With a mix, it's cheap enough that you aren't wasting much money. You could always make multiple small cakes and save them for another time. Or just have your family eat them up.

Oh my gosh, you guys, I just got off the phone from the bride and she wants 4 flavors to taste!!! (white, french vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry).

HOly Cow!! She just kept listing and listing!
Who wants to come over and eat? geez!

Oh, and did I mention its for this coming Friday?? That means I'm stuck with cake leftovers and cannot take to work until Monday!

I shouldn't be freaking out....but I'd better get the order!

No kidding!

The conversation was just flowing along and then she began listing. I felt that if I would have said "hey, hey....slow down skipper" then I would have come across as negative instead of positive.

I should have started off by saying I'll do 2. I'm learning!

4 flavors! that's just being greedy, you should tell her you only offer one flavor and the rest she'll have to buy.

as far as freezing cakes, i wouldn't sell a customer a fresh one! i learned a long time ago from my uncle who is a pastry chef that freezing cakes makes them moister, i have been doing it ever since. if you find you can "taste" the cakes being frozen, then they are not being properly wrapped or you got something funky in that freezer.

It could be that the bride has been reading bridal magazines and watching anything and everything bridal-related (I know I became obsessed...) and most of the people showcased do their cake tasting with several flavors / flavor combinations (edited to add: because most, if not all, offer a different flavor and filling for each tier). But, then again, most of the people showcased are the big-time decorators, too. I really believe most brides don't take into consideration that all of the cool things they see in the bridal magazines/online/tv aren't the reality of most (the majority of) weddings and expect the same types of things, but for prices they are used to in their local. But, obviously it doesn't work this way. Sometimes you just need to bring people back down to reality. If I lived in a metropolitan area, I would most certainly expect that a professional cake baker presented me with several taste options. However, if I lived in a rural area and was considering using a home baker, should I have the same expectations?

Only offer one flavor? I've never heard of going to a tasting where only one flavor was offered. Many brides want the tiers different flavors so one flavor wouldn't be of much help.

Just use 1/2bx of cakemix and save the other 1/2 for your next tasting or freeze the extras. The cake tasting is just a small, wedding size slice of the cake, not a feast.

I could, and I should, but as of now, my nearest wedding is in July, then August, then September. It seems pretty far away to do tastings now. But...who knows.

Maybe if I start selling now at work, I can get some pre-orders for the cakes! After all, I have to have them all baked BEFORE Friday so I could just save the samples for the bride, and take the others to work on Friday morning if I can sell them.

hmmm

My aunt can pull anything out of the freezer and it tastes great. I know she wraps cake slices once the cake is cool with saran wrap. Auntie then wraps the cake slice in foil and places it in a ziplock baggie. It doesn't taste the same as fresh baked, but it still tastes very good. Her frozen cake slices in no way have a freezer burn taste to them. I think it's the extra moisture that alerts me that the cake was frozen. Not wet, but not fluffy either, KWIM?

When I got married, I used a home based baker for my wedding cake. When I asked for a sample she had me come to her home and pick it up and take it home. What she gave me were 2 large slice of cake. Each was 3 layers. Each layer was a different flavor cake. She had filled the cakes with two different fillings each and frosted them in buttercream. It was obvious that she must have made large sample cakes just for this purpose. I don't know if they had been frozen or not. But the method worked. My husband and I sat down that night and ate both slices of cake. We got to taste all the combos and called and ordered the next day.

Heehee, we are back on the freezing cakes or not. Well I normally only freeze a cake for 2-3 days, 1 week max. A cake has to sit in a freezer for a month before there is a molecular change in structure and there really should not be a taste change according to freezer experts, not a measurable by humans taste change until a month has passed. But since many people actually bake their cakes as early as the Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday before a Saturday or Sunday wedding, I would say that a cake I froze on a Wednesday and iced and decorated on a Friday is every bit as fresh if not more so. If a cake should be 3 days old maximum before it is not at its peak, well that does not leave you a lot of time to play with. As far as the shelf life goes, well you will get a better shelf life after the cake is defrosted from a from scratch cake because the cake mixes have more molecular damage done through the freezing and thawing out process which shortens the shelf life of the then defrosted cake.
I am a little lost on why this is considered not to be a fresh cake, though. Of course it is fresh, just fresh and frozen. The bakery frozen cakes could be longer than a month old, but a cake frozen for a week is as fresh as you are going to get. I freeze to make sure it is fresh, so it isn't sitting on a counter or in a fridge where actually more harm can be done to the freshness than what the freezer will ever do.
Gee, I do both, depends on the size of the order whether or not it goes into the freezer or not, but I never feel I am cheating anyone because they are always told. And believe me, I cannot tolerate freezer burn or food transfer tastes and I absolutely cannot tell the difference nor can anyone else because if they could, I surely wouldn't do it.
I bake by order, I don't have cakes sitting in the freezer waiting to be iced to fill unknown orders. Some people have to because they get so many orders.
People do what they do out of a need to be able to do their work. I think we need to appreciate that we all do things differently and as long as we are not endangering or cheating anyone, there is not just one right way.
And boy let me tell you folks, that if you have any physical ailments or are aging, it gets a lot tougher to turn out a cake in 24 hours, when it is a huge wedding cake order with many, many details that just cannot be done ahead of time. Does that mean we should all quit decorating when we have arthritis or any physical challenges or turn 40?
As far as freshness goes, geesh, most people are using boxed mixes that have chemical preservatives and dyes to which they are adding artificial flavours and colours either to the ingredients themselves or to the icing and we are questioning freshness?
Sorry, just my thoughts on this one.
Hugs Squirrelly

I am the freezing type. My strange work hours do not permit me to bake and decorate a cake all in one day, and for wedding cakes you can just forget it. Anyway, for my wedding consultations, I have all of my flavors available for every customer. When I have free time, I bake an 8" square cake and cut it into bite size squares. These fit perfectly in the snack size zipper bags and I put those in a ziploc container in the freezer. Whenever I need samples for a customer, I just pull out a bag and defrost them. If they are interested in fillings, I find that out in advance so I can have something available. I never make whole cakes just for a tasting, and no one has ever complained about them being frozen.

