Cake balls are better known down south then they are in Michigan, but a new sweets shop in Grand Rapids' Creston business district is out to change that.
GR8 Tastes (1503 Plainfield Ave. NE), formerly Brittany Café, specializes in cake balls: crumbled cake mixed with flavored syrups or frosting, formed into balls about the size of donut holes, then dipped in dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate.
"A cake ball is a decadent cake confection," says GR8 Tastes owner Trish Hollemans. She and partners Donelle Bentley and Corinne Felt opened the shop three weeks ago. "We always carry chocolate truffle made with chocolate cake and golden delight made with yellow cake. We can create custom orders and add Irish crème syrup, pumpkin, cherries, cheesecake -- just about anything you can think of, we can make into a cake ball."
Hollemans says the cake balls are filling, so the shop also offers a smaller petite size, which is available singly or in a petite gift box containing four cake balls of four different flavors. Hollemans says the gift boxes are popular as wedding favors. The shop also does special orders for meetings and offers a shippable gift tin.
Customers can order in person, via phone or on the GR8 Tastes website.
GR8 Tastes also sells chocolate-covered pretzels and caramels, as well as a variety of coffee drinks. Patrons can get everything to go, or sit and enjoy the goodies at one of the shop's four tables while checking out the décor of antique cameras and photos of Grand Rapids, taken by co-owner Corinne Felt, an avid photographer.
The shop's core hours are Mon. - Fri., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with later hours on Weds. and Fri. For more information, visit the web site
here or call (616) 447-7599.
Source: Trish Hollemans, GR8 Tastes
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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