Hello!
I was just wondering what you all serve a wedding couple when they first come in for a tasting.
I always present them coffee, tea or soda with four small nicely decorated cakes (1 cake is good for 2-3 people) with different fillings, cake flavors and icing/fondant. Then, after the consultation, I put the remainders of the cakes in a box which they can take home so they can give a bite or two to their family and friends (sometimes they change their choice of flavor because the MOB or MIL told them that another flavor is better). I have been doing this for years and it serves me well (almost all tastings end up in an order), but it also takes quite some time to prepare the cakes.

Now, I was looking in a Sylvia Weinstock book and saw a picture in the back with a platter that she serves when doing a consultation. Wow, it looks so wonderful, like a painters pallet, but... it is sooo little! Just a few bites, smaller than a cake ball, and a few scoops of cream. It made me wonder. Am I overdoing it? Is she serving really small portions? What are your thoughts on that?

most people dont serve actual cakes - its a couple of slices, a couple of cupcakes, which may be frosted, or the frosting may be separate.
do you charge for tastings?
if your way works, then great. but maybe you could do it in a way that is cheaper, and makes better use of your time, and still have a high booking rate.
xx

No, I don't charge for the tastings. I just see the costs for a tasting as part of the total costs of a wedding cake. And I am not so worried about the cakes themself, I wonder more about the labor time. It can be quite time consuming to make all those little cakes. On the other hand I have always considered my tastings as something extra, something special that would give a peek on what the couple can expect when they do order their wedding cake with me. That is, until I saw the picture of Sylvia Weinstocks tasting material. It made me think that I might not need to do all the trouble.

Since I do my tastings once every couple of months now, I have the time, patience and energy to make pretty much every flavor I offer. And you bet, little bite size portions. 7 bites of 7 different things start to add up to actual slices...it's plenty.

I do it like Sylvia too. I have fancy little sushi platter things, with small compartment like sections that each hold a dollop of ganache, all the different flavored icings I offer, fruit curds, preserves, etc.,etc. It makes a stunning display. Cakes are sliced into their little cubes about 30 minutes before people arrive and kept on several cake stands covered in wrap until tasting time.

I have small bottles of water for each guest.

I used to do it the way you did..until one couple ate ALL of my cake and didn't book. (They were talking about how expensive I was outside of my door as they got into a brand new Mercedes.)

Now I do a small platter with tiny bits of cake and a few fillings. I tell them tis is just to get an idea of the taste and texture, etc etc. They can have a more robust tasting with the flavor of their choice once they put a deposit down.

I like the little bit of everything because it gives the couple a chance to sample all sorts of combos.

I offer 3 or 4 cake flavors.....5 or 6 fillings and my icings.

I also set it up similar to Jamie....I have little square white sushi dishes that I line up on a tray.

I serve tea/coffee, milk/water

Here is what my set-up usually looks like. This was in our formal living room, but I now do them at my dining room table. I also limit to three sample plates, but this one was for someone I really like. I knew their little girl would be with them, so I made one for her too.

Sometimes I have three cake flavors, sometimes four. No more than two fillings because most of my customers opt out of fillings anyway so that they can cut down $. Two types of buttercream.

Party tastings are $25 with 2 cake flavor choices, wedding is $35 with 3 cake flavor choices.

They can choose from my 49 flavors. i make 4"x2" round or square cakes, just as they would normally look (leveled, torted, filled, etc.).

I only offer fondant, so they're all covered in fondant with buttercream piping on the top that labels what each is according to the flavor name they picked.

I might be overdoing it, but I do it from the home and I can't make several full sized cakes and cut down for tastings as I don't have a fluid stream of clients coming through.

I also meet at Starbucks or somewhere NOT at my home. They can buy/get their own drinks. They get the tasting fee deducted from their total if they book with me.

Sorry the photo quality & color is poor.
I've done a few different set-ups similar, put together mini cakes, but it depends how much patience/energy I have the night before.

I only serve bottled water. I'm always afraid anything else might confuse the pallette.

So do all of you keep cakes in the freezer along with your frostings? Or do you make the cakes up right before the tastings and just do a lot of tastings in one day? Being a home baker and not having many wedding cake orders I tend to make two small cakes for the bride and whoever else comes to taste. I will also send the left over cake home with them.

I have the cakes in the freezer and pull them out a couple hrs before the tasting. Icing is in the fridge in a ziplock until I need it.

Thank you all for your comments and for sharing your experience! Kellertur and Jammjenks, thank you for the photo's! They give such a good idea of your way of giving a tasting. And I learned so much from your stories. Indydebi, your story makes me realize how much I am overdoing it. I am very happy with your tips (baking once for every nine tastings). I have always been afraid to jeopardize the quality of the cakes when putting them in the freezer, but if you do it, with the tons of experience you have, I might as well dare to do it too! It will save me lots of time, and thinking of it, I believe my presentation will only become better.
I am going out shopping for nice pallettes this afternoon!

