Say it with cake

Wishing you could be part of a celebration happening miles away? Consider sending the cake.

Online cake-delivery services are a growing niche in the bakery market, says Odette D'Aniello, whose Tacoma bakery, Celebrity Cake Studio, has filled orders for Sendacake.com. Operating much like FTD.com florists, these services forward your cake order to a bakery near the recipient's home or office that will deliver a freshly baked, custom-frosted cake.

"We get orders from all over the world," says Dottie Wachter, bakery network manager of Florida-based Cakesacrossamerica.com (800-422-5387), which was founded 12 years ago by Fran Greene. Clients include individuals and corporations such as HBO, Pepsi and Charles Schwab.

Sendacake.com (800-779-CAKE), a Portland-based company launched in 1997, gets most of its 5,000 cake orders a year through the Internet, says founder Lee Slack, who maintains a database of 1,800 bakeries. A 9-inch, two-layer round cake that feeds 18-20 people costs about $66.50 through Sendacake.com, but Slack promises, "If the quality isn't what it should be, we will refund the customer's money."