About this vendor
Frances Baking is a wedding cake creator based in Santa Barbara, CA. This innovative company is owned by Heather Frances Guay. She has had a career in baking spanning over a decade. Heather has had the opportunity to hone her skills in such settings as upscale restaurants in New York and even a lavender farm in New Mexico. Her creative and flexible approach to cake design makes her an ideal fit if you would like your confections to stand out from the crowd.
Frances Baking is committed to their baking practice which prioritizes the clients' needs alongside fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Heather, alongside her husband, are regulars at the Farmers Market where a lot of their ingredients come from. They are excited to provide couples with desserts that taste just as divine as they look.
Among some of the popular flavors available at Frances Baking are Mexican vanilla, almond ricotta, and matcha. You can experience a tasting session with Heather to choose your preferred cake and filling. Each creation can be made in adherence to any dietary requirements you may have, such as gluten-free recipes or vegan options. Heather will work closely with you to ensure your cake is designed exactly how you always envisioned it. She can manage the delivery and set up of your cake. You and your guests can savor this sweet treat, tailored to your unique taste.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Cakes & Desserts
- Cake Delivery & Setup
- Cake Tastings
- Cupcakes
- Groom's Cakes
Dietary Options
- Gluten Free
- Halal
- Kosher
- Organic
- Vegetarian
Awards and Affiliations
2-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2023.2022.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.038 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
The best local wedding cake baker in Santa Barbara! Heather (Frances Bakes) really goes out of her way to understand the vision and provide the cake of your dreams. I was so excite...
d to test flavors, which ended up being whole mini cakes to try out! It was a highlight of wedding planning. On the day of, she dropped off our cake at the venue. I originally told her I would provide flowers, which I ended up not having time to sort out. To my delight and surprise, she found some extra flowers our florist left and added them to the cake. It was really such a thoughtful touch you only get from hiring small business bakers like her. I'm excited to thaw our leftover frozen cake (she provided boxes!) and enjoy it again soon! The chocolate with cream cheese frosting was to die for.
We hired Frances Baking to create our wedding cake, and it was absolutely stunning. Heather put so much care and artistry into every detail of the design — the cake looked beautifu...
l and fit our wedding aesthetic perfectly. She was wonderful to coordinate with throughout the process, from our tasting (where every flavor was delicious) to delivery on the big day. We ended up choosing a dark chocolate cake with passion fruit curd, and it was a hit — we received so many compliments from our guests. Heather even delivered the cake herself and provided a gorgeous cake stand that tied everything together. Highly recommend!
The cake is as beautiful as it is delicious! My, now husband, and I loved the wide variety of cakes flavors, fillings, and frostings to choose from. I was looking for a vegan cake ...
and Heather nailed it. We absolutely loved her intricate design as well. It was great working with Heather as the entire process was seamless with great communication. We would totally recommend and we now want to order cakes from Frances Baking for other special occasions.
We couldn’t be happier with our experience working with Heather for our wedding cake. She executed our vision perfectly! We ordered a Vanilla Bean Cake with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cre...
am, Fresh Strawberries, and Chantilly frosting — not only was it stunning to look at, but it tasted absolutely incredible. Our guests are still raving about how delicious it was.
Heather is truly an artist, and her attention to detail shows in every bite. Beyond her talent, her customer service exceeded our expectations. She was extremely communicative, timely in her responses, and such a joy to work with throughout the process.
I would highly recommend booking Heather for your wedding or any special event. She made our day extra sweet and memorable!
From start to finish, Heather was an absolute joy to work with. I came in with a very specific vision—I even sketched out a design myself—and she brought it to life perfectly. Ever...
y detail, from the colors to the structure and artistic accents, was exactly as I had imagined.
She was incredibly communicative, always quick to respond to questions or ideas, and made the entire process feel smooth and stress-free. I felt truly heard and supported every step of the way.
And the best part? The cake didn’t just look beautiful—it tasted amazing. We received so many compliments from our guests about the flavor and how delicious it was. It’s not every day you find a cake that’s both a showstopper and absolutely scrumptious.
