Duff’s Cakemix

This place is AWESOME! My daughter and I had so much fun. The staff there are great. They have such great customer service like Disneyland use to be. The staff member that stands out the most was Taylor. He went out of his way to help us and everyone for that matter. It seems like they really like their job there and makes it inevitable. I can’t wait to come back. But first… the gym.

Perfect LA morning not only did we get to decorate a cake here we got to meet Duff. He was loading a cake and looked tired but was gracious enough to pose with me for a picture. This is huge. I have admired him for years and make cakes now on the side because of being inspired by him. The decorating experience was lots of fun and for me a wonderful memory made and shared with my daughter.

First off I would like to say that the staff was very helpful and professional. Taylor was especially helpful. He went above and beyond for my 9 year old daughter. She loves baking and decorating, so this was a dream come true for her and I (no mess at home for me).
However, there were a couple of things that bothered me. Being that the show ‘Ace of Cakes’ was filming there, Taylor encouraged us to try and get a picture with Duff. We were a bit shy and reluctant, but there was one other girl who went to take a picture so we followed. To my surprise, we were shunned away. One of the cast members was very rude to us. He stood in the door way so we could not pass and said ‘We gotta start filming now.’ And closed the door on us. My daughter started to tear up. I told her not to worry. But I was so sad for her. I mean how hard would it have been to let her meet him? It’s not like there was anyone else there trying to meet him. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon January 31 to be exact. The father of the other girl was shocked as well. His daughter was able to take a picture
We spent a lot of money at the establishment and to be shunned away like that was certainly uncalled for.
It’s the fans that make this place happen. They should be a lot more receptive to their fans, especially children.
Another incident which occurred:
The underground parking structure turned out to be a nightmare. There was a broken pipe hanging from the ceiling. We drove down in our brand new 2015 truck and the pipe scrapped the top of our truck!
Not only did we spend a lot of money here, we lost money since our vehicle was damaged.
Again the staff was very helpful and professional, maybe the cast members should take notes from them.

Went for the first time last weekend!
it was so fun and the staff was very nice!!!
definitely recommend going doesn’t matter what age!

Very fun place to make you own cake they have all the tool needed to make a good cake but it’s a lil over priced … They charge by the person so it does not matter if ur doing one cake if it 3 people the change you 12 times 3 for one cake and they charge for the cake 39 $

This past visit was my 3^rd time to Duff’s Cakemix. I must say, they have a much more organized process to ensure efficient scheduling of cake decorating appointments, an ease of use with colored fondant and candy toppings and improved customer service to those who visit. First, solid colored fondant is already prepared and placed on 6″ cakes. You just need to decide which cake flavor and fondant color you’d like. You then pick 4 additional choices of colored fondant or buttercream (already made and ready to go) followed by 3 candy or sprinkle topping decorations. Staff continuously comes around to make sure you have what you need. This is a great option when you need to prepare a dessert for a party, a fun day out with friends, venue for your daughter’s birthday party, a team builder or just an opportunity to get your creative and artistic juices flowing. Prices are rather steep since decorating a 6″ cake now runs $ 35 with an additional $ 12 «studio fee». It ran only $ 20 straight when I first came here about 3 years ago. Cupcake decorating is also offered and a popular option with the younger kids. Just some gripes to mention … first, not really understanding the value and reason behind a «studio fee». Second, they are now only offering marble and confetti cake flavors. When I inquired about this, I was told these were the only popular flavors that sold in the past so now these 2 options are the only ones to choose from. I’ll never be convinced that confetti and marble cakes outsold chocolate, red velvet or lemon flavors previously offered (???). Despite this making no sense to me, I still highly recommend coming to Duff;s Cakemix. It’s worth the time, money and it’s a hell of a lot of fun!

Attention all cake and decorating lovers: this is the place for you!
Growing up, I used to watch Ace of Cakes religiously. When I found out that Chef Duff Goldman was opening up Duff’s Cakemix here in Los Angeles, I was truly impressed with the simple yet brilliant concept. First of its kind, it allows visitors to decorate cakes or cupcakes, while providing the necessary resources for the most perfect creation.
First, you choose between cupcakes or a cake, which comes in two different sizes. They provide you with the cake/​decorating materials, which include the fondant, tools, sprinkles, and decorative candy that you choose from the bar.
They also have options on display to give you ideas for your own cake or you can be innovative and decorate however you like. They also have a spray booth. I took my best friend here for her birthday since she is a huge cake lover and we ended up getting a cake covered in white fondant and then having the fondant sprayed in gold.
They also have a little bakery in house where you can buy slices of cake and drink coffee/​tea as you decorate.
Furthermore, they host themed decorating workshops. I attended the Minion workshop with my sister (who is obsessed with Minions) and we had an amazing time. We were the oldest participants in the workshop but it was still a great experience. If you RSVP to their newsletter, they send out e-​mails with links to buy advance tickets to each workshop.
Can’t wait to come back and decorate more cakes!

