Our Reception - Part 5- A Great Cake...and the Challenge

One thing about organizing our wedding reception, was that it involved a caterer, string quartet , singer, and music organization. It also involved ordering the right amount of chairs and tables, linens, chair covers, and working with a florist. All of this took months. One that that was interesting to me, was the cake. I'm a cake-a-holic anyway. I LOVE cake. -BUT... I'm lactose intolerant.
While looking for a cake, I went to about 5 or 6 big, expensive cake shops around the Baltimore-Washington area, and there are a number of them. One of them is even featured on a Cable-TV program. However, the answer was always the same: "We use butter cream frosting on the cakes, and won't make anything non-dairy. PERIOD."
I was stunned. Didn't they want more business? Especially in THIS tough economy?
Couldn't they make an exception, or TRY to please a customer? NO.
Further, a CNN story came out this week and stated as many as 60% of caucasian Americans have some degree of lactose intolerance, about 80% African-American, and 100% of Native Americans are lactose intolerant. That's a Lot of lost business.
After all of the expensive places, I tried our local Giant Food supermarket, and wound up ordering it from the lead baker, Cindy. She accommodated us with 'no dairy' whereas other places refused. The cake had a white and yellow theme for our wedding, and raspberry filling, too. Cindy helped us decide about a border, and suggested we put our initials on the top of the cake- and we agreed.
The bottom line is that businesses need to be more accommodating if they want to stay in business. I would recommend Cindy and Giant Food's bakery in a heartbeat. I wouldn't give you two cents for all of the haughty, snooty bakeries I contacted though, and to be nice, I won't name 'em.
Next time I want a great tasting cake I can eat without getting sick (bloating, etc.), I'm going to Giant Food's Bakery.