I’m so grateful for her talent and professionalism. If you're looking for someone who can turn a creative vision into something truly stunning and delicious, she’s the one!
(Photography: Chernogorov Photography)
Heather was wonderful to work with. She let us do a tasting of some of her cake flavors, which were all divine. We needed to do a gluten free cake, and she makes the best GF cake w...
e have ever tasted. In fact, many of our guests said it was the best wedding cake they had ever tasted (and did not know it was GF!). Heather brought our design and vision to live and created a stunning two-tiered wedding cake more beautiful than we could have imagined. She was extremely responsive and professional and everything was completely seamless. We loved working with Heather and highly highly recommend her to others!!
Very delicious and beautiful cake!
Wonderful wedding cake experience! Purchased an 8” round strawberry vanilla buttercream wedding cake for a small gathering of 12 people, and there’s enough for a few leftover slice...
s :) the cake was both lovely to look at and eat! It received many complements from our guests, I would purchase another cake from Heather!
Heather made us the most stunning cake of our dreams for our wedding in mid-June of this year. She has such a wide variety of interesting and delicious flavors for cakes and she of...
fers a great tasting option if you're curious.
We went with an earl grey cake with a passion fruit curd and it was as delicious as it was pretty. She was also so amazing at creating the cake design that we wanted and even worked with us to find the perfect design that sort of married all of the designs we were looking it. She was great about asking us for our wedding vision boards and floral / colors as well so that she could make sure that the cake would tie in perfectly.
Highly recommend her if you are looking for some really cool flavors and a really talented and sweet baker in the SB area.
Heather made us the desserts of our dreams for our wedding! We had three cakes- almond ricotta with chantilly and fresh strawberries, citrus olive oil with lemon curd and buttercre...
am frosting, and chocolate cake with fresh raspberries and cream cheese frosting. They were incredible!! We had sampled her cakes months ago when she made us two for the tasting- they were soooo delicious and so pretty. We also got her chocolate chip cookies and brownies- do not skip those!!! Our guests raved about them and I’m still thinking about them haha. The cakes she made for our wedding were GORGEOUS- she totally understood my vision and used the brightest prettiest fruits and colors. THANK YOU HEATHER!! I loved working with you!!
Heather was so helpful during the cake planning process for our elopement, especially considering my husband and I are located all the way in Boston. We had family overnight the ca...
ke tastings to us and Heather even wrapped up the tasting cakes and sent us photos/measuring so we knew how big of a package we needed. All flavors we tried were so good and we couldn’t decide on one flavor so we got two! Heather made the most delicious vegan two-tier wedding cake for our small elopement reception. I will be dreaming about this cake for a lifetime! I highly recommend her cakes for any celebration and I’m even thinking of ways we could possibly order again for whenever we’re back in California!
I am a little tardy in posting my review. I was married on February 18th, 2023 and had the MOST magical day ever! One of the things that made it magical was my gorgeous, scrumptiou...
s and absolutely adorable wedding cake made by Frances Baking. I got more compliments on the cake than I did my wedding dress LOL ;-) It was perfect, delicious and visually stunning. All of the guests enjoyed not only looking at the cake but eating is as well! I ordered a naked chocolate cake with caramel filling and vanilla nut icing. I HIGHLY recommend Frances baking for all your baking needs!
Thank you Frances Baking!
Heather was such a joy to work with throughout our wedding planning period. I loved that we were able to meet in person for a cake tasting. My husband and I initially tried 3 diffe...
rent flavors—all of which were amazing, but we were looking for something different, so we ended up reaching out to Heather to try one of her lavender cakes with strawberries, and a chantilly frosting. We met her in person again for a quick exchange and later tried the cake, which was even better then we could imagine. I remember asking how much we owed her for this cake tasting and she didn’t charge us because she wanted us to find a cake that we loved. I felt so touched and knew we had to book her with our dream wedding cake. As for the design, I sent her a few sample pictures of what we wanted and she completely delivered. I was so happy to see our cake on our wedding day. She is absolutely amazing and I couldn’t recommend her more.