Geez, talk about shooting yourself in the foot! No one needs that much cake at a consultation. All that extra cake is not going to help them decide, or make them choose you. Why give so much product away?

Yesterday I made 1½ recipes of my standard cake. I divided it into four smaller bowls. I flavored one bowl with freshly grated lime zest; one with Kahlúa, instant espresso and ground espresso; one with vanilla bean and the last one with less vanilla bean and grated dark chocolate. Put them all into six-inch square pans.

Voilà!

Four different cake flavors for consultations. Lime zest, double espresso, vanilla bean and stracciatella.

On the tray I usually have about eight different flavors of cake (small slices - about ½" wide, 1½-2" tall and 3-3" long), +/- ten fillings and a smaller plate with frosting (I only use SMBC) and fondant. I wish I had a pic of my tray.

I keep the cake and the fillings in the freezer.

Sometimes there is a little cake left over and sometimes they eat the whole thing.

Before they come I make them aware that I can only accommodate two people, and that if they are parents they need to organize a sitter.

I book about 99% of all couples that come for consultations.

It sounds so great Mensch. The more I read about this method, the more I feel like doing it the same way too. In fact, I cannot wait till tomorrow when I have my next consultation!
What I love about it is that you have the opportunity to give them more choices which I obviously didn't have with my method: I didn't make additonal cakes because I knew the eaters just didn't have enough room to put those additional cakes.

I've looked and looked for Sylvia's "art palette" plate. Anyone know where to get it?

With her income, they are probably custom made!

I used to do consultation at Starbucks also. I didn't want people at my house.. just being safe. I also let them choose two flavors. I would try to make 4 inch cakes when I was baking my other cakes.. So from the extra batter. I kept them in the freezer. When I had to prepare for a consult. I just took them out and torte and fill them. Then I would ice them and maybe put a little decor on top. Nothing fancy. I would take them in a 8x8 box. They wouldn't eat the whole cake and I never expected them to. They didn't even have to try them at the consult if they didn't want to. They would get to take the rest home of course and most really liked that. They had a couple desserts for later or they could let family members taste them as well. It seemed to go over really well and I didn't have to make a ton of cake flavors or fillings. If anyone wanted to have more than the two I offered for free I would charge $10 for each additional flavor they wanted.

To those of you who freeze: how long do the cakes stay "just like fresh" in the freezer if well-wrapped? I've always been leery of freezing smaller samples, and since my business is just getting going I don't have a lot of tastings.

Just did a quick google search. Check these out:

http://www.heavenleecakes.com/cake%20samples.jpg

http://andeatittoo.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Tasting-re__water.116110012.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1COHJncULmc/SedxMGI7GzI/AAAAAAAAAaA/G1k5_pyBnyA/s1600-h/P1020170ab+%28Medium%29.jpg

http://www.ayleebits.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/090419corby.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yTG68RUqL6Q/Sb1f7KdMQwI/AAAAAAAAATA/ud63eC2ordY/s1600-h/weddingcaketasting.JPG

http://www.chelseeandrichard.com/uploaded_images/IMG_2185-721881.JPG

I remember seeing White rectangular porcelain/china plates on Amazing Wedding Cakes (I think it was Cake Alchemy but may have been the one in CA). They displayed their most popluar cakes, already filled, in a row. The slices seemed to be 1x1x4".

I like the idea of small pieces of cake, a few icing flavors & a few different fillings. The thing I don't like about pre filling is everyone's palate is different. Someone may mix cake & filling flavors that you'd never think of (especially different nationalities). It just enables them to try different cakes w/ different fillings/icings.

And why not charge a fee? Let them know that it will go toward the cake's total charge when they book w/ you. If they don't book with you then you get paid for your time & effort!

And I found these spoon tasting plates/platters & fell in love. Now if I could find somewhere to purchase. They also have an artist palate. http://www.thedrhcollection.com/category/bia/

Some of those tasting image links are crazy! The one with all the fondant flowers and cookies... who goes to all that work for a tasting?! I'd have to charge a ton if I was doing that.

Now I wish I had an excuse to do a tasting!

I usually do 3 flavors of cake and I make cupcakes - they get 1 of each flavor to split. I also have 3 fillings and 3 icings. I put the fillings and icings in little cups and they can mix and match flavors. One bride and her mom this past weekend changed their mind everytime they tried a new combination until they were finally able to decide. I keep the cupcakes individually wrapped in the freezer until it's time to take it out to thaw.