I finally tried Costco's legendary sheet cake - here's my honest review

Costco sheet cakes are the stuff of legends. I've seen them in movies, TV shows, and every time I've visited my local Costco warehouse at Marsden Park in Sydney.

Sometimes I just watch the bakers make them, deftly slicing and icing them with incredible skill.

I've never had occasion to try one before – I am part of a family of excellent dessert makers and if we do order cakes, they are from Italian pastry shops. Turning up to a family event with a Costco sheet cake just isn't done!

I could have ordered one just for myself, but that's a lot of cake, even for me. (Not that I haven't seriously considered doing this.)

I also considered ordering one and bringing it to work, but catching the metro while holding a Costco sheet cake during peak hour just didn't seem viable.

Then, the perfect opportunity presented itself: My friend Troy's 50th birthday!!!!

Troy hosts trivia – which he calls Troyvia – at the Cat & Fiddle Hotel in Balmain, Sydney every Tuesday. Me and my team of misfits/friends attend most weeks, and have done for years.

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I started organising trivia night celebrations for Troy's birthdays and trivia anniversaries a few years ago.

Usually I bring in donuts or cupcakes, but this year it was two Costco sheet cakes, one in each flavour.

The ordering process is pretty simple – you just go online and choose which location you plan to pick them up from.

There is vanilla sponge and chocolate sponge to choose from, and you can pick from raspberry and chocolate filling, as well as a range of fun designs for birthdays and other celebrations.

I went all-out and ordered a vanilla sponge with raspberry cream and a chocolate sponge with chocolate cream in two different birthday designs.

The cool thing is you don't have to pay for them upfront, just when you pick them up. I suppose if people don't turn up to collect their orders Costco can just on-sell them.

They cost just $34.99 each, which is a bargain.

So, my partner Shamus and I left for trivia a little bit earlier to pick the cakes up before heading in. They felt quite light, and I couldn't wait to try them both.

The first thing I noticed as I took them out of their boxes was how soft the frosting was. It's almost whipped in texture.

I later learned Costco frosting in Australia is, in fact, whipped! It's made of icing sugar, milk, vanilla extract, butter, and then a bit of cocoa for the chocolate version.

I set up the cakes and some balloons for Troy's birthday and waited impatiently to try them. I convinced him to let us cut them after the second round of questions to give everyone plenty of time to tuck in.

The knife glided through them – they were so easy to cut! The cake appeared light and spongy and they frosting was very, very soft.

After ensuring everyone who wanted cake had some, I sat down with a slice of each variety and dug in.

They were both delicious, but the vanilla was my favourite. It had a little bit of extra chew to the cake; the chocolate tasted great, but was way too spongy for me.

They were excellent, and great value for money, but my one criticism is the ratio of frosting and cake is a bit off. I feel there is way too much – almost more icing than cake!

I ate my slices by peeling the cake parts off and eating only those, which meant I had cake with just a little frosting, which is how I prefer it.

Others likely disagree and feel there is no such thing as too much frosting.

When it came to which flavour was most popular, we were evenly split. Troy also preferred the vanilla, Shamus liked the chocolate, others liked both equally.

I definitely want to eat them again, but I am wondering if I can ask for a little less frosting both on top, on the sides, and in the middle.

If that's too hard, maybe I can request it on the outside and sides only, and not in the middle, though this means I won't be able to add the raspberry frosting to the middle of the vanilla.

I also wouldn't mind a chocolate cake with raspberry frosting in the middle, but might give the chocolate frosting a miss if I do this.

Anyway, there's plenty of time for me to experiment. I'm at the very beginning of my Costco sheet cake journey, and it's one that's likely to last a lifetime.

I have discovered some Costco locations will mark down their sheet cakes from the day before for quick sale the next morning.

Looking back, I wish I had placed my sheet cakes in a fridge before serving to give the frosting a chance to harden up a little. This would have made it easier to cut them, and for me to peel the frosting off so I could eat the cake on its own.

But they are a solid seven out of 10 when it comes to price, quality, flavour, and design. And I plan to eat them as often as occasions allow.

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