Carol’s Cake Designs

Won’t Return.
Just trying to get into this shop was a major struggle. This shop is never open. We had almost given up. On the third try it was opened, We ordered a birthday cake for my niece. Carol talked a good game about her special fondant, but in the end it was a major disappointment. We spent three digits on this cake, but you would never know it. The stripes on the cake were not the same lengths. There were patches in the fondant. Patches! The special fondant was so super sickly sweet as to be in edible. It was just so immaturely decorated. We didn’t even bother taking a picture of it. My niece didn’t want a permanent reminder of how bad her birthday cake looked.
We won’t be back.

For the rest of the country macarons are the new cupcakes, but here in Ferndale we’re just getting our first cupcake shop. I went in last week on what turned out to be opening day. There were about six flavors of cupcakes available, along with some cookies and chocolates. The cupcakes come in three sizes: mini for $ 1, regular for $ 2.50, and large for $ 5. However on my first visit there were no minis available, and on my second visit the minis only came in one flavor. Carol mentioned that she’ll be having one special cupcake every day, and from what I can tell that one will be the large.
The first cupcake I tried was the daily special… a sweet potato cupcake topped with toasted marshmallows and walnuts. I loved the sweet potato cake, but I think I would have preferred a cream cheese frosting over the marshmallows. Also it didn’t wow me enough to be worth the $ 5 price tag.
On my second visit I had two of the regular size cupcakes. One was a half chocolate/​half vanilla cupcake (cutely named something like «can’t make up my mind»), and the other was a creamsicle cupcake. Overall I’ve found the cake to be perfectly moist, and the frosting nice and sweet, with a good balance between the two. The only improvement I’d suggest is more pronounced flavors, as I couldn’t really taste much orange in the creamsicle. But I am glad that Carol is being inventive with the flavors and not just sticking to the usual chocolate with chocolate, chocolate with vanilla, vanilla with vanilla, vanilla with chocolate, etc.
To be honest, in a larger city I don’t think Carol’s Cake Designs would last against stronger competition. But it’s a wonderful addition to Ferndale and I have a feeling I’ll be stopping by pretty regularly.