Do you love to watch Carlo’s Bake Shop on TV? Then you’ll want to try out the Cake Boss vending in Ottawa. The three locations in Rideau Centre, Bayshore, and St. Laurent Shopping Centre aren’t typical bakeries. Instead, they are vending machines; they are stocked daily with cakes made at The Cake Boss’s shop in New Jersey.
While I’ve never seen Cake Boss myself, I tried to visit the location in New York years ago and found a lineup around the block. So I was curious to try a slice to see if it lives up to the hype.
But at $10 a slice for vending machine cake, I must admit I wasn’t sure what to expect. So if you’ve been curious but didn’t want to waste money on a dry dessert, I got you covered.
The Cake Boss In Ottawa Review
I dished out $20 for two slices (each one is $9.99) to try his signature rainbow and carrot cake.
The vending machines are re-stocked daily, so I recommend arriving early. This was my third attempt to get cake; the first time the device was broken, the next it was sold out by 1 pm.
Ordering is effortless; you touch the screen for the flavours you want and tap your card to pay. Some of the flavours include red velvet, cookies and cream, carrot cake, rainbow, chocolate, and confetti.
The carrot cake has four layers of cake with a cream cheese icing, while the rainbow has six layers of vanilla cake (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red), sandwiched between a vanilla icing and covered in sprinkles.
After sampling both cakes, I was delighted to find they were very fresh. The texture was moist and not too dense. I also appreciated the icing to cake ratio. There was the horrible thick layer of icing at the top. Instead, there was a thin layer of frosting between each layer of cake.
The portions were remarkably huge too. You could easily cut it in half and have two generous portions. For myself, I wasn’t able to eat more than 1/4 of the cake.
As such, when ordering, I suggest you share it with someone. Or you should expect to have leftovers (the packaging says it contains two portions).
Between the carrot and the rainbow, the rainbow was hands down the winner. Both were good, but the rainbow was more visually appealing. All the bright colours, thinner layers of cake and crunchy sprinkles were a hit with my taste buds.
The Cake Boss In Ottawa Final Thoughts
So the big question, would I repurchase it? No, but it was way better than I expected.
Overall, the cake isn’t my dessert of choice, which is why I wouldn’t spend money on it again.
But if you want to try a celebrity chef’s food and love sweet treats, you won’t regret the purchase of a slice from the Cake Boss in Ottawa. I found the quality on par with many of our fantastic local bakeries, and the portion very generous.
For those of you not in Ottawa, you’ll be happy to note there are these vending machines across Canada. Plus you can order an entire cake and get it delivered to your home.
Find your nearest location or order a cake now.