Need a Costco Custom Cake? Use The App!

from RD.com

For what feels like eons, Costco members have been pretty annoyed that they had to head into the physical warehouse to order a customized 10-inch round cake or half-sheet cake. These cakes, which are actually cost-effective buys when you need enough dessert for a group, required way more effort to order than they actually should—especially in the digital era we’ve been living in for decades now.

Currently, to get your hands on a custom cake, you have to walk to the bakery section, seek out the cake-ordering station (with paper forms!), fill out said form, then drop it in a designated box. Pretty antiquated, right? The whole cake-ordering process takes two trips to the warehouse—one to order, and one to pick up. And you generally need to place that order at least 24 hours in advance to get your cake on time, but 48 hours ahead is preferable.

The same goes for party platters, like Costco’s Artisan Bread Sandwich Platters and Shrimp Platters. You had to go into a physical location, fill out the necessary paperwork, then return to pick up your platter days later. Sometimes I think the DMV moves faster!

Get excited, sheet cake lovers—there’s finally an app for that. Or, rather, the Costco app is getting updated to include a cake-ordering option. Keep in mind that Sam’s Club, Costco’s biggest competitor, has had online ordering of custom cakes for years. So why it has taken Costco so long to get with the program is something of a mystery.

But better late than never, right? Costco CEO Ron Vachris announced the new system during the company’s quarterly earnings call in December 2025. “Very excited about what we have coming in the app,” Vachris said. “I mean, more engagement, more locking in the brick-and-mortar business with the virtual digital business as well.

And as we continue to roll out enhancements, we’ve got ‘pay ahead’ for the pharmacy coming, we’ve got ordering cakes and deli trays online coming.”