I took my daughter and her friends to Duffs it was an amazing place I had never been so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had a great time. We decorated 4 cakes and we had access to everything we wanted and more including glitter, cut outs, candy decorations amazing. I think it’s a great place for adults too. The staff was pleasant and helpful !! It’s a little pricey and definitely worth it. We loved it.

Had a girl’s day with my adult daughter and started it at Duff’s Cake MIx. What a great place! We made a reservation (suggested) and were helped as soon as we walked in. They walk you through the process of picking what you want to decorate (cake or cupcakes, flavor, color etc. then the fun begins when you pick your decorating accoutrements. Lots to choose from, fondant, buttercream icing, candies, sugar, sprinkles and on and on.
Everything you need is there — molds, cut-​outs, tools, and lots of examples and ideas. Who knew how much fun it this could be. We both got busy on our own cakes and the time flew. I will admit — we had a gift certificate, but I really do think the prices were reasonable.
Looked like a pretty fun place for a kids birthday party as well — although when a party arrived about an hour into our visit I will say that I was glad we were almost done. It got very loud, and the kids in attendance were running all over the place — but this was really the parents fault.
All in all we had a great time and will definitely go back.

This place was amazing. I thought I was going to stop by to grab a couple of cupcakes. Instead I ended up receiving lessons on how to decorate from the princess. The staff were all great. And Taylor amazing. He was very attentive and check in on me often. I know I looked out of place a buff guy in a cupcake store. Haha… 10 STARS…

Took my niece here to decorate her bday cake and I was into it just as much as she was.
You pretty much have use of all cake decorating tools that the pros use, but it comes at a pretty price.
Had a lot of fun, just a Lil too pricy.
Cake was bomb tho and my niece enjoyed, so it was well worth it.

All the nickel-​and-​diming is pretty annoying. If you stay longer than the allotted time of 1 hr ($), want additional colors ($), want «expert help» ($), have 6 people or more ($) — it’s a cornucopia of fees — and this is on top of the cost of the cake, the studio fee, and the 2 person limit on each kit. At the end of it all, you probably don’t want to eat anything you touched with your hands or a tool (some were kind of sticky/​crusty), but the base cake itself is pretty good, so just eat that.

For my last two birthdays I’ve made my own birthday cake by coming to duff’s!
Two years ago, on a whim my friend and I stopped by to try some of the cake drone the famous charm city cakes baker– we left with me determined to have my birthday there that year. I had so much fun that I came back a year later to make another cake. If I wasn’t moving out of LA this summer I’m pretty sure I would be coming back for all of my birthdays.
I did have a not so great experience with customer service during my second visit but the manager quickly remedied the problem by apologizing and offering me free cake decorating on my next visit. The apology would have been enough but I really appreciated her gesture!

I came here for a friends Birthday. It was so much fun being there with a group of girls. The birthday girl chose to décor a cake, and the rest of us got cupcakes to decorate.
There are only 3 –4 flavors to chose from for the cupcake base, vanilla, chocolate and a mix. It was so much fun using different tools and shapes to decorate the cupcakes. I figured I have no talent in decorating cupcakes, however some of my friends were very creative and made some pretty cupcakes.
This was a really fun event, we ended up eating some of the cupcakes at the end of the night. I could say the excitement of decorating and spending time with friends was more valuable than the actual quality of the cake and cupcakes.
You can reserve the tables in advance if you are a large party.

I’m not sure what everyone’s expectations are of this place, but I really enjoyed my time here. So five stars for me.
It’s a do it yourself decorating cake place. like a color me mine but for cakes. it’s definitely a bit pricey. but you’re paying for the experience. So here’s how it goes.
$ 32 for an 8inch cake or 8 cupcakes. $ 12 per person for upto 3 people max per order. with me so far? lol. so if you go by yourself a cake is $ 44. When buying a fancy fondant cake, it can be around that price anyway so might as well make your own! you get to pick your background fondant color, 2 decorative fondant colors, and 2 buttercreams to decorate or you can switch those out for more fondant! then there’s a goodie car where you can pick 2 more things to decorate with. So really the choice is all yours!
the first time I went, I went with my two best friends and we made a minion. it ends up costing about $ 68 (cake was $ 32 plus 3 people $ 36). remember, the experience! the second time I went it only costed me $ 44 bc I went by myself and I made a hello kitty. so yah I really love cake! haha!
there are people around circulating to help you if you are really stuck on how to make sometime for your cake.
here’s what I suggest. go there with an idea of what you want to make. yes, they have decorative cut outs. they have pizza slicers. they have rulers. they have little pointers thingies to make your cut outs more accurate and smoother around the edges. Yes it is designated for a kid to be able to make a cake. it’s supposed to be! this is a fun cake making place. it’s not supposed to be difficult for you to do! so have some fun, have your cake AND eat it too!!!
the best time to go to this place is during the week. less people and the employees will have more time to sit with you and help you out if you need it. :)

