How do you conduct your cake tastings? - Page 3

Thank you Antonia for all this priceless information. You're a great decorator, baker and person....

Antonia, I find your information so pertinent; thanks for sharing.

I just did my first "tasting" yesterday. It was presidents day, so I was off from school. I baked 6 different kinds of cakes late Sunday, and had them all filled and frosted by 11pm. Then eary Monday morning, we cut them into slices.

I then did a color coded system.
I took 6 different color plates, and put a very small but neat slice of cake with each different color plate(each plate had its own flavor). For example, yellow was banana nut. Orange was almond apricot. Pink was white raspberry. We wrapped them very neatly with plastic wrap. I then put them in a small cake box sort of artistically arranged (like a bouquet). It actually look really cool. I then found these cool matching napkins that had all of the color of the plates, and put them into the box along with a handful of plastic forks.
On top of the cake box, I printed out the colors with colored ink, and next to the color, I put a title and description of each piece of cake.
Then I scheduled people to come in all day for appointments to taste the cakes. I let them option whether or not they wanted to eat them in front of me, or take their cake boxes home to try privately. Most took them home, but some wanted to try them so they could book their cake right then and there.
I think the next time I do one, I will sign people up for the tasting, but I will do it so that they just come in, say hello, pick up the cake, and then call me back for a consultation. Staying at the shop all day was lengthy, and I found that there was some wasted time in that (especially waiting on people who did not show up....there were 2 brides that no-showed). I don't mind having extra samples, because I ended up having my husband deliver them to area wedding vendors along with business cards. However, 8 hours was a lot of time I could have been using to work on other stuff.

Out of the 25 people I met, I would say that only 1 person may not book. She balked at my prices.....she thought 3.00/slice for a tiramisu cake was too pricey. Her cake was going to cost her 900.00.
It was interesting, nonetheless. We'll see what happens!!! I've already got 22 wedding cakes booked for this summer, so I'm raring to go!!!

I have just recently started and while going through the basic wilton classes we just used cake mix, I know thats a no no now so how do oyu go about finding your own recipe that is always just as reliable taste wise? Also I did a family wedding a month ago and was meeting with the bride and her grandparents. They were talking about everything but the cake, food and how much to order etc...so then they were discussing how to plan on a turnout #. They all turned to me and said"ask the cake lady, she would know". Well....I didnt? How do you come up with the difference between the invted # of people and the estimated turnout??? Thanks for your time!!!

Trial and error. That's what I did. For wedding stuff try www.theknot.com

There's nothing wrong with using a cake mix...That's all I use (doctored recipes) and I get rave reviews!! I've never had anyone ask if I baked from scratch...Most of my business was also from referrals. Use whatever you feel comfortable with and what your customers like.

Ditto!! Thats how I do everything also and people love the cakes. I don't think it matters what you do as long as you do it well and it is working for you. I use some scratch but the majority of my cakes are doctored mixes.

They say that usually you can order 20% less servings than people invited.. Because that is about how many people won't be able to make it for an event like a wedding or something and there will always be a number of people not eating cake for diet reasons too. At least that is the number I have always heard/read. HTH

If the wedding cake is the main dessert for the wedding, well, obviously you have to have the exact number of slices per guest and add about 5 slices or so...for "cutting/portioning" errors. I charge my clients to the slice, then add these 5-10 portions at no charge to them. I also give the kitchen complete written diagrams and information about the ingredients used (waiters are often asked regarding alllergies).

If the cake is to be served on a buffet table of other desserts OR late in the evening, I encourage my clients to order no more than 50 to 65% of the guest number in slices, as so much can be wasted. I may lose $$ on seller smaller cakes than I could, but I really don't feel it's right to push a 300 slice cake on a 300 guest wedding when I know full well it is being served at midnight after a 6 course meal.

The bride and groom have probably never organized a wedding before and I know the cake waste that late at night is big...after all that eating, drinking and dancing! A lot of brides hesitate to order a smaller amount, but thank me greatly after the wedding when they see I was right.

I am just now reading this post and I think that the information is incredibly valuable! First of all, I LOVE Marmalade Cake Company, and I adore all of your cakes. You are incredibly gracious to help us newer cake bakers with all of your wonderful information! I hope that one day I can be as busy and talented as you! Thank you!!!!

Thank you antonia74 for all this great information! I really wanted to go see your website - but I noticed it is all Flash. You don't have a non-flash website, do you? I can't access any Flash websites at work . So maybe I'll just wait until I get home.... it's a good idea to have an alternative site though for people who don't have Flash capabilities.

Thanks again!

Antonia, thank you so much for sharing. You are a wealth of information.

Sandy

Thanks, but no...it's in Flash. No plans for a second "non-Flash site".

Antonia; you are a very gracious person. After reading about your tastings I feel ripped off. My husband & I were married ten years ago. Our tasting was three bite-sized pieces. We had to pay. Oh, well. the cake was gorgeous anyway.
As far as sizing...
We had a cake for 250 people. Only 40 showed up. This included, the wedding party. We had cake forever! Live & learn.

Okay, that's tragic!!

What happened that only 40 guests out of 250 showed up???

Antonia74...I can't thank you enough for all of the information you shared. You answered every question, thought and idea I could come up with......love your cakes...

Oh, can I use the icing variations with my plain buttercream icing or does it have to be IMBC????

Thanks again...Kim

The reason only 40 out of 250 showed was my husbands family( His dad's side) decided to have a family war at the same time. What can you do? The funny thing is; I didn't know until I walked down the aisle. I had a dumbfounded look on my face instead of a smile. I was thinking... I wasted a lot of money. Most of them live in Florida anyway.