery services, but the cake and stand were ready for pick-​up when promised.
THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT, MY FRIENDS! That’s how you get a FABULOUS wedding cake 18 days before your wedding in central IL! It’s 3 days after my wedding and we’re still eating left-​over cake! :) Delish!

I have never eaten a Cake Artist wedding cake, and let me tell you why.
At a wedding:
Bride? Check.
Groom? Check.
Guests, Food, Gifts? Check, check, check.
Cake? Not present.
That’s right, the cake was not delivered. In fact, the person in charge forgot which weekend she was supposed to make the cake. Yes, the contract was correct. Yes, the replacement grocery store sheet cakes tasted fine.
Just imagine picking out a wedding cake to have it not show up that day due to complete carelessness.

I’ve now had the opportunity to try more of the goodies here, and I remain incredibly impressed. They now have cupcakes in addition to the personal sized cakes. Everything is fabulous — the cakes are light, the frostings rich, and the flavors perfectly balanced. They have some great cake flavors and I generally find myself making some very tough decisions when I stop in for a cupcake! I recently tried a brown sugar oatmeal cake with a bruleed icing that tasted like a cross between a really good oatmeal cookie and a toasted marshmallow. It was crazy good!
The non-​cake items (bars, cookies, and pies) are also excellent. I even loved their lemon bars, and I normally don’t even like lemon bars! The cookies are the only thing I’ve tried that are just ok. They’re better than average, but if you decide to splurge on a sweet treat, I’d stick with the cakes as that is where they really excel.
In addition to the great pastries, the staff here are wonderful. I’ve always gotten great and attentive service, and they’re always very patient as I try to make up my mind about what to get. They little cakes are individually packages, and they have these neat little plastic containers that perfectly hold the cupcakes in place so as to prevent any frosting from being rubbed off on the container. They really do think of everything here!