Working with Heather was truly a creative cake experience, where we felt we were able to bounce ideas back and forth and we ended up with truly the most beautiful and delicious cus...
tom gourmet wedding cake of our dreams! We initially reached out and asked for a Sicilian-inspired cake and she came back to us with 3 super unique flavor combos. I loved that we were able to meet Heather and taste our cakes in person (even though we got cut short because of the rain). We had a creative exchange of ideas for mixing and matching flavors and decoration, and ultimately ended up with the most unique Cannoli cake! If you want a creative custom cake and want to be part of the creative process, I would highly recommend Frances Baking for your wedding or event! In fact, she is the only cake maker in the SB area that I’d recommend. We loved our cake so much that we are already planning to order a smaller version of our cake for our first anniversary!
Frances Baking made our three tiered wedding cake and it was so delicious and absolutely beautiful. The design was exactly what we requested and the flavors were amazing! Do not he...
sitate to choose Frances Baking!
Heather at Frances Baking made our cake for our small June wedding, and we could not have been happier with how it turned out! Heather was always responsive, flexible with arrangin...
g meeting times, and open to our ideas. She offers some very unique flavors combinations - we ended up going with earl grey cake, raspberry filling, and vanilla buttercream frosting. It was delicious and all of our guests loved it. Heather also had the idea to use our extra centerpiece flowers to decorate the cake, and it looked lovely. A pleasure to work with, and I would not hesitate to recommend Frances Baking to anyone in the SB area needing a cake for their event! We can’t wait to enjoy the leftovers on our one year anniversary! 😊 🍰 🌸
Heather had great communication, flexibility and professionalism throughout the wedding planning experience. She was punctual and reliable during the cake tasting appointment and t...
he day-of delivery. The cake was beautiful and it tasted amazing!
We contacted Heather about 7 weeks prior to our daughter's wedding date. She was due to have her child any day, but still stayed in touch. She even specially made some tastings ...
that we were able to pick up while still on maternity leave. Our cake was delicious and beautiful!
Thank you Heather for being so accommodating and for our beautiful cake. We would definitely use this vendor again. Everything was hassle free, perfect, and delicious.
If you are looking for a delicious and beautiful cake for your special occasion, look no further, Heather is THE best! She provided us with cake tasting options and a nice afternoo...
n at the park to enjoy tasting our possible wedding cake for our Santa Barbara, CA. wedding in January 2022. She responded promptly to any communications and provided clarifications on sizing and pictures of detailing she could use for our wedding cake. In the end, Heather made our day that much sweeter when my new husband and I had our first bite!
3 months after our wedding and our guests are still raving about Frances Baking’s wedding cake! Heather made us the most amazing lavender cake, with chantilly cream and raspberry f...
ruit filling and I already know for the rest of our lives no other cake will compare. We also ordered Mexican wedding cookies, lavender shortbread cookies, mini pies and macaroons which were all soo delicious and incredible that our guests didn’t let us try any. It was such a pleasure working with her! Her business is truly such a gem. Although we live in Orange County, we’ll definitely request her baked goods when visiting Santa Barbara!
I’m so happy with the cake Heather baked for my elopement! It was beautiful, delicious, and there was plenty of cake for the 20 people at dinner. Heather was very quick to respond ...
to my last minute request (about 3-4 weeks before the elopement) and worked with me to design a cake that would be perfect for my event. The cake was affordable and even included drop off to the venue. I’ll definitely be using Heather again in the near future.
We are so grateful for our beautiful wedding cake from Frances Baking. Heather made us a two tiered carrot cake and it was exceptional. So delicious. We are planning a wedding part...
y in the new year and will definitely come back to Heather for another cake!! I would highly recommend her services.
Working with Heather and Frances Baking was fantastic! She quickly responded to our inquiries, provided helpful suggestions for flavor pairings, and was able to create two gorgeous...
cakes for us that both tasted amazing. She created both a matcha cake and a lavender cake for our wedding, and I definitely saw quite a few of our guests going back for a second slice. We were so lucky to work with Heather and will be recommending her every chance we get!
