This review is specifically about the Publix Bakery. I have to register my ongoing disappointment with the continuing decline of Publix bakery goods. When it was the Danish Bakery and housed separately, they had the best tasting baked goods you could think of. High quality ingredients were used and you could taste it. This held up for at least ten years after Publix knocked down the wall and incorporated the bakery into the grocery store. However, there has been a noticable degradation in the quality of their bakery goods, particularly in the past five years or so. We can barely stand to taste their cakes any more. The butter cream frosting used to be something we would kill for at birthday celebrations. Now it is an oily textured, sickly sweet concoction that makes my heart race and upsets my stomach. We do not order cakes from Publix any more. The pastries have also gone downhill. The selection has decreased, and they are not even attractive any longer. They are misshapen and often have an undercooked or burned appearance. I saw the reason one morning when I came in and saw they were taken FROZEN pastries out and putting them in the oven. Stores apparently no longer have their own pastry chef to make the pastries and bake them. They are not using real butter or quality ingredients either, and you can taste the artificial butter substitutes and flavorings. Look at the ingredients list.
The only saving grace left for the bakery is their bread, and there is a caveat, because they are shipping in a lot of pre-baked breads that clearly have artificial preservatives and fats/flavorings in them. I only buy the breads that clearly have been baked at the store. We only purchase our groceries and breads from Publix as a rule, so I was bitterly disappointed at the decline of the bakery. It was a tradition to get my birthday cake there every year, chocolate with buttercream frosting. Alas, I can no longer enjoy it. Apparently the almighty proft margin overruled the quality factor and they ruined a good thing. read more