Elements of a Cake Tasting, III

Welcome to the third and final post in my mini-series on cake tasting.  When January rolls around, bridal shows start popping up, and bakers have cake tasting on the brain.  Hopefully, you're taking advantage of this slow season in the biz and booking cake tastings for you and your hunk of groomliness. 

We've talked about trusting your baker.  We've talked about being prepared.  Now, let's talk about the not-so-fun part: the budget.

If you want a cake like this:

Yes, that is William and Kate's wedding cake.  Drool.
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You should be expecting a price tag fit for this:

Yes, that is the Queen. 
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But let's be honest, are you inviting Eugenie and Bea to your wedding along with their nine million club-hopping gal pals?  Probably not.

The first key to setting your budget is buying your dad a nice big steak, batting your eyes at him and reminding him that you'll always be his little princess.  Aha...

Actually, the first thing you have to do is finalize your guest list.  Once you know how many people you're inviting, you'll know how many servings you'll need and whether you can go for crazy, high-end flavors and decorations or need to stick to a delicious but more basic choice.

I also recommend getting a little more cake than you think you'll need.  So, for a wedding with 50 guests, I suggest a cake with 70 servings.  This gives you enough wiggle room for sweet-toothed guests to venture back for a second slice.  That's a lovely three tiered cake (10", 8" and 6") that would make any wedding reception proud.  At Bake Lore, we start our cake servings at $2.00 each for a 1x2x4" serving. (I've noticed a lot of cake sites won't quote you a base price, and I find that pretty aggravating.)  So, if you're doing the math, that makes the base price $140.00 - wow! - a great cake for a decent price!

You'll be upping that price if you go with flavors that require additional ingredients - raspberry butter cream, for example, has real raspberries in it, and you'll see an increase there.  You'll also have additional costs incurred with elaborate decorations. 

It's all up to you (and whoever is cutting the checks!), but the bottom line is that you can feed a small crowd really good cake for a decent price.  (That means no grocery stores, fake icing or freezer burned flavor.)

So what have you learned, dear bride?
1) Trust your baker and try new flavors.
2) Come prepared with design ideas.
3) Know your budget.

Do those three things, and your cake tasting should be a raging success. 

When you schedule a Bake Lore tasting, you will get a full consultation and either leave with your estimate or recieve it within a few days.

So, when will we be talking about YOUR cake?

Elements of a Cake Tasting, Part II

As you'll recall, the first element of a successful cake tasting is trusting your baker and trying new flavors. 

Second (not in importance just in the order I thought of it):  Come prepared.

Theme and color are the most important ideas you need in your head.  Bring swatches of bridesmaid dress fabric, ribbons from the bouquet and ideas about what flowers you will use - bring your laptop. 

I guarantee you, if you google "pink cake" in google images, you will immediately have more ideas at your fingertips than you can count.  There's some amazing talent out there.  Find it. 

Print pictures, pin it on Pinterest (WHAT?  You're not on Pinterest???  Go...get an account and then come back in a few hours after you have become the newest addict...also, follow my boards, cuz I'm awesome and I pin gorgeous cake.) 

Come to your tasting with all your ideas and your baker/decorator will help you sort through and find the things that will make the perfect cake. 

If you came to me and said, "I want a steam punk cake."  I would have no idea what you mean.  But, if you came to me with a color scheme in mind an a picture like, say, this amazing one:

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...well, I'd be right on track with you.  And as a side note, I would weep for joy if someone ordered a cake this awesome.  It would make me quiver with delight in anticipation of the project. 

Also, be open to new ideas.  Maybe this baker has a talent for sugar flowers *ahem* or is really good with some intricate piping you hadn't thought of before.  Use their talents and ideas too. 

Talking design while you're sampling flavors is a huge times saver.  Why have two meetings when you could have one?  And if you're wowed by the tasting, you can start working on the final design and sign a contract to reserve your date right then and there.  Yes, that means crossing off something on your to-do list.  Even better!

Cake Tasting Element #2: Bring your ideas and be open to new ones!

Elements of a Cake Tasting

So, you are planning your wedding, and you're making a short list of bakers to try out.  What are the essential things you need to know and learn from your cake tasting? 

Welcome to my short and completely non-exhaustive series on cake tastings! 

First things first: if you have found a baker by reputation, trust his/her ideas. 

Try flavors you can' find at the grocery store.  Don't like lemon?  If it's the baker's trademark flavor, try it anyway.  You might be missing out on something amazing your guests will be talking about for weeks after you get hitched.

I'm prepping a tasting today for a couple that involves four flavors - Bake Lore's classic buttery yellow cake, lightly lemon cake, orange delight cake and spiced heaven cake. 

I'm also working to keep prices down and make the bottom line as palatable as the product I make.  The buttery yellow cake batter lends itself to new flavors so well, blending perfectly with the additional flavors to make a dependably moist and tender crumb.

From Left: lightly lemon, spiced heaven, orange delight and buttery yellow cakes

Adding real vanilla buttercream to any of these would automatically make it a hit, but I'll be soaking each in a flavored syrup and creating one additional buttercream flavor for each cake. 

These aren't your typical "wedding white or chocolate" flavors.  This is a twist on the traditional that will give wedding guests a tiny taste of how happy thier hosts are as they celebrate your marriage!

Cake Tasting Element #1: Trust your baker and try new flavors.

Time for a Cake Tasting!

In the wee hours of Saturday morning - - which for people like me, is any time before 9, thanks very much - - I packed my car up with a delivery of fresh bread and cake pops and one mouth-watering platter of cake.

I'm kind of like an old timey doctor.  I make house calls.  And today, the cake tasting came to the bride-to-be.  Wanna see what she sampled?

Eight flavor combinations!

Here's a handy-dandy guide to the gorggeous flavor up there:

Lemon Cake Vanilla Butter Cream	Almond Cake Chocolate Butter Cream	Chocolate Cake Vanilla Butter Cream	Buttery Yellow Cake Raspberry Butter Cream
Lemon Cake Raspberry Butter Cream	Almond Cake Almond Butter Cream	Chocolate Cake Peanut Butter Cream	Buttery Yellow Cake Strawberry Butter Cream

Fingers crossed that I get a call soon with an order for another big, beautiful bridal cake! 

Twoo Wuv! and a Cake Tasting

Tonight, I did something I've never done before.  I held a cake tasting.

My good friend, Scotty G., is getting married.  This outstanding man has finally "found his Eve," as he once so longingly put it, and I am THRILLED!

Ak!  They are so stinkin' cute!!!

Can I say that again?  I am THRILLED!  First, because Scott is a great and godly man.  Second, because his matrimonial felicity has been high on my "please, God" list for a long, long time.  And third, because now that I know his bride-to-be, I see why he's in love with her - she's great.

I let them taste three flavors, lemon, almond and chocolate.  Oh, I tell ya, I had a good time getting this ready for them.

That's four plates of yum.

This is almost as cute as Scott and Krista:).

Practice, practice, practice!

We also designed their wedding cake, which it will be my honor to create.  It's going to be epic...like six tiers kind of epic...like a garden of gum paste flowers kind of epic. 

So, I have my work cut out for me.  They picked the lemon cake, which is hands down the favorite flavor I make.  But the baking isn't going to be the fun part of this cake.  It's going to be the many fun-filled hours I will spend creating flowers and praying for them - for a long and joyful marriage, for a house full of happy children, for lives that bring more glory to God together than they ever would apart.

How sweet it is!