Thanks for allowing me to create such an amazing cake with such short notice!
all my guests but most of all my son the bday boy were in love.
It really gave a nice presentation. I was able to let it sit out for display and it did an excellent job! No cracks, I was impressed. Thnx again

Came here on my birthday to decorate cakes. I love decorating/​baking so I thought I’d get to do all the fun stuff without having to bake it and wait for it to cool down. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to what I was hoping for.
First of all, this is definitely made for little kids. They don’t trust you to do anything yourself! You don’t get the assemble the cakes or put on the fondant. Everything is done for you and you receive a cake and minimal supplies.
The amount of buttercream and fondant they give you really isn’t much at all. They don’t let you use a real knife to cut the fondant (because it’s made for little kids), and the DON’T EVEN HAVE PIPING TIPS! No offset spatulas either – they give you popsicle sticks, like the kind the doctor uses to compress your tongue.
Also, the time limit of 1 hour is very strange. At an establishment where you’re meant to be creative, it doesn’t make sense to limit your time, especially to one short hour.
There was a birthday party when we were there and it was LOUD, like little kids having a screaming contest loud. Pretty ridiculous but what can you do.
Despite all of this, the cake (funfetti) was actually very delicious but also very VERY sweet. I won’t be back because I’d rather do all of this myself with more/​better supplies and it wouldn’t cost $ 100 either. On top of the expensive costs, they expect you to tip!
Fun, but not worth the money or inconvenience!

We’re definitely fans and we will be back again. This a great place to host parties for the young and young at heart.
The staff were friendly and helpful.
There’s parking in the building for vehicle up to 6’4″.
I wish they had better coffee drinks for the sideline fathers.

My fiancé surprised me last year with a super cute custom Chanel cake from here and it was amazing! The cake have a cookies and cream inside, it was phenomenal!
The cake was sooo beautiful that I saved the smaller top cake and plastered it so I could keep it forever ! It is now decoration in my kitchen :) This year I’m plotting on an Eiffel Tower cake, and I hope duff’s can pull this off !

«Actually, we leave Manny alone all the time. Sometimes he makes cupcakes, which I could use one about now, or a potato.» — Modern Family: Season 5, Episode 5
I love to bake, I love to make cupcakes… and I’m not a fan of fondant, but usually just when I have to cover a cake/​wedding cake in it. But with all of these things said, what a great and fun concept Duff’s Cakemix is! I’m visiting my best friend in her town — LA — and we are making the rounds. One of things she really wanted to do was go to Duff’s. None of her LA crowd seemed to be into, but she knew I would be game!
We walked in, an hour early of our reservation, and the place was almost empty. It was Tuesday afternoon, so no great surprise there. The gals had no issue with us showing up early, so we picked our cupcake flavors (8 total), icing colors (4), fondant (2 colors), and 2 candies. The ladies sent us to pick our table and they brought us what we needed.
We got a quick tutorial on handling fondant; they gave us rollers, cornstarch and two little cups of water. we were directed to the boxes of cookie cutters. And we were off to the races. We picked a table next to the huge picture window into Charm City Cakes so we could sneak peeks at any action going on in there, while we had our decorating fun.
Now a couple of complaints — first, there are no SMALL cookie cutters — I think I found all 4 of them. You need small cutters for cupcakes. Even the letters and numbers are entirely TOO large for cupcakes. Also, the icing is entirely too wet/​soft for piping onto the cupcakes. The young woman who did the demo for us, cut the first icing bag entirely TOO small for us to really pipe, so being this is something I do regularly, I could remedy the situation, but you cannot fix soft icing. This is a problem on a couple of fronts… 1) It is so hard to pipe as it is almost runny and cannot be controlled. No pastry chef would make frosting this loose. 2) The second we stepped foot in the heat, it all melted right off the cupcakes. In the heat of LA, this is an issue.
So over all, this was a fun and bonding experience, but a bit too expensive for what you get. You pay $ 32 for the 8 cupcakes and the supplies. Then, you pay $ 12 per hour, per person for the honor of the table. If you go outside the «Happy Hour» window (11am-​3pm M-​Th) — it is full price. I’m so glad we showed up an hour early and got the 20% off for being there during the Happy Hour. Still — $ 46-​ish dollars means over $ 5 per cupcake. Ouch.
Great to do one time, but not something I think I need to go regularly. Too pricy for what you get and what you don’t.