Publix Bakery Strawberry Peach Sensation Cake Review
Author’s note: I wasn’t paid or compensated in any way for this review, and I have no affiliation with Publix.
Sensational appearance. Unsensational taste.
I had a very hard, very painful week at work. On the way home, I stopped at Publix for some milk. And walked out with this whole cake.
If you’ve shopped at Publix recently, you’ve probably noticed the bakery has made a strategic change. Instead of requesting a cake from the glass display case — and waiting for an employee to box it up for you — you just grab it yourself from a refrigerated shelf. This is genius, and dangerous. There is no longer even a shred of resistance between you and your irresponsible impulse buy.
Anyway. This is the Publix “Strawberry & Peach Sensation Cake,” and it is sensationally beautiful. It didn’t taste as amazing as it looked, but it was still good. Much less disappointing than the Publix Tiramisu Delight Cake (you can read my agonized review of it here).
I will say this: Publix knows how to decorate cakes. Whoever is in charge of their bakery product development has a strong sense of aesthetics. Of all the grocery-store bakeries I’ve reviewed, Publix has, by far, the most visually appealing decorated items. This cake comes with a gorgeous crown of colorful fruits — including sliced kiwi, peaches, strawberries, and grapes.
Unfortunately, the fruit is not all fresh-fruit. The peaches are canned. The strawberries are glazed (and soft, instead of crisp). On my cake, only the kiwi and grapes actually tasted like “fresh” fruit. The whole strawberries around the sides looked fresh, but the glaze had marinated them until they were a sort of mushy pickled consistency. There is also a bunch of red dye involved. More about that later.
This Strawberry & Peach Sensation cake is essentially a three-layer white cake with “Bavarian Cream” between the layers. I would describe this cream filling as silky custard or pudding. It has a smooth, luscious quality — and a delicate flavor — but there was very little of it to enjoy, as the layers between the cake were thin. I definitely wanted more of this filling!
Mostly you will taste the outer “frosting,” which is the typical Publix fake whipped cream-stuff. If you’ve read my other reviews, you already know I hate this artificial whipped “cream” topping. “Frothy plastic sadness and despair.” It tastes like fluffy chemical disappointments. The only good thing I can say about this whipped topping is that it is very lightly sweet, so it doesn’t overpower the rest of the flavors. And it doesn’t seem to melt or change, no matter what.
You may be asking, “why do you keep buying the frothy plastic sadness if you know you don’t like it?” Trust me, I ask myself the same question. Apparently, I buy food with my eyes as much as my stomach. I’m like a dude on a dating site, getting catfished by the pretty pictures. And then whining about it, but doing it all over again. Alas.
Anyway. Instead of a cardboard box, the cakes come in a sturdy plastic cake dome. I actually like these domes a lot. They keep the cakes waaaay fresher that the old leaky paper boxes — and free from other “food odors” that might be skulking in my refrigerator. In fact, I liked this plastic cake keeper so much, I washed it and saved it to use again later. Hey. Frugals gotta froog! Let us froog!
The cake exterior is crusted with toasted almond slivers. Unfortunately, mine were both burnt-tasting and flaccid. I expected the flaccidity — I mean, the cake is sealed with moist fruit in an air-tight plastic dome, so naturally the humidity will soften the nuts.
But, the burnt flavor was 100% avoidable. There’s a generous amount of these thin almonds, which would have been a wonderful nutty contrast to the fluffiness of the cake. Unfortunately, I had to scrape mine off and throw them away. Cruel, cruel world.
No one will be able to accuse this cake of dryness, ever. Publix does a great job making moist cake. This cake is beautifully moist. It’s a light cake, rather than dense, and only moderately sweet. It’s has an extremely fine, tender texture and smooth crumb — like a box cake mix, but maybe a bit nicer. It does taste mass-produced, of course. It’s not my favorite cake texture — I actually prefer a more buttery crumb and homemade texture. But it’s still enjoyable.
I noticed the product picture of this cake on the Publix Bakery website has sliced fruit between the layers (in the Bavarian Cream). Mine does not. Well. Not really. I found about three little orphaned pieces total, in the entire cake. Seemed like accidental fruit placement, until I saw the picture. So, I don’t know if you will get fruity layers, or not! Roll the dice!
Ingredients in Publix Strawberry Peach Sensation Cake
Good lord. These ingredients. Ugh. Buckle-up, my friends!
Well, here they are. Read them, and weep:
- Water
- Sugar
- Liquid Sucrose (Cane Sugar, Water)
- Strawberry
- Sliced Peaches (Peaches, Water, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar)
- Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm, Palm Kernel, Coconut, and/or Cottonseed)
- Kiwi Fruit
- Bleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Toasted Almonds
- Glucose Syrup
- Grapes
- Eggs
- Milk
- Cream
- Soy Oil
- Palm Oil
- Nonfat Milk
- Egg White
- Sodium Caseinate
- Natural Flavor
- Polysorbate 60
- Dextrose
- Sorbitan Monostearate
- Gums (Carbohydrate, Xanthan, Guar, Carrageenan, Cellulose)
- Leavening (Potassium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate)
- Food Starch Modified
- Salt
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
- Betacarotene (Color)
- Mono-Diglycerides
- Cornstarch
- Natural & Artificial Flavor
- Stabilizer (Modified Corn Starch, Cornstarch, Carrageenan)
- Soy Lecithin
- Color (Yellow Corn Meal, Spices [Turmeric, Annatto], Soy Oil)
- Pectin
- Sodium Alginate
- Citric Acid
- Trisodium Citrate
- Calcium Lactate
- Tricalcium Phosphate
- Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
- Natural & Artificial Flavor (w/ Caramel Color)
- Titanium Dioxide (Color)
- Lactic Acid Powder (Lactic Acid, Calcium Lactate, Silicon Dioxide)
- Yellow 5
- Yellow 6
- Red 40
This cake is not health food. I did not expect it to be. But. This is still a disappointing ingredient list. Dyes, artificial flavors, hydrogenated oils, and more. I am sure there is a way to do better, Publix.
Price & Shelf-Life for Publix Strawberry Peach Sensation Cake
My three-layer cake cost $25.99 at my local Publix. I bought it on a Thursday evening, and by Sunday morning, the fruit was fairly flaccid and soggy. Weepy fruit.
I’d say your best bet is to buy this the same day you want to serve it, and eat it within 2-3 days, max. At least, if you want the fruit to taste good. The “sell-by” date on mine was dated for the day after I bought it.
Servings
My guess is 8 servings per cake. I’m sure you could slice this thinner, but it would look weird / ugly with the fruit garnish. And the cake itself is not very filling (a lot of the weight is fruit), so people might get mad. Your guests might even revolt against your oppressive cake injustice. We can’t have that.
If you managed to wrangle 8 servings from this, the price per serving would be $3.24. This is pretty expensive — I can buy individual cake slices for potentially less than that. Maybe not this exact flavor. But still. It should cost substantially less to buy a whole cake than the servings would be individually. Just saying. Since this is a 51 ounce cake, it costs 53 cents per ounce.
Dramatic Conclusion
This Publix cake is a show-stopper, but not quite as “sensational” as it looks. If it had a better whipped cream frosting — and almonds that weren’t burnt-tasting — I’d have a different opinion. I would choose this dessert for an event where it is presented whole, as a gorgeous centerpiece or visual feature of your celebration. It loses visual power once sliced. Per serving, it’s a rather expensive grocery store dessert.
And, man, those wretched ingredients! They will haunt me tonight.
The end.
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