The Sweet Side

We had SweetSide cater the dessert for our wedding. They delivered the dessert bar and did the entire set up with some rental stands. It looked amazing day of, and the desserts tasted even better. 10/10 would recommend the cake pops! My husband's personal favorite were the macaroons. But everyone enjoyed the assorted dessert bar and it looked so good!

We were referred to The Sweet Side by our wedding planners. We spent $996 which included a $125 refundable deposit on dessert for a small wedding with 30 guests. Leading up to the wedding Mindy was very difficult to communicate with and she repeatedly sent us emails asking for information that had been provided previously e.g., day of contact, vendor access to venue, etc.. There was also a miscommunication a month before our wedding that resulted in a surprise $110 delivery charge, $55 rental fee, and $125 refundable deposit requirement. If you asked The Sweet Side team, they would say that our planners did not tell them that they needed delivery or rentals in advance of our initial invoice. If you asked our wedding planners they would say that conversations were had months prior with The Sweet Side team and that delivery and rentals were supposed to be complimentary. For what it’s worth, delivery and rentals were included in the initial invoice with a $0 line item. When we asked The Sweet Side to honor their initial invoice and waive the delivery/rental fees, they refused. Since I was not involved in those conversations I can’t say whose version of the miscommunication is more correct, but after experiencing first hand how difficult Mindy is to communicate with I tend to believe our wedding planners. Since it was only a month before our wedding we opted to pay the extra fees rather than try to find a new dessert vendor. Fortunately, the desserts the day of were a much better experience. The desserts were delivered on time and were a big hit. We ordered the predesigned magnolia cake, 8” round, with carrot cake and cream cheese on the inside and buttercream frosting on the outside $181. It was DELICIOUS and just the right size for our small wedding. We also ordered the “sweet bites bar package” $525 with French macarons, brownies, and cheesecake shooters. The package is advertised as intended for 50 guests but it was just the right size for our 30 guests. The macarons were especially delicious and several guests commented that they were the best macarons they had ever eaten.

I ordered a $225 custom cake from here for my sisters birthday. My initial reaction to the design of the cake was great. Was very happy with the presentation of the cake. However, the taste was horrible. The buttercream icing was way too sweet, the chocolate cake was very dry and flavorless, and the Nutella fillingmore like Nutella icing, and not the actual Nutella chocolate spread you couldn’t even taste. I ordered here for the first time and I wish I had looked around more before ordering because now I have a cake that no one enjoyed and I’m $225 short. If you are a first timer here, please consider somewhere else because you will be disappointed.

The SweetSide cakes are presentation masterpieces! We had a six inch round naked cake for our wedding that had an elegant simplicity. Our florist added the floral decorations to the cake. I also bought a custom cake for my brother in law’s birthday! The SweetSide was professional, timely, and reliable every step of the way. They’re very transparent about pricing and were quick to deliver a sketch of his beer themed cake. Their custom cakes are very expensive so I don’t think I’d do it again, but it is a showstopper for special celebrations. The flavor of our wedding cake was wonderful as well. It’s expertly crafted, but the cake was a bit too densely packed / decadent for me.

I would recommend the Sweet Side to all brides – we had a really good experience. I worked with Mindy for a 2-tiered wedding cake and some additional sweet bites for a dessert bar. She did a great job of answering all my initial questions and worked with me up until after contracting. We got a to-go tasting box and the hard part was narrowing down the two cakes and icings we wanted on the cake. We went with their famous carrot cake and cream cheese buttercream and the almond cake with swiss meringue buttercream. I also ordered their variety pack of bars to try, and they were really yummy too. The only downside of the tasting experience is that they don’t offer tasters or anything less than an order of 3 dozen of an particular item off the Sweet Bites menu if you want to try it i.e., the fruit crisp shooter we ordered for the wedding, we never got to try it beforehand. Being a foodie and a type A person, that was a bit of a bummer and a little risky but not a huge deal. I liked that you could rent beautiful white dessert displays from them – it was one less thing to worry about when planning a wedding and they looked great. My now husband and I were pretty set on a simple design and we sent them a picture of what we liked, and they delivered exactly that! The cake was simple yet still a statement and delicious. After being on a diet for months, I choose to have leftover cake as my choice for breakfast the day after the wedding. Yum! Photo by Sarah Anne Photography & floral by Flora Nova.

I told my family that all I wanted for my birthday was a beautiful and delicious cake. They heard SweetSide was a great cake bakery so they ordered from them. The cake was gorgeous but tasted bad. It was dry and flavorless. The frosting tasted like shortening and sugar. Everyone was disappointed and surprised such a pretty cake could be so bad. $160.00 for a cake that got thrown in the trash.

Can't say enough good things about The Sweet Side. Kara and her team are absolute pros. They are always so easy to work with and their cakes are consistently beautiful and tasty! It's an absolute talent of theirs to innovate with their designs taking them to a beautiful new level. Oh, and DO NOT MISS their chocolate pretzel sticks. Epic.

I have a mixed opinion on SweetSide Bakery. On the side of the good, they're a small business that can make beautiful cakes. I've used SweetSide for my son's 1st birthday and recently my wife's birthday. The cakes taste good, but more importantly for that occasion, they're beautiful. Fast forward to my recent interaction and it wasn't nearly as pleasant. First, we asked if we could order, well in advance, a cake that would have a tight turnaround it was a gender reveal cake where we don't yet know the gender. In the end, we were told they could not accommodate our ask. OK - we want to figure this out, let's just make two cakes, one with blue cake and one with pink. Easy, right? We buy even more to accommodate our request. However, when we asked to buy two cakes we were told, dismissively, that they don't make cakes dyed blue if it were a boy. I get it - SweetSide only makes cakes for certain occasions and they're not in the business of gender reveal cakes. Set aside the reasoning why, would it hurt to be a bit less dismissive when working with your loyal customers trying to spend money with you?

We ordered a birthday cake from their Totem Lake location. While the cake design was simple, it looked quite pretty. The flavor on the other hand was not great. The chocolate cake was hard, crumbly and seemed stale, the frosting between the layers and around the cake two different flavors had a weird waxy texture and were too sweet. Overall, very disappointing for such an expensive cake. The cakes by the slice that we have had in their store/cafe have tasted much better though. Not sure why the custom cake wasn’t good.

This review is for The Sweet Side's macarons... We first met The Sweet Side during the I Do Sodo wedding show in Seattle, where they were serving their delicious macarons. We had originally just planned to do a cake and cake bites also highly recommend - see our BAKED Seattle review, but decided to add in another dessert after tasting those delicious treats. The Sweet Side was extremely easy to work with and the nutella macarons were a HUGE hit. The gold accent matched our decor perfectly, too! We didn't even make it through half the night before they were all devoured. I'd highly recommend The Sweet Side for your macarons! Photo: The Sweet Side - macarons; BAKED Seattle - cake and cake bites