Cairo’s cakeries

If you’re planning a party — whether a bachelorette, a farewell or a child’s birthday — you know the biggest impression can be made by a dazzling cake.

Women around greater Cairo have taken their talents and made businesses out of baking and the diversity of options is dizzying. So if you’d like cookies with your child’s name on them, a bra-shaped cake for a fun party or individually wrapped cake pops (cake baked with sticks inside like a lollipop) to announce a birth, these 10 bakers are your best bet.

Cake Café
With cupcakes that are either red velvet, chocolate or carrot Zamalek’s Cake Café takes orders — one to two days in advance although they’re not always that accommodating to your ideas. You’ll need to take a look at their Facebook page for pictures of cakes and cupcakes. Their cupcakes are LE17 each, while the smallest made-to-order cake serves 15 and costs LE315.

The Cheesecake Home
The Cheesecake Home offer whole cheesecakes and “cup-cheesecakes” in conventional flavors but topped with everything from Nutella to caramel and strawberry to blueberry. Variety is also available in the bases — different crusts can make or break your cheesecake experience. They will deliver cheesecakes to your home within 24 hours of your order.

The Cupcake Factory
Known for more than cupcakes, The Cupcake Factory’s speciality is the macaroon cupcake with multicolored macaroons atop freshly baked cupcake fabulousness. Although there is no place to visit, the Cupcake Factory bakes fresh goods daily and if you’re lucky, you’ll call up and find what you’re looking for on hand. Otherwise you have to give 24 hours notice for the cupcakes of your choice and for a bigger order, 48 hours is better.

Nina’s Custom Cakes
Nina’s forte is most definitely sugar design. The custom cakes feature all sorts of minute sugar-based creations, from monkeys and clowns to perfectly molded little babies and bottles of whiskey and pink bras. With Nina you have to give a little more time — a particularly elaborate cake can take up to a week to create.

Maadi Sweet House
Sometimes oldies are goodies and Maadi’s Sweet House is just that. This traditional cake and sweets bakery has upped the ante by making some pretty elaborate sugar frosting creations for birthdays and other themed parties. The benefit with Sweet House is their other selection, which has also been recently spiced up. You can order fabulous freshly baked sambusak, medium burgers (LE7 a piece) and other savory items to get everything for your event from one store. For the particularly elaborate cakes, make your orders a week in advance. These cakes range from LE350 (15 people) to LE600 (30 people) and LE950 (80 people).

Honey Cake
Honey Cake is a Nasr City cakery on the lower end of the price scale. For a three-layer wedding cake covered in flowers of pink frosting, you’re only going to pay LE500 and for a standard cake which feeds 20, you’ll be paying LE250 and getting themed frosting decorations — mainly for children — from Hello Kitty to Sponge Bob.

Cake it Planet
Cake it Planet, in Katameya and the 5th settlement, makes cakes in unexpected shapes such as perfume bottles, cars and cartons of Maltesers. The cost of the cake is calculated per person — each costs LE20-25 per person based on the amount of work involved, so a cake for 20 would cost approximately LE400. At Cake it Planet, think rather than a princess on a cake, a princess with the cake as her skirt.

Betty Cakes
Betty Cakes is also located in New Cairo and specializes in frosted cookies and cake pops. At LE10 a cookie and LE7 a cake pop, Betty Cakes price-range is average. Bear in mind that Betty needs about a week in advance for a large or personalized cookie order.

Lalli’s Bouquet
Lalli’s Bouquet in Heliopolis creates cookie and cake pop bouquets. Like flower arrangements, Lalli’s is all about the aesthetic and if it’s not a bouquet, the cookies will be in a collage display and the cupcakes beautifully frosted with different toppings.

Bakeaholics
Bakeaholics is essentially baking porn with differently shaped pans and cupcake molds, icing, decorations, and even baking glitter to make your cookies sparkle. The site also offers ingredients like chocolate buttons at LE85 a kilo and almond macaroon powder for baking macaroon shells at LE130 a kilo (which makes approximately 200 macaroon shells). With a make your cake and eat it philosophy, Bakeaholics offers Wilton brand courses in baking — the latest includes flower and cake design and runs for 4 days at a cost of LE1200.