Could a Costco half-sheet cake save you hundreds of dollars? Whether you're looking to spare your
wallet, feed a crowd, or just enjoy a delicious dessert, the big box retailer has you covered.
Considering the popular dessert's widespread versatility and appeal,
Costco offers a cake design for every occasion, age, and personality. The retailer's bakery team
can craft 27 unique icing illustrations to adorn your confection. Birthday motifs
include a rainbow, rose bouquet, princess crown, and an "over-the-hill" version for
when your guest of honor is turning 40. On top of that, designs such as a cross, baby carriage,
and graduation cap are available to celebrate nearly every milestone.
Plus, the Costco cake artists can create just about every sports ball under the sun,
making them perfect for a delicious ending to a little league season or a Super Bowl party.
And if nothing out of this selection strikes your fancy, the big-box store's bakery also
takes custom orders. Of course, these requests must be submitted a couple of
days ahead so their cake artists have time to craft your special design or bespoke message.
Easily customizable and available in a pinch, the options are endless when it
comes to Costco's signature half-sheet cakes — except in terms of taste. The confections
are only available in two flavors: white cake layered with vanilla cheesecake mousse topped
with decadent vanilla buttercream frosting, or chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse iced
with chocolate buttercream. Not exactly a lot of variety, but hey, they get the job done.
"Smells chocolatey, eh? Now, EAT it!"
Meanwhile, the warehouse store's bakery offers other sweet treats,
such as a mini carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and raisins. Equally impressive is
the flavor bonus offered by Costco's Australian stores: Shoppers there have the option of adding
raspberry or chocolate filling to compliment either the chocolate or vanilla sponge cake.
If you're watching your calories, you may be disappointed to find there's not much
to go on when it comes to Costco's sheet cakes. It's unclear why, however, considering they are
often customized with edible decorations, the nutrition info could conceivably vary widely.
Nevertheless, we're willing to make the following educated guess. Before
the addition of any edible decor, we're estimating that a single three-ounce
serving of either the chocolate or vanilla sheet cake supplies around 400 calories. We
arrived at this conclusion by looking at the total weight of a Costco sheet cake,
which is 9.5 pounds, and dividing it by 48, which is the number of servings. Then we used SF Gate's
estimate of calories in a four-ounce serving of chocolate-frosted sheet cake, which is 537,
and adjusted that for Costco's three-ounce serving. Remember, this is only a rough estimate.
The vanilla cake may have fewer calories, but the difference is likely minimal. In any event,
it might have considerably more sugar than the chocolate version.
Again, working off SF Gate's numbers, we estimate that a single serving of chocolate frosted sheet
cake contains 44 grams of sugar. For the vanilla, it's 49. In either case, let's just say it's
over the daily limit of sugar recommended by the American Heart Association and leave it at that.
Sheet cakes are perfect for parties, but there's no rule saying you can't buy one for yourself
with the intention of enjoying a slice every day while it's still fresh. The question is,
how long can a Costco sheet cake stay fresh? The answer depends on where and how you're storing it.
First things first, Baking Business suggests it's not a great idea to store sweet and moist
baked goods at room temperature. Although baked goods aren't particularly vulnerable to
microbial contamination, they will spoil more quickly if left unrefrigerated. Query Sprout
explains they'll also lose moisture rapidly outside the fridge. According to Cake Re,
a refrigerated cake with buttercream frosting will last anywhere from three to four days — and
slightly less if filled with a creamy mousse, which is the case for Costco's sheet cakes.
On the other hand, some Redditors on the Costco subreddit suggest Costco
cakes may stay fresh in the fridge for up to a week or slightly longer. Moreover,
if you freeze your sheet cake, you may still be able to enjoy it three months from now,
or even longer if you carefully wrap each individual slice, according to The New York
Times. But if you're buying a Costco sheet cake for a party, then you're probably best off doing
so as close to the event as possible. Southern Living suggests storing it unopened in the
fridge and transferring it to room temperature no more than roughly an hour before serving.
A 2019 article from The Knot surveyed 27,000 couples about their nuptial dessert of choice
and reported that the average price of a wedding cake is around $500. Yikes!
"This wedding cake … can I make it?"
Today reported that one creative couple decided to pass on a more expensive option in favor of
building their own tiered treat out of Costco's sheet cakes and fresh flowers from Trader Joe's.
