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4.4
out of 5.020 reviews
I wish I could give less than one star. I chose Bella’s Custom Cakes owned by Anna Blake Lilly based on recommendations, reviews when I googled, and our initial conversation. She...
sold herself well. Since then, it was brought to my attention that the name of the company was formerly Bella’s Cakes and the reviews were not nearly as favorable. We agreed that she would create a two-tier wedding cake with a clover bouquet topper made of chocolate and fondant. I originally mentioned making the topper out of fondant and she said she would be using both chocolate and fondant because she could create such realistic clover with amazing color variations. She promised me the topper would be amazing and would not look like a cheesy birthday cake (her words not mine).
The day before the wedding, I reached out to her to confirm with a text message the time she would be arriving because I hadn’t heard from her. She was frantic and said tomorrow right. I confirmed the wedding was the next day and then felt it would be best if I called her to speak in person. We confirmed the date, time, and location and then she proceeded to tell me she felt the cake was a bit boring and when she got back from delivering a cake would send me some suggestions. I never heard back from her, so I reached out again and she sent two pictures of cakes and suggested we added swags to the sides in addition to the topper. I agreed to add the swags.
Before she arrived, she sent a picture of the cake which had the entire top of the cake cut out of the picture. I questioned why the fondant and chocolate topper had been omitted from the picture. She said the topper couldn’t go in the refrigerator. That didn’t make any sense to me, but I just let it go because I was busy preparing for a wedding in just a couple hours. When she arrived with the cake, she quickly pulled it out of the box and plopped a live potted plant of clover (dirty pot I might add directly on the icing on the top tier). In doing so, se spilled dirt on both tiers of the cake. I was in shock and asked what happened to the topper we agreed on and asked if this was a live plant, still in disbelief. She said, oh yeah a topper would look cheesy (again her words not mine) and they could plant this to have in the future as well. There was never any discussion of veering from the original topper made of fondant and chocolate. At this point I’m looking at a wedding cake with a dirty pot of live clover and dirt spilled on both tiers of the cake. The caterer and manager came over and were looking with everyone in disbelief on what had just occurred. That’s when we noticed the specks of dirt all over the cake. They joked and said a little dirt never hurt anyone and we agreed there was no way to remove the dirt without smudging the icing.
She then handed me a box of cupcakes that we had agreed would be displayed below the cake. Another agreement not kept. She quickly snapped a picture of the cake and rushed out and sent me that picture saying Delivered. The caterer and manager came over and looked and we agreed there was no way to remove the dirt without smudging the icing.
After the wedding was over, I reached out to express my disappointment and she was so unprofessional. She responded saying that I had agreed to add the swags, attempting to divert the conversation away from the topper. I told her this had nothing to do with the swags I had agreed to add to the sides of the cake because she suggested it because the cake looked boring and not to divert the conversation away from the cake missing the fondant and chocolate topper. She said she would be happy to showcase this cake any day and that the topper she made looked cheesy (again her words). None of this was ever relayed to me and now I know why I received the picture of the cake with the topper cut out of the picture shortly before she delivered the cake. There was no topper. She quickly stopped and bought a plant to stick on top of the cake and when I questioned the topper she came up with an excuse as if the topper couldn’t go in the fridge (as she called it) never mentioning that she was going to add a dirty live pot of clover to the top of the wedding cake. She told me that if I didn’t like the live plant that I could return it to her and she would refund the $15 that she paid for it.
Bella Custom Cakes (formerly Bella Cakes) owned by Anna Blake Lilly ruined our day. Please think long and hard before entering into any transaction by this business. Don’t let her ruin your special day!!!