I used Frances Baking for my wedding last month and have nothing but great things to say about Heather and her cakes! She was very responsive and made the process very simple. We r...
eally wanted a vegan cake which is how I ended up finding her, she was able to absolutely perfect the cake flavor and design we were looking for. We also got cupcakes from her which we didn't do vegan and everyone loved those as well! Highly recommend!
Heather was so quick in her email responses, and was so great to work with! I sent her a photo of the cake that I wanted and she created a spitting image. Highly recommend! Everyon...
e told me how yummy it tasted :)
Dani M
Soooo delicious and beautiful! I was blown away by how fluffy and delicious my cupcakes where. It was such a breeze to order even though I don’t live in the same city she was alway...
s quick to respond. I would absolutely love to order from Frances baking for anything!
Heather created our custom wedding cake for our wedding at Los Poblanos in the fall of 2019 and we could not have been happier! The cake was exquisite, beautifully decorated and de...
tailed. The cake flavors were so well executed and the best we’ve ever had. I would highly recommend Heather and Frances Bakery!
Heather did such an amazing job with our elopement cake! It was beautiful and delicious. My husband is also slightly lactose intolerant, so she did a vegan frosting which was just ...
as good, if not better! Would definitely order again!
We found Heather through other reviews as we vetted out our options. From initial email all the way through final delivery and set up we could not have been happier. This was an ex...
tremely easy process for my now husband and I - we eloped out of our home city and were very nervous about finding a cake vendor as we were not able to do a tasting ahead of the date. Our choices and design came to life during the process as Heather guided us to our final cake. It was not only beautiful but delicious as well....everyone was bummed when the cake was gone. Communication was clear and it was a great experience. We could not suggest you give Heather an opportunity to help you with your needs any stronger!
Heather cooked our wedding cake in 2018. It was absolutely delicious, beautiful, and still good a year later after we pulled a slice out of the freezer. Highly recommended - fantas...
tic baker
Best testing cake and it was beautiful. I couldn’t have been happier!
Heather baked our wedding cake and it was absolutely perfect - delicious and beautiful. She followed our wishes exactly to the T as far as how it should be decorated and we had abs...
olutely zero issues. We wanted a super simple design, and she did it cleanly and perfectly (we could have gone way more elaborate if we wanted). Would definitely recommend!
We absolutely LOVED our wedding cake! Heather created the most delicious creation ... I can still imagine the taste and smile three years later. We had an almond cake with chanti...
lly creme frosting, but my husband wanted a twist - funfetti inside! Heather was able to masterfully meld the dream into reality.
Our wedding cake was amazing! We got married in December and I had no idea what I wanted my cake to look like, I just wanted something to match the season. Heather came up with a b...
eautiful winter design. Not only was the cake beautiful, but it was the best tasting cake I have ever had. It was a lavender lemon cake and was to die for. We had a guest who ended up eating 6 slices of the cake!
Heather makes the most amazing cakes!
The options that we had as tasters were all so good it was hard to choose, but we settled on an almond cake with chocolate filling. We asked ...
her to decorate it like an aspen log, since we had a rustic mountain kind of theme and she did a perfect job, even doing our initials in a little heart. My mom still talks about how good the cake tasted, even years later.
A gorgeous cake, that is also delicious, can't ask for more!
We had a small elopement a couple of years ago at Los Poblanos Inn in New Mexico where Heather made a small and tasty wedding cake for us. It was a carrot pistachio cake to reflect...
Iranian flavors for us. She was very helpful with her suggestions when we were not sure what we wanted at first. The carrot pistachio cake was her suggestion and we loved it! I highly recommend her service to make your special day even more special!
My wedding cake was beautiful & delicious! Heather listened to what style I was looking for and surprised me with a yummy cake filling when I couldn’t decide! She said trust me & I...
am so grateful I did - she definitely knows what she is doing & the cake tasted amazing!
Contact
Santa Barbara, California
