REVIEW: We Tried the Controversial $23 Cake Slices at Disney World’s Brand New Restaurant

It’s been about a year since the popular — and somewhat controversial — Cake Bake Shop opened at Walt Disney World’s Boardwalk, and we’re still asked often: “Is it worth the hefty price tag?”

A new cake slice!

After a construction process that felt like it lasted a decade, the restaurant by Gwendolyn Rogers opened to positive reviews for its food… and some side-eye about its prices. So a year later, what do we think of the shop’s $20+ cake slices and other treats? Let’s find out… 

As Disney World food experts, you know we try every new restaurant, snack stand, and everything in between. So we were eagerly awaiting the opening of the Cake Bake Shop last year. As the restaurant’s rollout began, we visited during previews, on opening day, and several times since!

A stunning view

During one of our first visits, we were greeted by several Cast Members and even by The Cake Bake Shop’s owner, Gwendolyn Rogers!

Hi, Gwen!

But you’re not here for that, right? What you want to know is IS THE CAKE WORTH IT? Well, we’ve tried several different slices over the last year, and this is what we’ve thought:

So during our earliest visit, we tried the Millionaire Cake. This $22.00 cake is made of multiple layers of moist chocolate cake with inserts of chocolate ganache, buttercream icing, creamy caramel, and shortbread crumbs. To put it bluntly, this thing is heavenly!

Aptly-named Millionaire’s Cake

If you’re a fan of a good Millionaire’s Shortbread (which, hello, that’s us), you’re going to fall in love all over again with this version of a classic treat. The entire cake was so soft and melted in your mouth, and it’s encased on the sides and top in a layer of milk chocolate topped with more caramel drizzle and shortbread crumbs.

Delicious!

On a later visit, we tried the Raspberry Champagne Cake, which costs $22.99. The cake is three layers of fluffy vanilla cake brushed with a French champagne simple syrup, filled with our Raspberry Pixie Jam, and fresh raspberries. It is then frosted with a champagne vanilla buttercream and topped with fresh raspberries.

Raspberry Champagne Cake at The Cake Bake Shop

First of all, this cake literally glistens with glitter! Beyond that, it was super light and the buttercream melted easily and didn’t leave the fatty, lardy coating in the top of our mouth. The layers were so moist, and the raspberries were beautiful. We were told that the raspberries were hand-picked and hand-placed, so only the best berries are included in the cake. You can tell that there was a lot of time put into this cake, and we loved the balance of tartness and sweetness in this cake.

Raspberry Champagne Cake

On a further visit, we sampled a SEASONAL offering: the Coconut Cake, which is a seasonal offering. This $22.99 slice featured vanilla cake interwoven with layers of icing and coconut shavings. It was DECADENT in all the right ways, and a perfect treat for coconut fans. 

It’s moist and crumbly

Then there was the limited-time Southern Style Caramel Cake offering. This $22 slice may be our favorite cake we’ve ever had from here, which, as you can se,e is saying a lot! We loved the crumb cake texture. While that does mean it’s not as moist as others, we think it makes it different in a really great way.

Yuuum

The cake had notes of vanilla, maple, and caramel, and the caramel frosting made the whole cake rich without being too heavy, which was just heavenly! Unless you know you’re not a fan of caramel or cake in general, we think this is great for everyone to try if and when it returns to the menu.

Consider us impressed!

Of course, we haven’t ONLY tried cake at the Cake Bake Shop. We’ve also sampled the beautiful Unicorn Hot Chocolate. We picked up a small (however, they do also offer a large of the same drink) and it cost us $11.00.

Unicorn Hot Chocolate

The base of the hot chocolate is made with strawberry milk and wasn’t served excessively hot. The top of the drink is brought together with some pastel pink icing swirl, colorful sprinkles, and tiny marshmallows to accompany your toasty beverage. This “unicorn” drink is obviously going to appeal to children — but I suspect many adults will want to order this “super fancy” drink, as well.

