This Costco Birthday Cake Is a Total Masterpiece
Having friends is great. Having friends who make you an incredible Costco-themed cake because you love the warehouse store is even better. Los Angeles baker Samantha Waller, @samanthacakesandbakes on Instagram and Facebook, posted the cake she made for her friend Nikki‘s 30th birthday this week, and it wowed everyone who saw it.
The two-tiered cake has an angular shape and, along with the familiar red poles iced on, it evokes the feel of a Costco shop — but tastier. The top tier is decorated with an edible birthday cared designed to look like a Costco membership card, and Waller created all of Nikki’s favorite Costco foods out of fondant to garnish it: croissants, churros, pizza, hot dogs, pumpkin pie, and soda. The details — char marks on the hot dogs, olives on the pizza, the Pepsi logo on the cup — are what make the cake just so incredible. Anyone who’s ever eaten a Costco croissant will recognize these fondant replicas. There’s even a receipt, made of an edible image attached to fondant and dried overnight into a wavy shape.
“She is obsessed with Costco,” Waller says of the friend who inspired the cake — a relatable feeling. But Waller is a professional pastry chef, baker, and cake decorator, so it doesn’t just look good. Under the Costco-themed vanilla buttercream frosting, there is Funfetti cake (vanilla with sprinkles) and a raspberry filling.
Waller says the hardest part of making the cake was actually the churros, “Piping fondant through a metal star tip is definitely not easy.” In the end, though, those were also her favorite decorations on the whole cake. But when it comes to Waller’s own favorite Costco foods, it’s the pizza and also one food that didn’t make it onto the cake: rotisserie chicken.