A cake collected on a Friday afternoon for a Saturday lunch spends roughly twenty hours in your care, and almost all of the things that can go wrong in that window are avoidable. None of them involve the cake itself. They involve a warm car, a sunny bench, a fridge with strong-smelling leftovers in it, and a knife that was never wiped.
Collecting the day before is the plan, not the fallback
We hand cakes over already assembled in a box, with the top cut open if the cake is tiered, so there is nothing left for you to build. Collecting the day before is deliberate: a cake keeps in a fridge in our packaging overnight with no change to taste or texture, and it takes the collection off the morning when you have forty other things to do. We are collection only, so building the pickup into the day before is the single easiest thing you can do to make an event calm. The ordering guide covers how the date and time selection works.
Getting it home, with a second pair of hands
Carry the box from the bottom, both hands underneath rather than gripping the sides, and keep the car cool. The footwell or a flat seat is steadier than the boot, where a box slides on the first corner. Collecting a large cake alone is a two-handed job done with one hand, so bring someone: one of you carries, the other opens doors and drives, and the box never gets balanced on a knee. It also turns a chore into twenty minutes at a table with a coffee, which beats a car park as a use of the day before an event. If you are collecting a tiered cake for a wedding, our wedding cake guide covers it, and there is more on choosing and serving in this birthday cake guide.
Fridge or bench
It depends on what you have bought, and the rule is short.
- Layer cakes from the specialty range, such as the Tres Leches, go in the fridge overnight, in the box, and in heat they stay there until an hour or two before serving.
- Travel cakes from the tea cakes and loaves range need no refrigeration at all. Room temperature, away from sun and heat, still in the box.
- Larger desserts such as the Black & White Chocolate Mousse and the Romeo & Juliet cheesecake want the fridge, and both need three days' notice rather than two when you order.
Keep the box shut either way. The packaging is doing two jobs: holding the shape and keeping the cake away from whatever else is in the fridge.
The hour before you serve
Bring a refrigerated cake out one to two hours before it goes on the table. A cold cake tastes muted; the flavour and the texture both come back as it warms towards room temperature, and that hour is the difference between a good cake and the cake you actually ordered. Then cut properly: dip the knife in hot water and dry it between every slice, and portion by the numbers rather than by eye. A 15cm layer cake gives twelve to fifteen, a 20cm gives twenty to twenty-five, a 25cm gives thirty to thirty-five, a 20cm loaf gives eight and a 25cm bundt gives sixteen. Eyeballing it is how the far end of the table ends up with the small pieces.
What is not a take-home format
Some of the menu is designed to be eaten where it is made. Everything on the made to order dessert menu, including the Matilda Chocolate, is plated at the counter with ice cream and sauce and takes about ten minutes, so it belongs to a visit rather than a fridge. The mini desserts are one serving each and need no notice, which makes them the thing you buy on the day. Petit four trays are $60 for fifteen pieces and need seven days' notice, so they are the opposite: plan those first, not last.
Ordering and visiting
Most of the range needs two days' notice, the larger desserts need three and petit fours need seven, and the checkout date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet for what is in your cart. Pickup is from our patisserie inside The Welder on Welles Street in the central city, and pickup is the only option. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday, and the frequently asked questions page has the full storage and transport advice, alongside the menu.
