Hmmm... Now that I think about it, maybe I'll offer it as an option for them to choose. Boxed up or plated.. I don't know. I liked my plate.. it was pretty and fun to set up.

Karateka,

I know how frustrating this can be (the whole business), but hang in there.
When I am down and out I always come back to Cake Central to get a lift! Let me tell you a story.........

I came to Cake Central in March of 2007. I had just delivered my first fondant cake since opening up my business. It was a four tiered fondant cake to feed 150 people. It was done in an ice blue color. Every other tier had dots in white on it, different sizes. The other two tiers had icicles hanging down from them in a complete circle around the cake. There were a few royal icing snowflakes positioned at different spots on the cake. I thought it was beautiful. I wouldn't have picked that color, (took me forever to get all that fondant the same color) but it was pretty.
I charged $450!

Bride calls a week later, her mother was upset and wanted some money back. Said the cake looked too cartoonish! Said that it had a slight lean to it. I said that I did the cake exactly as they ordered. (Brides design)
Said I didn't notice a lean, but would look at my pictures and get back to them. I was devastated! I thought the cake looked great. I thought no way should I be in this business, if I thought the cake was great and they hated it so much. Maybe I just wasn't good enough!

I went to my computer, typed in cake disasters and it brought me to
Cake Central. I was able to get advice from all these wonderful people and it kept me going.

I called the mother back the next day, said that I didn't notice a lean in the pictures and I thought the cake was what they asked for. I agreed however, to refund her a $100 since she was not happy.

She agreed, took the money, but not before sending me another picture (same one I had) to show the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" as she now put it!
I still saw no lean.

Flash forward a year later. I get a bride who comes to me with a Bridal Magazine. She wanted me to do a cake like one in the magazine.
There under a heading that stated "From the finest bakers in the valley"
was a big beautiful picture of my cake. Needless to say, I was shocked.

It's been two years since I started officially, and I am still trying to work out all the kinks. Sometimes you don't feel like you are making progress
but when you look back your really are!

That's an awesome story, cascades.....was the magazine picture of the "leaning" cake?

I think we've all been in that spot of wanting to throw in the towel and ready to throttle the no-shows! I've certainly had my share of them.

I'm just glad that today's decorators have cc as such a wonderful source of inspiration, education and emotional support! I didn't have such a source when I was first starting...only my husband's shoulder.

Yeah,

It was the leaning cake! Still no lean (lol)

Cascades, that is a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing. Hopefully I will have a success story like that one day.

karateka, is there a way you can only offer certain flavors for tastings.....have them on hand (frozen) at all times and take a credit card number when they book the appointment and only charge the CC if they are a no show?

I have to say I am fascinated by this topic, tastings are one of my favorite parts of the business! I love getting out, meeting new people, and trying to create new designs. And usually the couples are excited about their wedding and are great to talk with (usually ). I've changed the way I've done tastings several times--when I first started I gave every bride a 2-layer 6 inch decorated cake to take with them! Obviously I realized quickly that the time, stress, and money involved wasn't realistic. I guess we all need to customize our consults that make us relaxed and yet are efficient in representing ourselves the way we want to be seen. Happy Caking, I 'm off to a consult right now

Cascades-I want to see that cake! Can you post a pic? It sounds loooovely.

I want to see the cake too!

I am fairly new to this myself with the tastings. I have had several interested ones ask about my tastings, so I told them $25 for 2 flavors and $10 for each additional flavor. Then if they order about half goes toward their deposit. So far I have only had one tasting, and it went successfully. They seemed very happy and placed their order along with the rest of the deposit to hold their date. But am I way undercharging? This tasting was fairly simple that I did, just with buttercream frosting and very simple designs, took me less than an hour to decorate each cake. But the cakes were specialty orders, not from mixes.

cascade, you need to send a copy of the magz article to that mom, with a sarcastic yet nice card that says, "Thought you'd like to see your cake in this magz's collection of The Most Awesome Cakes in the World!" heh heh heh heh

I wish I could post it. I only have the magazine copy and don't know how to download it. As you can probably tell I can't even figure out how to download any of my pictures to Cake Central. Boy how I wish my kids all lived at home again !!

