If you have a Costco membership, you probably already know that every Costco warehouse has its own bakery. But did you know that most of their bakery products — from cookies and muffins to their famous sheet cakes — get made fresh daily? Some items are ready to grab and go, but others like made-to-order sheet cakes will require a bit more planning on your part.
For custom-made bakery items, understanding the ordering process is key. The steps you have to follow to place a Costco cake order can feel a bit mysterious (you still can't order a cake online!), but it's worth it for the quality and value you get. You can even create your own Costco wedding cake for cheap.
Between the bakery goodies and our Costco Catering hacks, you’ll be well-equipped to feed a crowd on a budget. And if you don’t need as much food, there's always the Costco Food Court menu or Costco's premade meals that'll come in handy.
For more smart shopping tips and savings hacks, download the KCL app or text HACKS to 57299.
What can you find at the Costco Bakery?
The list of items will vary depending on your location, but you can generally expect to find sheet cakes, round cakes, bread, pastries, croissants, cookies, pies, and bagels at the Costco Bakery.
Some seasonal items get stocked throughout the year, too, like pumpkin pie during the holidays and lemon meringue cheesecake in the summer.
How to Order from the Costco Bakery
There are only two items you'll need to special order at the Costco Bakery: the 10-inch round cake or the half-sheet cake. The rest of the bakery items are ready to be picked up on the shelves.
Here's the process for placing an order:
Pick up a Costco cake order form at the bakery.
Fill it out (including the requested pick-up date and time).
Drop the form off in the submission box.
Return at the designated time to pick up your order.
Pay for your order at the regular checkout lines.
KCL TIP: My Costco store also lets you pre-order additional bakery items like muffins and danishes. For example, I pre-ordered 10 dozen muffins and danishes for a teacher appreciation breakfast so that the bakery would have them ready for us. But I’ve learned that not all Costco bakeries will do this, so be sure to ask the employees at your warehouse.
How far in advance should I place a Costco bakery order?
You'll need to submit the Costco Special Order Cake Form at least one day in advance. But I recommend calling your local Costco bakery to learn their specific ordering policy, as it can vary depending on the item and how busy the store is.
And remember, you have to fill out the order form in person. Unfortunately, you can't place a bakery order over the phone.
Where can I find the Costco Cake Order Form for 2024?
Costco sheet cakes don’t have an online ordering option, so you’ll need to visit a warehouse to place your order.
If you want to fill out the form ahead of time, use this Costco Cake Order Form (PDF) and bring it with you to the warehouse.
Costco Bakery Secrets To Know
1. Costco cakes come in two flavors and two sizes.
Costco only offers two sizes of cakes: a 10-inch round cake or a half-sheet cake. You can find the 10-inch cakes ready-made in the bakery, either decorated plain or with a seasonal design. Before the year 2020, you could also find the half-sheet cakes ready in the bakery, but now they need to be a special order.
Just like their limited sizes, Costco cakes come in only two flavors:
White vanilla cake with vanilla cheesecake mousse and white buttercream icing
Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream icing
2. Your kids might get a free cookie from the Costco bakery if you ask.
Certain bakeries might give your kids a sample of a cookie if you ask. My Costco location doesn't offer this, but it won't hurt to check.
3. Costco cakes are the best value all around — at $24.99.
When we checked out prices for half-sheet cakes at a few different bakeries, Costco topped our list for the best value overall. They had the second-lowest price per slice at just $0.52.
Even though Sam's Club cake is slightly cheaper ($19.98), it's just a single layer of cake with no filling. Costco cakes offer the best bang for your buck because you get a double-layered cake with filling in between.
4. Most items get baked fresh in the warehouse.
Have you ever wondered what's made fresh at the Costco bakery? I was curious, so I asked the employees what's baked in-house. Turns out, pretty much everything you see is baked right there in the warehouse. Costco makes some bakery items completely from scratch, while others get baked on-site after they arrive frozen.
