5 out of 5 stars and 22 reviews Best of Weddings (1x).
5
(22)Western North Carolina (Asheville and Surrounding Area)
About this vendor
Karen Donatelli Cake Designs is a business based out of Asheville, NC, that offers creative, highly skilled wedding cake design services. For more than two decades, the company has lovingly made delightful desserts for couples celebrating milestone occasions.
Karen Donatelli Cake Designs is owned by Karen Donatelli, a talented Pastry Chef who works with her team to craft artful, one-of-a-kind cake creations. Karen specializes in dramatic confections based on her clients' unique styles and love stories. Better yet, each bite of her eye-catching designs contains palate-pleasing flavors that are sure to spark joy.
For Karen Donatelli Cake Designs, no wedding is too big or too small. Karen and her team have experience preparing a diverse array of celebratory cakes, and they'd be happy to work with you to bring your bespoke vision to life. In addition to enchanting wedding cakes, Karen also offers tempting desserts. Options include cupcakes, croissants, brioche cakes, and pastries.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Cakes & Desserts
- Cake Accessories
- Cake Stands
- Cake Delivery & Setup
- Cake Tastings
- Cupcakes
- Groom's Cakes
Dietary Options
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Kosher
- Nut Free
- Sugar Free
- Vegan
Awards and Affiliations
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.022 reviews
Review photos
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Karen, the talented creator behind our wedding cake, truly outdid herself! Not only was her creation visually stunning, but it was also a taste sensation that left us and our guests in awe.
The cake was not only delicious but incredibly moist, a testament to Karen's baking expertise. What's even more impressive is that she made it vegan to accommodate our dietary preferences. As a vegan couple, finding a baker who could craft a cake like this was a true blessing.
We wholeheartedly recommend Karen to anyone in need of a cake that not only looks and tastes amazing but also caters to specific dietary needs. Her artistry and commitment to her craft shine through in every bite. Thank you, Karen, for adding a sweet touch to our special day!
Karen was one of the kindest, loveliest vendors that we got to work with! Not to mention that her cakes were among the best I have *ever* had. She took such excellent care of us from the tasting through the wedding, and the tasting was one of the most fun things we got to do during the planning process. The cake itself was also STUNNING and presented so beautifully, it’s amazing that it tasted even better than it looked.
I can’t say enough amazing things about Karen and how professional and kind she is! We had the best experience at our cake tasting and knew the moment we left that it was going to be one of the best decisions for our wedding day. Our family and friends are still talking about how tasty all the cupcakes and cakes were, and we can’t wait to go back for our anniversary to recreate our wedding cake. Any questions or changes we had during the process, Karen responded right away. Not only do they deliver, but they also decorated our cake/cupcake table. Such an amazing experience from start to finish!
Incredible job! Karen Donatelli is a master at her craft and in the display of her beautiful creations. We used Karen for our daughter's wedding and I have to tell you it was amazing. From the tastings that were so professionally displayed to the day of the wedding Karen delivered exactly what she promised. Everything was delicious and our guests loved the assortments we had chosen. Thank you Karen for your talent, I highly recommend anyone to look no further you won't be disappointed!
Choosing Karen as our wedding cake vendor is one of the best decisions my husband and I made in our wedding planning process. Starting from our first conversation, Karen was the sweetest and most accommodating to me since we were not local to the area. Karen made my husband and I feel so special throughout the whole tasting process and planning of our cake. Karen was able to supply many suggestions to help us and we were so thrilled with how our cake turned out! Thank you so much Karen!
For all of you cake snobs, look no further! Karen Donatelli made the best desserts for our wedding. She curated our cake to our needs seamlessly and decorated the desert bar with flowers and natural elements as if it fell right out of a Disney movie. We has four small bite desserts and a three layered cake, it was ALL GONE by the end of the night. Looking back at pictures from the wedding day every single post I saw someone photographed the stunning desserts and also made sure they knew where they could get more. I am very happy we had Karen make our desserts and we will continue to use her for any events in the future.
Karen did an amazing job on the cake and pastries for our wedding! I had a last minute change of plans about surprising my fiance with Italian Rainbow cookies and cannolis, but Karen was great about helping me give my new husband the perfect surprise. Everything was so delicious! Would absolutely recommend Donatelli Cake Designs for all your dessert needs!
Karen is an an amazing baker, an artist, and the kindest human being. She is a ray of sunshine that makes all of your dessert dreams come true! My husband and I ordered a small 1 tier cake from her for our wedding and not only did it look EXACTLY like my inspiration, but it tasted even greater! We had forgotten our cooler at home to transport it to our venue, and she generously and creatively came up with several ideas to transport it safely. I could never say enough wonderful things!
Karen provided a cake and dessert bar for our Asheville wedding recently, and we would wholeheartedly recommend her to couples looking for a talented and detail-oriented baker for their wedding day or other special event.
Karen's desserts are works of art. Everything was not only delicious but beautiful, and we got so many compliments from our guests. From the first day we met Karen for a tasting she quickly grasped our vision and tone for the wedding and worked to ensure that our desserts were a part of that. One example of her attention to detail--after our tasting, she sent the leftover desserts home in a box wrapped with ribbons in our wedding colors!
Karen was wonderful to work with and helped to make our wedding planning fun, easy, and stress-free. We would absolutely recommend her for your next special event--her artistry takes dessert to the next level!