Those toppings though

This DEFINITELY feels like a splurge — $11.00 for a cup of hot cocoa. But it is fun, and we have paid nearly that much for a fancy coffee before. We found the strawberry flavor in the hot chocolate to be just the right amount without being overbearing, and the toppings helped it feel lighter and fun to sip.

For our array of treats, we kicked things off by digging into the Chocolate Truffle first (because what’s a better breakfast than milk chocolate first thing in the morning, right?). This little guy cost us $6 and was made of milk chocolate, peanut butter, and raspberry. It’s a tiny little thing, but just wait till you see what’s inside!

Chocolate Truffle

Yep — this guy’s filled with chocolate raspberry-flavored ganache! The filling has more of a resistance to it, even after setting for a while, kind of the same consistency as a nougat-filled chocolate candy. Our only complaint with this one is that we didn’t really taste much of the peanut butter in it, but what surprised us about it was how well-balanced the raspberry and chocolate flavors worked together.

Inside look!

Overall, we felt this was tiny but one of the more affordable options of treats to try out here, so if you find yourself on the fence about splurging too much, this is a solid treat to start with!

Next, we turned our attention to the Magic Bar! Ah, just looking at this one makes our mouths water almost immediately. This bar will cost you $11.00, but this is a fairly hefty snack.

Magic Bar

When we cut it open, we could see layers of cookie batter topped with huge chunks of chocolate chips, pecans that snap when you bite down on them, an icing glaze, bits of carrots, and all brought together with coconut and edible glitter.

Half of the bar

We likened this one to a grown-up version of a cookie cake! If you ever wanted more out of a bland cookie cake, this is the answer. There are so many flavors and textures blending together to create a bar that wants to almost be a coconut-carrot cake-cookie square. There’s a lot going on here, but it does work well together. This is a large bar that could be shared.

The Marie Antoinette had waited long enough to be chosen next! This beautiful dessert is two pieces of almond-flour pastry similar to a macaron with alternating buttercream icing, raspberries, and a raspberry filling sandwiched inside for $14.00.

Marie Antoinette

While it had a heftier price tag than the previous items, this was delicious. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to taste the flavor of a rose, you’ll find it in each of the soft, pastel pink cookie pieces that crumble as you bite into it. The buttercream was soft and fluffy but didn’t coat the roof of your mouth, and the raspberries provided a sharp burst of flavor. Now, whether to shell out $15 to this little guy when Les Halles is so close by with similar treats a fraction of the price — that’s up to you.

Inside of the treat

The real surprise here was the raspberry filling found at the very center of the treat. This star was more consistent with a raspberry jam with seeds and all. And for you gluten-free eaters, this one is a gluten-free treat.

We even tried the Million Dollar Sundae! This concoction features a homemade brownie (and yes, you can choose gluten-free or walnut), your choice of housemade ice cream (vanilla or chocolate), plus chocolate sauce, caramel drizzle, whipped cream, and shortbread cookie pieces crumbled over the top. And just when you think it can’t get any more extra, they finish it off with a healthy pour of Ghirardelli chocolate.

Million Dollar Sundae

The $16.00 sundae was a knockout! We tried the vanilla ice cream with the walnut brownie, and every bite was a swirl of warm brownie, melty caramel, buttery shortbread, and cold, rich vanilla. This thing is sweet, yes, but it’s also super well-balanced. The brownie adds a dense, chewy texture that works so well with the creamy ice cream and crisp shortbread.

SO good!

One major heads-up, though: You can’t get this sundae at the bakery counter. It’s a restaurant-only item, so if you’re thinking of just popping in for a quick dessert to go, you’re out of luck. You’ll need to book a reservation, sit down, and really take in the whole experience — and honestly? That’s kind of the point.

Million Dollar Sundae

In the year since the Cake Bake Shop opened, we’ve tried several meals, snacks, treats, and — OF COURSE — slices of the cake from the restaurant. And honestly, we can say this spot is worth it, especially if you’re dropping by for the desserts! Stay tuned to DFB for more!

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