What is the Sugared & Spiced Difference?
The difference is easy to see when you walk through our door or slice into our cake. We don't like short cuts, we don't compromise. At another bakery, you get a cake and frosting. At Sugared & Spiced you get a cake, Italian buttercream made in house from real butter, fruit curd that started as real fruit in our kitchen, caramel that started as a bag of sugar ten metres from the door you just walked through, meringues baked here, and macarons made by our bakers.
What does from scratch really mean?
We make our cakes, buttercreams, fillings, and toppings from real, whole ingredients like butter, milk, eggs, white and brown sugars, all purpose flour, lemons, limes and berries. No pre-made fillings or frostings, and no cake mixes. EVER.
We know and love our local suppliers, and choose local and Canadian suppliers as much possible.
Our beloved longtime suppliers include:
Four Whistle Farms- Our eggs are delivered weekly by Marius.
Phil & Sebastian- Whole roasted coffee beans from Calgary.
What's the difference between Classic and Epic signature cakes?
Our Classic and Epic signature cakes are topped with a chocolate or white chocolate drip, baked meringues, macarons, piped buttercream and sprinkles.
For an additional cost, Epic cakes also include a mound of toasted, gooey meringue and more baked meringues and macarons.
Why does it take so long?
Quality takes time, not short cuts. Many of our products take several days or more to prepare. Our signature cakes are finished with many different components, all made from scratch in-house, and some of these take several days to complete. In order for our 'small-batch, from-scratch' philosophy to translate to a viable business, efficiency is very important.
In order to provide you with the best and freshest product every time, with as little waste as possible, these are our minimum lead times for pre-ordered products:
- Signature Cakes: 8 days
- Baked Goods: 3 days
- Take & Bake: 24 hours
- Custom Cakes: 14 days or more
If you're more of a last minute planner, we also offer a limited number of to-go cakes every day, available while quantities last!
Can I freeze my cake?
Our cakes are intended to be enjoyed fresh, and at room temperature. However, if the circumstances arise where freezing is appropriate, you can freeze your cake (in the cake box it came in) for several weeks. Be sure to let it come to room temperature before you enjoy it.
Do you make [flavour that is not on the menu] cake?
Sometimes, but probably not. We do feature seasonal flavours that may not currently be on the menu, but if the flavour you would like to order for later this month is not on the menu today, it will not be available that soon.
We also can develop custom flavours. Please keep in mind - this is not a service in the same category as our Signature cakes. Recipe development is done by a team of professional bakers at an hourly rate.
Fondant or decorated sugar cookies?
We don't use fondant in our shop, and only very occasionally decorate sugar cookies. Many other great bakeries and cake shops in Edmonton can help you with these requests.
Do you make custom cakes?
If you are looking for something that you can’t find on our Signature Cake menu, you may be looking for a Custom Cake. There are lots of ways that cakes can be customized, but we don’t do everything. Even with custom cakes, our focus is on round cakes in three layers, usually finished in Italian buttercream. While we don’t use fondant, create sculptures or sugar flowers, or make shaped/novelty cakes; we can incorporate theme colours into buttercream and toppings, and write messages on macarons. We also occasionally make tiered cakes for weddings and other celebrations.
Pricing for custom cakes varies greatly, and is not based on the Signature cake pricing.
Do you personalize cakes?
In a word, yes. The way we personalize cakes is by handwriting with an edible ink on a macaron (or several macarons) and including these in the toppings of your cake.
What colours can I choose?
We offer a variety of colour options, but some of the processes we use don't work with some colours. Some colours are achieved naturally, and some use food colouring. We typically don't do very dark colours because of the amount of food colouring that would be required.
Our raspberry buttercream is pink; we don't assume that "boys" don't like pink. Apparently this needs to be said.
The Build Your Own Signature cake menu on the Online Ordering pages shows all of the available colours for Signature cakes.
Colour matching for shades that go with other physical objects (your flowers, your invitations, a Pantone, a sports team) might be possible, but is considered a custom service and will probably cost more.
What are the options for colours for buttercream, macarons, meringues, white chocolate drip?
Buttercream cream can be coloured: teal/turquoise, purple, yellow, pink, blue, green, or orange. Vanilla buttercream is a creamy colour, Raspberry buttercream is a light pink, Cookies & Cream buttercream is speckled with chocolate cookie crumbs, Confetti buttercream is blended with multicolour sprinkles, and Triple Chocolate is a chocolatey brown (actually a chocolate creamcheese frosting on this one).
Macarons are available in: soft pink, bright pink, teal/turquoise, soft purple, dark purple, orange, yellow, lime green, dark green, red, light blue, and dark blue. (also painted gold, silver, or rose gold)
Meringues are available in: rainbow (our favourite), white, light pink, bright pink, light purple, dark purple, teal/turquoise, blue, yellow, orange, and bright green. (also painted gold, silver, or rose gold)
White chocolate drip can be coloured: soft pink, bright pink, soft purple, deep purple, yellow, orange, lime green, dark green, light blue, dark blue, teal/turquoise, white, or red.
Do you offer delivery?
Our cake and baked goods delivery service is provided by a third-party courier. We do our best to schedule deliveries at the time that you request, but we cannot guarantee an exact time of arrival. We attempt to complete your delivery in the two-hour time window around the time that you request, please be there to receive your delivery at that time. (If no one is home, we may need to have the cake returned to our shop and we will not make a 2nd attempt at delivery.)
Allergies?
Some of our recipes may self-identify as flourless or nut-free or dairy-free, but our bakery uses flour, dairy, nuts, eggs, and all kinds of allergens and it’s a small place. If you have any allergies or sensitivities to specific ingredients, please use caution and feel free to ask us for information that could help you make the best decision for your needs. Although we make our best efforts, we can’t guarantee cross-contamination has not occurred. (Nanaimo bars contain walnuts, macarons contain almond flour, peanut butter cookies/peanut butter squares contain peanuts)
Community connections
Community is everything to us! We do our best to support the vibrancy of our Old Strathcona neighbourhood (and Edmonton as a whole) in different ways:
In-kind supporter/friend of CJSR.
Official supporter of Bike Edmonton.
Pick up a copy of EDify magazine in our shop.
Active (unofficial) participants in the Edmonton Fringe Festival by offering extended hours and unsanctioned in-store improv performances by our owner and chief troublemaker.