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Your local Costco Bakery makes some great cakes and cupcakes. And, you can't beat the price.

Here's how to get this great deal. Head to the back of the store where the bakery is located. Look around for the cakes. Usually they have a refrigerator where the finished cakes are stored awaiting pickup. Look around for the form, "Sheet Cake & Cupcake Order Form." Fill that out and deposit it into the slot. The only catch is that you need to order these one day in advance. The form actually says, "1-day advanced notice appreciated", so maybe you can get same day service, if its a slow day.

At my local warehouse you can get:

• Filled Half Sheet Cake, Serves 48, $15.99
  • Cake: White or chocolate
  • Filling:Vanilla Cheesecake or Chocolate Mousse or Strawberry Mousse
  • Icing: White buttercream or Chocolate buttercream or Cream Cheese
  • Decorations: roses, bouquets, balloons, baseball, ranibows, golf, smiling sun, football, princess, hockey, stork, basketball, umbrella, skateboard, cross, soccer, american flag, trophy, billiard, or graduation (with school colors)
• Filled Half sheet carrot cake, serves 48, $17.99
• White & Chocolate cupcakes (20 per package) $15.99 per package.

Update: the Costco Sheet Cake order form was previously linked here, but I removed it at the request of the real Costco.

Most Costco warehouses have their own bakery, and one of the most popular products coming from their bakery is the bagels.

These bagels (Costco Item #31865) are cobranded with the Kirkland Signature name and either Noah's Bagels or Einstein Brother's Bagels. Noah's and Einstein Brother's are two chains of bagel and coffee shops. Noah's operates primarily in the western United States, while Einstein Brother's is in the South. The two chains share the same corporate owner, the Einstein Noah Restaurant Group.

A sure sign of a Costco newbie is someone trying to buy a single bag of six bagels. Although, they are packaged in bags of six, you need to buy two of these bags and put it a double wide bag. You can mix and match the bags choosing any from any of the variety of bagels offered. (At my local Costco a while back, you needed to package three six packs into a triple wide bag. This lasted for a few months and then reverted to the double wide bag.)

Most warehouses offer six varieties of bagels: plain, cinnamon raisin, sesame and poppy seed, honey cracked wheat, and either Parmesan cheese with olive oil or onion. Some warehouses also offer "everything bagels" which contain onions, cornmeal, and poppy, sesame, caraway, fennel, and sunflower seeds.

A dozen bagels might sound like more than you can eat before they go bad, but it isn't. Here's the secret: when you get home put the bagels into the freezer. When you want to eat one, take it out of the freezer and microwave it. (I give it 60 seconds on "defrost" and an additional 30 seconds on "high", but your microwave may be different.) Coming out of the microwave, even month old bagels taste as fresh as just bought bagels.