The homemade wedding cake masterpiece racked up a total of $50 — a truly sweet deal. It
was created from two humble sheet cakes which were sliced into smaller squares and stacked
on top of each other to achieve a traditional wedding cake shape. Luckily, the couple had a
pastry chef in the family who assisted in topping the confectionary creation with decadent layers
of homemade buttercream while arranging the pale pink roses in a cascade down the cake.
The groom's sister documented the final product on Instagram.
She praised her brother's creativity and craftsmanship while revealing that she was
the mastermind behind the beautiful, budget-friendly rustic cake stand.
Back in 2015, a Costco controversy broke out due to a mother complaining that
her son's dinosaur-themed birthday cake contained Satanic symbolism. According to
an article by the Inquisitr, the woman purchased the cake in question at the
Superstition Springs Costco location in Mesa, Arizona. The confection was
topped with a friendly looking blue and green dinosaur prancing through grass
drawn in icing across the surface. As she was singing "Happy Birthday" to her son, however,
she noticed that the dino's three visible legs seemed to be in the shape of "666." As she stated,
"I was extremely shocked and upset to see a demonic symbol written clear as day on
my 6-year-old son's birthday cake. What was supposed to be a whimsical dinosaur
became something very distasteful. I was extremely surprised at Costco
for allowing such an inappropriate joke [to] be sold to an unsuspecting victim."
Although the claims have since been debunked and were thought to have been orchestrated by
the woman and her reporter boyfriend, there were exactly 666 Costco stores
spread across the world at the time of the scandal. Coincidence? Probably.
What the warehouse store's sheet cake lacks in elegance,
it makes up for in ease and simplicity. But for some special occasions, you might want
a confection with a dash of class. Fear not — you still won't have to stray from the Costco
bakery shelves to find a crowd-pleasing cake with some international flair.
Enter the tiramisu bar cake. Made with layers of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and creamy mascarpone,
this decadent dessert is finished with a dusting of cocoa powder and a
generous pile of chocolate shavings. And while tiramisu can be pretty expensive,
Costco bucks the trend and delivers this on the cheap.
To the dismay of cake enthusiasts, Costco released a Facebook advertisement in late
May 2020 encouraging members to purchase cakes to celebrate graduations — only
the cakes pictured in the ad were the bakery's 10-inch round cakes,
not the fan-favorite half-sheet cakes. At the bottom of the post, it broke the upsetting news:
"Please note: Half-sheet cakes are currently not available to order or customize."
Weeks later, the warehouse retailer confirmed in
a statement to Business Insider that they had no intention of restocking the cakes.
According to The New York Times, discontinuing the sheet cake could
have been attributed to the coronavirus pandemic,
as gatherings for larger groups had gone by the wayside. The retailer explained,
"To help limit personal contact and create more space for social distancing, Costco has reduced
service in some departments. At this time, we are not making sheet cakes for special order."
Although Costco originally claimed that the 10-inch round cakes appeared to be popular enough
with shoppers, a Change.org petition was formed not too long after the store's announcement.
It racked up over 1,500 signatures, with many expressing their adoration in the "reasons for
signing" section. And one cake lover argued that a dessert this size has a very important purpose:
"Because buying a cake doesn't mean you're having
a huge party. A lot of businesses buy these cakes for essential workers!!"
"Cake! Everybody loves cakes."
Fortunately, Costco brought the fan-favorite back less than two
years later — albeit at a slightly higher cost than its original $19 price tag.
Like Costco, Sam's Club offers a ready-made frosted half-sheet cake that can be decorated
to order. And like Costco's sheet cake, the one available at Sam's Club is good for 48 modestly
sized servings. It's a few dollars more than Costco's sheet cake, though the extra cost
may be worth it to some; in addition to white and chocolate flavors, Sam's Club also offers
a marble cake option. Whether or not you have to order your Sam's Club frosted half-sheet
cake in advance may depend upon where you're located. However, it appears that if a store
does require pre-orders for this confection and you didn't do so, you may still be able to pick
up an un-frosted half-sheet cake and frost it yourself, according to the company's website.
BJ's Wholesale Club also sells a reasonably priced, customizable frosted half-sheet cake.
But because it's described as a single layer, it won't have filling. This may explain why
BJ's says that its half sheet is meant to serve 20 to 30 people, as opposed to the 48 claimed by
Costco and Sam's Club. If this isn't an issue for you, then the other thing worth noting is that,
like the frosted sheet cakes available at certain Sam's Club locations,
the ones at BJ’s would appear to require that you order at least 24 hours ahead of time.