You'll be a major force, your cakes are awesome!! I'm the only one in my area doing this from home everyone else has a storefront but that doesn't slow down my orders........and I'm not cheaper than the rest of them either, I'm more expensive........and I know I don't have all the talent they do, but when I get customers I treat them well and they tell friends and then they tell friends......you wouldn't believe how many out of town brides I've had........actually, only 2 of my wedding cakes were from people that live locally.....I've had people in Cleveland, people in Missouri, someone from Pittsburgh..........it's insane......they all say someone told them how wonderful my cakes were! I haven't even done that many wedding cakes!
Hang in, you never know what will become of you.

The way that I do tastings to make it easier for myself is to do them all on one day, usually Saturdays before I start delivering cakes. I just make extra of the cakes that I'm baking for weddings that weekend, so the people coming for appointments don't get to choose what they'll be tasting. I don't charge for that part of the tasting, but if they then want to try more flavors later they can either pay me to make them, or they can wait until I'm making the flavor they want to try for someone else, and I'll just make a little extra for them to come pick up.

It's easier to schedule everything in one block and have them come to you, whether it's at your shop or a coffeeshop or whatever. It sounds like a lot of people are driving all over creation to meet with potential customers, but that's a waste of your time and gas!

I'm seriously considering going back to tasting events, after this thread.

Just spoke to the catering manager of a venue that has me as their preferred vendor - really amazing venue,with food that would blow your mind - and I think we may end up working together on the next one.

That'll be so much nicer than the last one. A timeline, if you're interested:

Sept 07 - Approach a venue to introduce my biz, they're interested and make an appointment, I bring them a taster cake, they love it, say they'll put me on their vendors list.

Nov 07 - I'm only of the only 2 cake vendors at their smallish niche market wedding show. The other company is the local cake mafia.

March 08 - I host a tasting event there. Couldn't help but notice that Local Cake Mafia is on their vendors list (In the info I had to display as part of the rental!), but I was not.

August 08 - check their website, still not listed.

Nov 08 - Receive email promotion intended for brides (I get myself on lists to see what ads are going out!). That venue is doing a promotion with LCM, book on a Friday, get a LCM cake. Was kinda pissed. Still not listed.

Dec 08 - Still not listed. Contact at the venue emails me outta the blue asking if I'd like to host another tasting event there!!!! I email back with

"Hey, did you ever add us to your brochure information? I noticed recently that you're doing a promotion with (Local Cake Mafia), so I wasn't sure if you were going ahead with the vendor list inclusion."

He just replied with "We have not updated the vendor flyers yet - still have a plethora of them left."

Seriously? What a load of crap. Over a year without updating?

He kinda burnt me on the tasting events. The venue I'm thinking about is amazing though, and it'll be nice to be able to give glowing reviews on my own,instead of just having to hand out brochures (Listing my competition!!) to some really generic venue.

Good luck with your new venue....hope it all works out for you.

Sounds like the other one was quite unprofessional.

FlowerGirl, I bet if his prices went up, he'd print up new price lists no matter how many old ones he had left! Agree with the above ... unprofessional.

No kidding. This is a major hotel I'm talking about, too. As if they haven't had price/policy/menu changes in over a year. Nevermind updating photos, etc. Whatever.

Thing is, I fully intend to be a cake rockstar some day. I'll remember the mafia friends

I meant that in an evil, spitey way!!

You.. evil and spitey??? I'd have never guessed..

you know I luv ya!

I need to have you rub your cake balls on me.. now I know that sounds hysterically naughty, but I seriously need to grow a set and get myself out there out there. *sigh*

Wow.

I save teabags for my chai cake.