Having Your Cake and Eating It Too at Bamboo Bakery

Talk about a cake walk. If, like me, you're addicted to cake baking shows like "Ace of Cakes," "Cake Boss" and "The Next Great Baker," you'll be in hog heaven during a visit to Bamboo Bakery, one of the Valley's most popular -- and accomplished -- bakeries/patisseries.

If you can dream it, Bamboo Bakery -- owned and operated by David Pham, a French-trained pastry wizard -- can make it, guaranteed. While Pham takes on extravagant assignments that no other bakery will touch with a ten-foot jelly roll pan, like a Cake of Cakes that ended up costing $32 per serving, he's also sympathetic to the cost-conscious bride or quinceanera princess who needs to pinch pennies, but still is going for a beautiful, great-tasting creation. And if you order in advance -- from six months to one and two years before your event -- the cake meister makes sure you get a sizable discount.

Pham told us that, not unlike clothes, cakes for any and all occasions go in and out of fashion. Glittery rhinestone bling is very hot at the moment, as are cakes in unique shapes with lavish, completely edible decorations and cakes created from cupcakes. While the edible art forms on display at his shop are shown with silk flowers, for obvious reasons, fresh flowers are a perennial finishing touch favorite.

For those of us who wait until the last minute and have champagne taste on a beer budget, Bamboo Bakery has several tips. Don't get too wild and crazy with your design – the more elaborate the finished product, the more expensive it will be. And please, please don't try to bargain the bakery down on price when you're asking for a cake mere hours before you need it and no one else in town will make it for you.

Here's a look at some of the gorgeous sample cakes on display at Bamboo Bakery -- and, just remember, your cake is limited only by your own imagination. PHOTOS BY KATHLEEN VANESIAN.