How to care for your cake on collection
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Your cake will be chilled prior to collection. If you will be travelling with your cake again after collection, we recommend chilling the cake until this time. Please chill your cake if it has fruit on it, if not consuming the same day.
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Cakes should be kept flat during transport. If driving, please place your cake in the boot of your car, this is by far the safest place for it. Failing this the footwell by the passenger seat. If you place your cake on the seat or hold it during travel we cannot be held responsible for your cake not arriving in one piece.
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In hot weather, you may need to refrigerate your cake after collection. During the summer every effort is made to make your cake more heat stable. Your cake is iced in buttercream or ganache, however, and chocolate and butter will melt in hot weather.
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If your cake has a long journey please inform us when booking. This will need to be taken into account when designing your cake.
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Finally, buttercream cakes can be fragile so please take care when handling them. We want your cake to be as beautiful when it reaches it's final destination as it was when you collected it from us here at Red Robin Pantry.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When do I need to book by?
For wedding cakes, dessert tables and larger orders we recommend booking 6+ months before your event at least, If you're getting married in the summer on a Saturday, I would get in touch as soon as possible, I can only deliver and set up two perhaps three wedding cakes on a busy Saturday, and dates start to fill up at least a year to a year and a half in advance. If your event is sooner, don't panic, drop us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as possible and try and see what we can do for you.
For smaller orders and wedding favours we recommend ordering between 2-3 months prior, but the sooner the better as space in our diary may fill up. If you need a cake within the next week we recommend calling to first check that we can fulfil your order, we will then ask you to drop us an email so that we can confirm your order requirements and arrange payment in full.
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N.B. If you are getting married in 2021/22 we recommend booking as soon as possible as 2021 is to set to be a very busy year for all wedding suppliers following postponements of 2020/21 weddings.
Do I need to pay anything when I book?
We take a 25% deposit at the time of booking to secure your date. This is taken after we have discussed and designed your cake, amendments can still be made after this time, however. If you wish to secure your date but unsure what you would like, then we take £100 as a deposit at that time.
I want to try your cakes before I order. Can I do this?
We offer tastings for wedding cakes and larger orders. We charge £30 for a 1hr consultation, which includes 6 flavours for you to try. We deduct this from the cost of your cake when you book one of our tiered cakes. If you are ordering one of our single tier celebration cakes you can order a box of samples that you can collect from us or we can send these next day delivery, we don't include these with smaller cakes. We charge £15 for these, plus next day special delivery (£9.80). Delivery costs are not deducted from the cost of your order should you book with us, however.
I have seen a cake online that I like, can you make me this exact cake?
Due to copyright laws, we cannot recreate a cake that you have seen elsewhere online. We can, however, design a cake for you in a similar style. Additionally, any cake that you see on our website has been created and designed by us, or should we design a cake for you and you decide not to book with us that design is ours under copyright law. Any other bakery will not be able to produce that same cake for you. If you'd like fresh flowers on your wedding cake, and there is something that you've seen online, please beware that many cakes online have flowers on them that are not food safe. We only use food safe edible flowers, grown by us or by a local organic florist and grower down the road in Carnon Downs.
Do you do fondant cakes as well?
Though we have worked with fondant in the past, nowadays we are primarily designers of contemporary buttercream and ganache cakes, they are both great mediums to work with and taste delicious too. There are so many talented fondant cake designers in Cornwall that we decided to leave the fondant to them and stick to what we are amazing at.
I don't like buttercream, it's too sweet and sickly. What are my options?
If this is the case, then fear not as we can ice all of our cakes in ganache if you prefer, however, we use Italian meringue buttercream to ice our cakes, which is light & delicate and has a lot less sugar in it. We are often asked for fresh cream cakes. Sadly we do not ice our cakes in fresh cream as cream has a very short shelf-life and must be refrigerated.
There seem to be lots of different types of buttercream. What's the difference?
Buttercream comes in four main styles.
The first is American buttercream. This is the one most people think of when they think of buttercream. It is made from butter or shortening, which is beaten together with icing sugar until light and fluffy. Because of this, it is often very sweet and the icing sugar can give it a slightly grainy texture. Most recipes call for double the amount of icing sugar to butter, which we feel is way too much sugar, we keep our ratios a little more equal. We don't tend to decorate our cakes with this buttercream unless requested. Though a variation on this buttercream works well for piped flowers.
The second and third types of buttercream are quite similar. Swiss and Italian Meringue buttercreams are light, delicate and melt in the mouth, and require much less sugar. Good professional bakers generally use meringue-based buttercreams for wedding cakes and celebration cakes. It takes longer to produce, particularly vegan but is well worth the extra effort as it simply delicious and does not overpower the cake with unnecessary sweetness. The Swiss method involves cooking the egg whites and sugar over a Ban Marie until the sugar has dissolved and the eggs are pasteurised. This is then beaten until cool, while the Italian method uses a sugar syrup to cook the egg whites as they beat. Once the meringue has cooled butter is beaten into the meringue and flavouring is added. The Italian method creates a slightly more heat-stable buttercream than the Swiss.
French buttercream Is similar to Italian in method however it uses the egg yolks not the egg whites. This results in a very rich and velvety buttercream. We do not use this style as it can be very yellow in colour and can be a little too rich.
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I can't eat eggs or dairy, can I still have meringue buttercream?
Of course. Italian meringue buttercream does not have to have either of these in it. Our vegan Italian meringue buttercream uses aquafaba in place of egg whites and we use vegan butter in place of dairy butter. We use coconut cream in place of cream in our dark chocolate ganache. Sadly our white chocolate is not vegan so we cannot make a vegan alternative for you.
Do you use any unethical produce to make your cakes or confections?
All of our cakes and confections are baked and decorated using organic, free-range, fair trade and locally sourced produce from Cornwall wherever possible. We source the finest ingredients and hand make all of our decorations and confections. We do not use pre-bought chocolates, biscuits or any other pre-bought items on our cakes. We make absolutely everything by hand, accept the fresh flowers and fruit of course. We believe that a great cake starts with great ingredients.
How much cake do I need?
We have a great portion guide for you to have a look at. This explains the difference between dessert and wedding portions. If you want larger slices or if you would like leftovers we recommend going for a bigger cake, you don't want to miss out because you were too busy on your big day to grab a slice.
Do you deliver?
We deliver wedding cakes and dessert tables throughout Cornwall. As it stands we do not usually deliver out of county, as buttercream does not tend to travel well over long distances in hot weather. Drop us an email and we'll see what we can do for you. Our smaller orders are only available for collection in Falmouth at this time.
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What's involved in set-up & delivery?
We charge £0.50 per mile, including the return journey for delivery. For wedding cakes we charge an additional flat rate of £20 for the time we spend en-route to the venue and setting up the cake. Many of our cakes require finishing touches at the venue, and may even have to be fully stacked on-site, so we do not allow you to collect tiered wedding cakes. In addition to this tiered cakes are delicate and they can be quite heavy, they require extra care when transporting them.
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Can I have fresh flowers on my cake?
Yes, we can include fresh flowers on your cake. We do only decorate our cakes with edible and food safe flowers. We do not recommend using flowers supplied by your florist or from the supermarket as these are not safe for human consumption.
I love your cake and confections. Do you have a shop?
At this time we only have an online shop, but we are working towards opening a patisserie in Falmouth in the future. We sell our chocolates at Falmouth Farmers Market on Tuesdays at the Moor and Wednesdays/Saturdays at Truro Farmers Market at Lemon Quay. At Christmas we do sell our chocolates and confections at Christmas markets throughout Cornwall. Any information about these will be added to our events page closer to the time.