Bella's was on the list of recommendation for cakes from my wedding venue. I contacted Anna and was initially pleased with the prices and set up pick up for a tasting box. She info...
rmed me all of the basic flavors such as strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla would be included. I contacted her the next day to inform her I was on my way as she requested and she suggested I come the following day because traffic would be bad coming to Newport News. I agreed and arrived Saturday at around 11:30 as agreed upon. I had to wait about 15 minutes for her to bring the box out and some cake pieces were frozen. I was alarmed at that point because it wasn't prepared as she stated it would be and it felt rushed and unorganized. She informed she had 3 other brides picking up the day before, which is the day I was supposed to pick up. Also, some of the flavors she said would be there was not, such as strawberry and chocolate. She texted me to follow up and ask how the cake was and I informed my fiancé was interested in strawberry and it wasn't in the box. She stated that I could come by and pick up strawberry. I arrived on Tuesday at 6 to pick up the cake and she was not there and informed she had family issues that delayed her. I understood but felt some slight inconvenience because she could of communicated that to me prior to 6:00pm. She then offered to come and bring the strawberry cake to me on the next day which was Wednesday. I am writing this review on the next day Thursday, and I have not heard from Anna and she has not delivered anything. This has been the worst experience of my entire wedding planning. I am thankful that I am booking early so I have time to select another bakery. I would not recommend Bella's to anyone due to lack of communication and inorganization.
Our cake was delicious and looked absolutely beautiful! Everyone was impressed with it. Anna is very easy to work with and she immediately understood our vision for our cake. For t...
he cake we wanted and received, it was amazingly affordable.
The cake was amazing and delicious, Everyone enjoyed it and the colors and designs were exactly what we asked for. Thank you so much
My wedding cake was everything that I wanted! It was beautiful and tasted amazing! Anna's cakes are delicious, and she has so many flavor options available. She was willing to work...
with me on the cake design to help create my vision. I would definitely recommend her, and I look forward to getting cakes for other celebrations from her in the future!
Anna at Bella Cakes did an amazing job on our beautiful beach wedding cake!!!! We loved her professionalism and her attention to detail. There was not a bite left! You will not be ...
disappointed !
I was fortunate to win a cake from Bella Cakes in a Christmas drawing! They were incredible to work with and made the cake exactly how I envisioned it! I had a very large cake (too...
k advantage of having it for free!) So they gave us the option of different flavors each tier. They cake, and all of it's flavors, was a huge hit!! People could not get enough, and luckily we had plenty for seconds and thirds :) The staff was super friendly and I really enjoyed working with them. I have a nephew with nut allergies and our cake had peanut butter in it, so they kindly made him nut free cupcakes! I look forward to ordering more baked goods from Bella's in the future!
Our wedding cake was absolutely delicious. And it looked absolutely beautiful. And it was absolutely affordable. Use Bella Cakes!
The baker added her own touch and the cake came out great!
We found Bella Cakes after we saw a Groupon deal they were offering for cupcakes. I called and asked if they would offer us for a similar deal, and they were more than willing to w...
ork with us. My husband and I went in for a tasting, where they showed us extensive lists of wonderful cupcake flavors, and we tasted many delicious cupcakes. On our wedding day, our cupcakes were delivered to our venue, which was about an hour away from the shop, for a very reasonable price. The cupcakes were beautiful and tasted great. All of our guests loved them!
Bella cakes was professional and easy to work with. The cake tasted and looked good - although we were a little disappointed that the color was off.
Bella Cakes provided the best wedding cake. My husband and I went in for a tasting and Anna was very helpful. She helped us pair different flavors together. We ended up with the co...
conut flavored cake with pineapple filling. I told her that I wanted a tropical themed cake and she took her ideas and sean with it. The cake was amazing in taste and the presentation was excellent. She was very personable and I would recommend her to anyone.
I chose Bella Cakes for my wedding and groom's cake. I chose them because they had good prices and the cake was good too. They only problem I had with them is when I went to pick...
up my groom's cake. I got there and they asked me if it was ok that they put rice krispie treat in part of the cake design. It was a design that was originally suppose to me made of cake. I was just a little annoyed that they asked me if it was ok when I went to pick it up! (It had to be ok at that point) But overall both cakes looked great and tasted really good.