Karen was AMAZING from start to finish. My husband and I LOVE cinnamon rolls so we decided that we would like to have a cinnamon roll three-tiered cake as well as individual cinnamon rolls at our wedding. She brought our vision to life and the cinnamon rolls were absolutely DELICIOUS. My husband's family baked an assortment of traditional family cookies and Karen went above and beyond her role by beautifully presenting these cookies at the wedding. Even though these were not her cookies, she put the time, effort and care into displaying these cookies--we were all so impressed and grateful. The dessert tables were definitely show stoppers!!
When planning my daughter’s wedding in Asheville, NC Karen Donatelli was the perfect choice for preparing desserts for the reception. Sara wanted a somewhat non-traditional twist and Karen did a beautiful job of creating a perfect personal tiramisu wedding cake surrounded by an assortment of the most beautiful and delicious pastries! Not only were the confections devine, but Karen presented everything so creatively with beautiful trays and pedestals and flowers and greenery the florist provided. Thank you Karen for your sweet treats! We look forward to stopping by your new location for some of your divine desserts!
Karen made us the most beautiful wedding cake as well as the perfect grooms cake. Highly recommended!
Karen did our wedding cup cakes and they were devine! They were so elegant and tasty. She was so amenable to all our requests and she set up a HUGE tasting for us that was fit for a king. She can do a range of desserts for all budgets and delivered the cup cakes to the venue. She was even understanding when we had to change our wedding date a WEEK before due to a hurricane. She was so nice and very responsive. I loved working with her and I would recommend her to anyone!
Karen's cakes are delicious, and she is so amazing to worth with! She baked the cake for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception, and our guests raved about both, with many people going back for seconds and thirds! Her prices are very competitive and the quality of cake is off the charts! If we are back in Asheville, we will probably find an excuse to use her again!
From the moment we walked into her shop we knew that Karen Donatelli was the baker for us! Turns out, years ago on our first vacation to Asheville as a couple, we stopped in there and had dessert and coffee. Once we tried her cakes we were blown away! She was the kindest and easiest person to work with. She listened to absolutely everything I envisioned and created it to a T. We had her created a 3 tier cake as well as 200 gluten free cupcakes. Our guests didn't even know the difference!! We hardly had any cake left and only a handful of cupcakes. Our venue told us that NEVER happens and there is normally and abundance of desserts left. Our cake table was exactly what I envisioned and everything tasted incredible. I am so thankful for Karen and her team!
We absolutely loved our wedding cake made by Karen! It not only was extremely beautiful, but it tasted delicious! Karen is super creative and also a sweetheart to work with. We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding cake or experience!
Karen Donatelli's made the most wonderful 3 tier wedding cake for our June wedding at the NC Arboretum! We chose three really fun flavors and I'm so glad we did. The pineapple mandarin was our favorite! Many of our guests tried cake from each tier. The cake was perfectly baked and the filling was to die for. Karen is the sweetest person to work with - she made us feel special and at ease during the entire planning process. I will miss phone calls with Karen! I didn't think I cared so much about the wedding cake until we had the best one I've ever tasted! Karen was one of our best vendors and made me thankful we got married in Asheville!
We literally never give a full 5 stars to anyone, because there is always something that could be slightly improved. We give Karen Donatelli 7 stars. One for beauty and artistry, one for attention to detail, one for outstanding flavor and mouthfeel, one for helpfulness, one for excellent communication practices, one for the way she imbues love into her cakes, one for exceeding our expectations of complete delight.
Having traveled from California for our wedding, we did nearly all of our planning via phone and e-mail. This felt like a gamble, until we flew out to meet with Karen for our cake tasting. We were blown away, and knew we could trust her with our special day. From then on, we simply said, “Here’s what we’d love. You GO, girl! Do your thing.” Everything was beyond perfect, and we micromanaged none of it.
All of that being said, the desserts that graced our event were a bargain at any price. We treated our guests to mini cannoli, brandied cherry tarts, and a mocha cake for the rehearsal dinner. Absolutely divine. Our wedding cake was gorgeous and delicious, as was the side cake. Truth be told, when we had “narrowed it down to 4 cake flavors”, we decided not to decide on narrowing it down to the two for the wedding cake. That’s why we simply required the rehearsal dinner cake and the wedding day side cake! It WAS ALL TOO GOOD to NOT serve to our guests. Unforgettable.
My wedding cake was gorgeous and out of this world awesome!
Karen was so nice to work with. She pays close attention to detail and made a very complicated cake for my wedding. The cake was gorgeous! I am still getting compliments on it. More than that, it was delicious! Every layer and flavor was better than any wedding cake I had ever tasted. I highly recommend Karen to anyone looking for a wedding cake creation.
Def. reccomend the AMAZING chocolate cake with the fruit, I loved it and my guests loved it and it looked beautiful!
Karen is one of the nicest ladies. She went above and beyond to make sure Daniel and I loved our personal cake. She even agreed to fill out favorite cannolis from our hometown. The cake was BEAUTIFUL, it was better than what I showed her as an inspiration. As non-cake lovers, her cakes taste fantastic! A MUST!
Contact
1000 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC | Western North Carolina (Asheville and Surrounding Area)
Karen Donatelli Cake Designs