If your doing up your samples as Cupcakes, how long do you cook them for. My plain madeira cup cakes take about 15 minutes, 1/2 hour for Muffin sized, would that be the same for say something like Carrot Cake?

Have any of you done testings for fruit cake?

or have any of you covered your test mini cakes with fondant icing if thats what is required for the wedding day?

Nati,
Here it seems to be all or nothing. Brides either have different flavors for the tiers or stick to all white cake. It's no problem for a bakery to make all the different flavored cakes and fillings since they will multiple orders to fill on any given Saturday. At the bakeries, no charge flavors are white, yellow, and chocolate.

The last wedding I attended had white, yellow, chocolate and strawberry. These were cakemix cakes made by a homebaker so I'm sure there wasn't an extra charge for the different flavors. The baker made the main cake white and had 9in rounds on stands surrounging the cake. Nice effect.

I've been to several weddings where the cake was white, but the fillings were different on each tier. Raspberry and cream fillings are popular here. I had white, chocolate and pineapple tiers for my wedding. Red velvet is a popular choice for one of the smaller tiers.

hth

Nati,
In my experience in the US professional bakeries (those with a license and a shop) generally do not charge extra to use different flavors on each tier, as long as the flavors all come from the same price group.

From the majority of the websites I've seen, this appears to generally hold true as well.

However, it seemed to me that home bakeries (which were usually unlicensed) almost always quoted a higher charge for multiple flavors. It seemed to me that when I was searching for the perfect wedding cake that the 'pros' operated quite differently than the home bakers re: pricing, options, etc. (which is of course understandable).

I think it really just depends on your area. What do the other cake decorators in your area offer?

I agree w/ Squirrelly here. I always bake on Monday....wrap and freeze. Make frostings on Wed. and decorate Thurs. and Friday when I have lots of orders in one week. I am honest about freezing if they ask, but no one has ever had a problem w/ it or a weird taste. I get lots of compliments on my cakes. It's still fresh and so much easier to work w/ when it is frozen.
I don't always freeze.... I'm not THAT busy yet, but I am hoping to be

As for tastings I like the idea of filling the cake w/ several fillings. that is a good idea. Reserve a date once a month for all bride tastings if you do lots of weddings. Weddings are planned a year in advanced most of the time so even if you don't have one this month they can go ahead and get the tasting out of the way.
Tell us how it goes!!!

Well, it's over. She came over last night.

I ended up baking all four cakes, but made 2 of each flavor in a cupcake. I was able to sell two out of four 8 or 9 inch cakes at work, donated one, and kept one.

I put out only one of each cupcake for them to try; after I thought about it, I just couldn't see them both chowing down on 4 cc each!! I frosted the tops with a large tip like the bakeries use.

They both loved the cake, brought pictures for ideas, talked about numbers of servings needed, location etc. Then when I asked for a final "may I put you on the books" they hesitated and said that her mom was thinking about doing the cake! I was almost speechless!

HOWEVER, the did end up booking before they left. I have a feeling that they may back out. The wedding isn't until May of 2007. Unbelievable!

I've definatley learned a lot from this experience. Thanks for everyone's input!

Wow that's unbelievable. How can they even consider a tasting, almost 18 months before the wedding if her mum may be doing the cake. Some people have no idea!! Just curious, do you take a deposit with your booking??

Nati

No, I usually don't. Normally, I take 1/2 the money 2 months before the weddding and the remainder 2 weeks before. I should probably reconsider that, huh.

I told them I would only lock in the price if they booked now. I think that's what sold them.

I don't take bookings unless people pay me a $50 deposit, otherwise they may change their mind and I may say no to others because i think they may come back and in fact there is nothing to make them do so. I also don't lock in prices until 4 months before the weddings. I have found that prices of ingredients etc can go up and then i may be losing out myself. Anyway, if you get someone else enquiring about the date, just call them back and tell them that you will only hold their date if they pay a deposit, that way you wont lose out.
Good luck with this one : )
Nati

Oh, jeez! I didn't know the wedding was so far off. Who does tastings that far in advance? They could change their minds 10X by then.

wow very interesting coments I always make my cakes on Tues. so I can freeze them before decorating. Iv'e never had a problem. I used to work in a bakery and they did the same thing. As for a deposit I charge $50 and they have 2 weeks to book unless there is another order that has come up then I call and let them know they need to pay there deposit to hold there booking. Payment is due in full 2 weeks before the wedding. I haven't had to have a taste testing yet. The other thing I do is offer a fresh 6in 1st anniversary cake no charge as long as they send me any address changes during the year and it is still local. Just alittle insentive to get the booking and there excited about it.

I don't think I'm the only one that has the same feeling you have sunlover00. This just reaks of someone pulling out. My first clue would have been when "My mother is thinking of doing the cake" came up. I'm afraid I would have ended the tasting right there, and asked them to leave. That's as bad as someone saying, Costco/Sam's sells cakes for $25.

How many other people are they possibly going around to and doing this to? I don't deal well with people who pull that kind of thing, I have no patience for people who want to waste my time, by changing things up and then pulling the "my family or friend/this or that store" trump card. All the more reason to charge for you tasting cakes and your time.