My cake was exactly what I was looking for!
From the moment I met with Anna at Bella Cakes, I knew her and her staff were going to do our wedding cake! She stopped at nothing to make sure she would be able to create our visi...
on for our wedding cake and she did exactly that. I will be using Bella Cakes again for all my cake needs!
They changed the frosting to fondue at the last minute because we had extreme heat. My only complaint was there was some missing lace on the cake but it might have been because of ...
the change of frosting
I chose Bella Cakes because her cake samples tasted great. I live in another state and she worked with me through emails and phone calls to design a perfect cake. I decided to ha...
ve her make me a bridal shower cake and also a groom's cake.
The first cake I picked up was my bridal shower cake, it looked beautiful and I was very happy and everyone really adored it at the shower. It tasted okay but not the same as the samples I tasted. The actual cake tasted more like a cake mix cake than a cake made from scratch. The week later I picked up the groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner, the design was nice and he really liked it but when I went to pick it up she was not there and her assistants were. I got there and the cake was ready but they did not have a box! I was told she had run out of boxes and had to go buy more and wasn't back yet. I was scheduled to pick my cake up at noon and it was 3 o'clock when I got there and they still didn't have any boxes. Needless to say I had to take my cake with out a box and transport it 40 miles to the rehearsal and before I got there the cake was damaged because a package fell on the cake. the cake would've been fine if they had provided me with a box!
On my wedding day I was so stressed out because; my caterer called and said the cake had not been delivered and it was 2:30PM and my wedding was at 3:00. My cake was finally delivered to the reception at 4:30PM and my reception was at 5:00PM. She was still there setting up the cake when we arrived to make our entrance into the reception. I was very dissapointed because the cake was leaning and the decorations were falling off of the cake. I did express to her my feelings and she did agree to refund some of my money since I was not happy.
I have to say the wedding cake did taste veery good and everyone else I talked to did agree, but the other 2 cakes tasted more like cake mix and as much as it cost I did not want cake mix.
I had the honor of working with Anna and her team and loved every minute of it. I was able to give her design in my head and she was able to draw out the picture exactly the way I ...
wanted. The tasting was absolutely delicious and was the same the day of the wedding. The guest enjoyed the cake and has been asking about the caterer nonstop. Anna is absolutely amazing to work with and understands your needs. The only mishap in the construction of the cake is that it leaned and began to lean more as the time went by. As this is not the wedding cake that I have been to with cakes done by bella cakes and the cake his been leaning. I believe the cake size and utensils she had to hold the cake up was not enough to hold the cakes weight. Overall everything was excellent and cant wait to eat my top layer of cake for our anniversary.
Anna and her team at Bella cakes were awesome! I went in with a mesh of ideas and Anna help me to create a beautiful cake that captured my snowflake, starfish theme beautifully! ...
The cake was delievered on time and set up. During the wedding I must have had 3 slices...it was soo good! She has a lot of options for cake and icing flavors. My husband had no idea what the cake was going to look like but absolutely loved it! The price was great too!! She really worked with our budget and made a beautiful cake!
I used Bella Cakes for my husband's grooms cake and our wedding cake and I'm very happy with my experience. The groom's cake was made to look exactly like my husband's electric gui...
tar and WOW did it ever! I surprised him with it at our rehearsal dinner and he was so shocked that the guitar was edible. Everyone raved about the chocolate cake it was made out of (YUM).
Our wedding cake was beautiful and the almond flavor was DELICIOUS. The cake was over $200 cheaper than a quote from a different bakery in Williamsburg. Also, Bella Cakes was running a special so they delivered the cake for no additional charge. After the wedding my parents received a thank you card from a guest for hosting such a great event and having the "Delicious wedding cake! Everyone raved over it!".
Contact
1405-I Kiln Creek Parkway, Newport News, VA