When the buzzed-about Costco chocolate peanut butter pie came around, my store said they make and prepare the whole thing on-site. And according to Costco Reddit, the store makes the pecan and pumpkin pies from scratch.
The apple pie, however, arrives frozen. The bakers at Costco add the lattice top and sugar to the apple pie before baking it in the store.
5. Some Costco desserts are only around for a limited time.
Costco's dessert selection varies throughout the year. While some treats like the Costco tiramisu are available year-round, others make seasonal appearances. But staple items such as Costco cakes, cookies, muffins, and pastries are always on the menu.
Some of the most popular seasonal desserts include the Costco pumpkin pie in the fall seaon and the Four Berry Pie or Lemon Meringue Cheesecake in summer.
6. You can make your own Costco wedding cake on a budget.
According to Brides.com, the average cost of a wedding cake runs $2.50 to $8 per slice. If you’re looking for a cost effective way to serve cake at your wedding, you have a few options with Costco.
You could buy a small, fancy wedding cake for the photo op, but then purchase a separate Costco sheet cake to actually serve to guests.
Another option is to buy a sheet cake and a round cake from Costco and stack the pieces on top of each other. Once you decorate the cake with flowers and icing, know one will know it's from Costco.
7. Skip Cinnabon — grab cinnamon rolls from Costco and save $3.82 per roll.
Costco sells a six pack of cinnamon rolls for $12.99. When warmed, they are as gooey as Cinnabon but cheaper — and possibly even tastier!
Each Costco cinnamon roll comes out to $2.17, but at Cinnabon, one cinnamon roll costs $5.99. You're saving about $3.82 per cinnamon roll by shopping at Costco.
8. You can get a dozen massive Costco muffins for $9.99 — cheaper than Walmart.
Costco lets you mix and match their six-packs of bakery muffins so that you can try multiple flavors easily. But regardless of the flavors you pick, you'll pay $9.99 for a dozen 5.8-ounce muffins, which comes out to just $0.83 per muffin.
That's a better price per muffin than Walmart, where a four-pack of 3.5-ounce muffins costs $3.98 ($1 per muffin). The only store that rivals Costco on price is Sam's Club, where a nine-pack of muffins costs $7.48 ($0.83 per muffin).
Here are a few of the Costco muffin flavors you can choose from year-round:
Blueberry Muffins
Double Chocolate Muffins
Almond Poppy Muffins
Corn Muffins
Coffeecake Muffins
TIP: Look for seasonal or specialty muffins to pop up throughout the year — like cinnamon cheesecake and pumpkin streusel.
9. Return a Costco bakery item for a full refund if you aren’t satisfied.
Even if you have taken a bite or a piece from the bakery item, you can get a full refund at Costco.
10. You can buy frozen cookie dough from some Costco locations in the U.S.
There are lots of rumors online that you can buy Kirkland Signature cookie dough from any ol' Costco bakery. But don't get too excited. When we checked out this rumor, we learned that you'll only find the frozen cookie dough at Costco Business Center stores in the U.S. (there are only 27 of those) — or at regular Costco stores in Canada.
Luckily, I do live near a Costco Business Center (the one in Florida), and they confirmed that they do sell a 120-count box of frozen Kirkland Signature cookie dough for $26.99 (that's $0.22 per cookie!).
If you want to bake your own Costco cookies and don't live near one of the Business Center locations, you've got to buy your cookies already baked ($10.99 for 24 cookies).
11. Costco doesn’t include nutrition facts on bakery items — but there's a workaround.
Looking for the nutrition facts of Costco's bakery items? They don't print the nutrition facts on bakery items, but you can look up the information in these ways:
In-person at the bakery (usually posted near the custom cake order station)
On the Costco Same-Day Delivery website (just search for an item)
TIP: You can also find a copy of the nutrition information on Reddit. That list also shows you all the items that the Costco bakery can (or at some point did) carry! The apple crumb muffins caught my eye… I hope to see those in my warehouse soon.
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