Desserts on Demand: Online Cake Delivery Roundup

In my very first dispatch as a wet-behind-the-hearing-holes dining editor, I made passing mention to my raging McDonald's delivery addiction. Lest you get the impression, dear reader, that I spend my days holed up in my room with the shades drawn and the lights off, subsisting solely on a diet of McDonald's, Tim Tams and reruns of the Eurovision song contest, please let me assure you that you are wholly mistaken: there is also cake.

Here are a few of our favorite pushers of hand-delivered diet doom.

Divina Cakes

I must confess, I have something of a weakness for Divina's cheesecake, to the point that I've been known to snatch it from my crestfallen dining companion's plate. A swing through their website reveals not just a plethora of cheesecakes, but a virtual avalanche of Italian goodies: sponge cakes, tarts, tiramisu, even ciambelloni. How do you say “well played” in Italian? I don't know. Well played, Divina, well played.

Order: 40 0656 1128, www.divinacakes.com
Prices: From RMB 180
Pay: Cash on delivery or bank transfer

Pie House

Pie House founder (now there's a title I would love to have on my business cards) Mark Heustch and the rest of his gaggle of merry-making pie fiends also whip up a mean cake. Pie House does it down-home American-style, nothing fancy. Straightforward cake names like “Chocolate” and “Banana” fit perfectly with their straightforward approach to ingredients: keep it fresh, keep it simple.

Order: 5166 4464, www.piehouse.com.cn
Prices: From RMB 169
Pay: Cash on delivery

Homaroma

Before we put together this little roundup, Homaroma definitely fell under unexplored realms. One glance at their homepage changed that. “Artisan cakes”? “Baked from scratch”? We'll take eleven and a half! We're especially eager to get our fork on with their Moist Chocolate Almond cake, but a Ukranian poppy seed cake also caught our wandering eye. Bonus: They're not cake, strictly speaking, but we can't help mentioning the eye-meltingly adorable petites bouchées. Never before have we felt such a strong urge to adopt baked goods.

Order: 152 0117 3409 (English), 135 2226 7314 (Chinese), www.homaroma.com
Prices: From RMB 180
Pay: Cash on delivery

Morphy

Not much English to be found here, but there's enough to get the job done. Nowadays, calling something “European” in China is apparently intended to confer an air of class, and Morphy's is pushing the Euro angle hard. Still, delivery's free inside the Fifth Ring Road, they promise you'll be caking it up within three hours, and their chocolate truffle cake looks like the tastiest amalgamation of cake and starfish ever conceived. Ever.

Order: 40 0627 2727, www.mofei001.com
Prices: From RMB 169
Pay: They're stacked. Cash on delivery, bank transfer, Alipay and credit card all accepted

21 Cake

Speaking of classy European stuff, 21 Cake have also decided to take the road more Continental, with the added twist that all their cakes are square! Yeah, we don't get it either. You know what we do get, though? Cake. And 21's got that. Lots of that. Twenty-seven different kinds of that. Their website (also mostly in Chinese) claims their Brownie Cake is the treat you'd want to pack in “God's own lunchbox." Yeah, we'll take eleven and a half - again.

Order: 40 0650 2121, www.21cake.com
Prices: From RMB 168
Pay: Similarly stacked. Cash on delivery, online banking and Alipay all work

ebeecake

Bring your dictionary if you're ordering from this one. Except for a homepage exhortation to “come share my happiness,” ebeecake is hanzi from top to bottom. The hanyu-speaking Dianping hordes are pretty high on this place, awarding it a bevy of four- and five-star reviews. If you call them up, try the xiangnong qiaokeli (thick, rich chocolate cake) or an almost unbearably cute jiandan fengmi (simple honey cake).

Order: 40 0610 6798
Prices: From RMB 185
Pay: Cash on delivery, online banking transfer and regular bank transfers
 

Photos: Divina, Homaroma, Morphy, ebeecake, 21 Cake, Pie House