Bakery: Cake Man Raven Confectionery (708A Fulton St at South Oxford St, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; 718-694-2253)

AT THE RESTAURANT

Photograph: David Rosenzweig and Erkan Said

Menu Item: Red velvet cake, $6

FROM THE STORE

Photograph: David Rosenzweig and Erkan Said

Retail product: Red velvet cake, $6.49 at participating Applebee’s in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sheepshead Bay and Downtown Brooklyn

The Testers

• Steven Goldstein, restaurant consultant
• Rod Brogan, prepared foods junkie
• Kanlea Clark, Gristedes cashier

The Claim
“Applebee’s slices are about half the size of the slices in the store,” says Tara Brown, a Cake Man spokesperson. “But the cakes themselves are the same.”

The Restaurant
You can get the moist, airy slice with pecans on the cream cheese frosting’s edge, or not (we chose yes). Besides being gargantuan (the slices are about 1/4 a cake), the wedge was deceptively light. “It’s a fresh piece of cake,” says Goldstein.

The Retail
Applebee’s denser, smaller slice had an odd strawberry flavor, first detected by Clark. A call to Applebee’s confirms that flavoring (and pecans, for that matter) can be added upon request—guess we got someone else’s slice. Goldstein figures the syrup was added to combat the “mealy, old taste.”

The Verdict
Thumbs down

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