Life'z A Cake

Need a cake for Saturday? Then you’re reading this on Wednesday at the latest, because Life’z A Cake works on three days’ notice and there’s no shelf of ready cakes to fall back on. That’s the deal with a one-person studio: everything is baked the day you collect it, and nothing exists until you order it.

Who’s baking

The business is Mavi, who introduces herself on the site as its cake artist and owner and describes a decade of self-taught decorating. She bakes in a licensed commissary kitchen on 198 Street at 56 Avenue, so there’s no storefront: you order, she bakes, and you collect at an agreed time or have it delivered.

Two ways to order

Pre-designed. The online shop has set designs: classic, baby and kids’ birthday cakes, wedding and sheet cakes, cupcakes and cake bites. Pick the flavour, up to three theme colours and a greeting, choose pickup in Langley or delivery, and pay at checkout.

Fully custom. Email a photo of what you have in mind with the date, flavours, colours and how many it needs to feed. You get an invoice; paying confirms the date. Base prices start at $120 for a single tier and $200 for two tiers, and climb with fondant work, sculpted figures and sugar flowers. Custom sugar cookies run from about $6 each for simple designs to $12 and up for hand-painted ones, with a 24-cookie minimum and five days’ notice.

The flavours worth knowing about

The best-seller list on the flavours page tells you the kitchen’s roots: ube yema (purple yam chiffon with custard and ube jam), ube macapuno with coconut strings, and sans rival, the Filipino cashew-meringue cake with egg-yolk buttercream, which can’t be fondant-covered. Alongside those are chocolate fudge “overload”, mocha, cookies-and-cream, red velvet, berry with cream cheese, funfetti and a seasonal mango.

Sizes run from a 5-inch mini for 8 to 12 up to three tiers for a hundred guests (size chart). Gluten-free, nut-free and eggless versions can be made, but the kitchen is shared and the site is upfront that it can’t promise allergen-free.

The money and the pickup

• A $50 non-refundable deposit holds your date. Half the remaining balance is due a week before; the rest at pickup.
• Orders inside seven days are paid in full up front and carry a $30 rush fee.
• Cancel more than a week out and you get everything back except the deposit; inside a week, nothing.
• Pickup times are firm. Orders not collected within 24 hours of the slot are forfeited.
• Cards, cash and e-transfer are taken at pickup.

For cake over a counter today, see Tracycakes in Murrayville or JJ Bakes Company in Walnut Grove, which also does ube. More makers: Shop Local in Langley City.