Chef Nelson’s Cake Studio

I owe this amazing chef a big favor! He saved my husbands 30^th birthday cake many years ago! I had some crack head couple who owned a bakery do his cake that turned out like my 5 year old niece made it. Only two hours before the party, Chef fixed it as much as he could and felt so rotten for me that he wouldn’t even charge me! I know he will remember that day.

Chef Nelson’s our local baker, and a very sweet person. I haven’t ordered a cake yet, because we haven’t had any special events, but a kind neighbor sent along an enormous plate of his amazing Christmas cookies, and as you can see (will try to attach photo), they are just beautiful. Gingerbread, sugar cookies, macaroons, (what appear to be) rum truffles, adorable decorations… what a treat in a hard year. I urge everyone who’s having a party and too busy to do a lot of baking to order a cookie plate from Chef Nelson. Just beautiful. And incidentally, I have seen his cake portfolio and thought it the coolest thing ever. What wonderful ideas, especially the beach-​themed ones.

Stress free, reasonable and delicious!
Chef Nelson was the easiest of all the wedding vendors I had to deal with. His ultra friendly demeanor and prompt communication was a breath of fresh air amongst all the wedding planning.
He was great about bringing me back to earth if my grandiose cake design ideas would destroy the taste or go over budget. He was also the only one to point out that the fresh flowers I wanted could alter the taste and/​or be poisonous!
I was SO happy with out cake! In fact, when I laid eyes on it at the wedding I loved it immediately! I was so glad he warned me about the bland taste of fondant because it was absolutely moist and delectable.
I also loved that Chef Nelson makes you a fresh 1 year Anniversary cake so you do not have to freeze the original. We love Chef Nelson so much that my husband and I decided to order a 2^nd year Anniversary cake in the flavor of the 2^nd tier of our wedding cake.
He is a joy to work with and his cakes are divine! Highly recommended!

We went to a tasting with Chef Nelson on the insistence of my (future) in-​laws. They had tried his cakes at a wedding show and were in love.
I really liked Chef Nelson’s approach to cakes – we are casual people and so was he. That isn’t to be confused with unprofessional-​ism though. Contrary to the reviewer before, Chef Nelson was quite receptive when we called and took copious notes on what we wanted for our cake. Maybe he’s gotten more organized or something, but he was definitely spot-​on in helping us with our perfect cake.
We gave him pretty loose requirements for our wedding cake (white, three layer, gold and green accents, seashells all around) and it came out beautifully. Not to mention, we paid under $ 250 for a cake that served all 65 of our wedding guests AND had leftovers for weeks! The value is DEFINITELY there.
Now we’re almost to our one year and I’m going to call him about our free anniversary cake!

When it came to my wedding, Chef Nelson was the vendor I worried most about. The negative reviews I saw on Wedding Wire and the horror stories I saw on The Knot freaked me out. But he came through. My cake was perfect, delicious and looked freakin’ awesome. The pictures of my dinky little 85-​person cake are better than any I saw when in his studio.
Why I was concerned: He was flighty when we met with him. His cakes were great tasting and cheap, but he had albums of disorganized photos showing leaning, uneven, rushed-​looking cakes and no system to identify that this one was the one you wanted. He seemed to operate a lot on memory, which we can see from the brunt of his online reviews doesn’t work well for him. He didn’t answer the phone, return emails, respond to voicemails — no matter how kind or forceful we made them. When we got two months out from the wedding, he finally did respond to my voice mails — by calling me two days in a row… He had forgotten he had already called me back!
Why we went with him: A year earlier, a couple people on The Knot mentioned a great experience with him. Also, we found an INSANE deal on his Website (which is still up there, btw!) which ended up being ¹⁄₃ the price of anyone else in the area. He had 30 years experience, so I felt I could trust him despite his skater boy (man?) disposition. And because cake wasn’t most important to me I figured, «how bad could it be?» Also, when we finally got in there to his studio, it tasted pretty good. And he did get better on communication as we got close to the wedding, so maybe there was a method to the madness…
What I’d do: Book him early and then go in for the overkill. When we sent our cake toppers, we learned from one of these bride’s bad experience and put the toppers in a unique, hardwood, decorated box (i.e., something you wouldn’t misplace or confuse with someone else’s or think to throw out) with our name, event date, event time, event location, our contact number, the contact at the venue and her number. Then we put the same in the box and drew a diagram of the cake with the details written out. Overkill, my friends. It doesn’t take long and is the only way to ensure things are done right unless you have an astronomical budget and a wedding planner.
And hey. In the end, it totally worked out fine.