....for me, price per serving goes up per difficulty of the cake.....
....sculpting, whatever its adorned with, etc.....
If its a plain, ordinary, easy-to-cut cake, my sizes are closer to Earlene's.
sunnybono Junior Member
Joined: Sep 06, 2007
Posts: 47
Location: Oklahoma
Posted:
Sun Aug 10, 2008 7:48 am
chutzpah wrote:
You made enough cake.
If you read between the lines what she really means is that everyone got a slice of cake, but those 54 adults and 18 kids couldn't sit and gorge on cake all afternoon.
I'm with you...I bet that with America's rapid rise in obsesity we need to have "amended" cake serving charts. People are just bigger and expect to eat more!!! Seriously...I"m from one of the fattest parts of the country (oh yeah) and I see people just eating far bigger portions than what those charts were based on 50 years ago. Any thoughts?
Pookie59 Regular Member
Joined: Jun 12, 2008
Posts: 198
Location: Mesquite, Texas
Posted:
Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:12 pm
I think in the future I would take the time to educate the customer as to the size of the serving size (they have no idea). Maybe they would then want to order an additional sheet cake or two if they know that their group is the type that wants to gorge on cake. I know my family well enough to understand that a "serving" of cake by bakery standards would never satisfy - they all want big hunks and probably seconds at that.
costumeczar Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 18, 2007
Posts: 720
Posted:
Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:28 pm
It sounds like there were a bunch of pigs there who all ate either multiple pieces of cake, or huge pieces. You made enough cake, they just all ate too much, apparently.
As far as the serving size issue goes, just because Americans are getting more overweight doesn't mean that I have to make my serving sizes bigger to accomodate a ridiculous appetite. A serving is a serving, so if you want to eat a huge piece order three times as much. Don't expect bakers to make their servings bigger just because customers think it's normal to shove three pieces down and call it one serving.
If this woman calls to get another cake, make sure to give her a serving chart, and tell her that if she thinks she'll need extra cake, she should order extra. And that's what it is, extra. Not regular. Even Walmart charges more for X-large sizes these days!
Can you tell I'm in an ornery mood today?
sunnybono Junior Member
Joined: Sep 06, 2007
Posts: 47
Location: Oklahoma
Posted:
Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:33 pm
Maybe we should off "Super Sized" pricing. ha ha.
michellenj Forum Fanatic
Joined: Jul 10, 2007
Posts: 1586
Location: Macungie, PA
Posted:
Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:22 pm
How much do you want to bet the piggy service staff started pigging out on the cake before everyone got served? Maybe it's just my employees that are hogs. One wedding I ran, we were serving the cake, still maybe 20 guests or so that had not been served cake yet, and a server (I swear he was high) ate an ENTIRE football tray full of cake. That was like 15 pieces of cake! Grrrrr.
kbrown99 Frequent Member
Joined: Feb 09, 2007
Posts: 230
Location: Kemmerer, WY
How much do you want to bet the piggy service staff started pigging out on the cake before everyone got served? Maybe it's just my employees that are hogs. One wedding I ran, we were serving the cake, still maybe 20 guests or so that had not been served cake yet, and a server (I swear he was high) ate an ENTIRE football tray full of cake. That was like 15 pieces of cake! Grrrrr.
I hope you fired him, or at least gave him what for. That is beyond ridiculous. He's messing with your reputation. (I know if I paid for something and there wasn't enough because one of the staff was eating before everyone was served, I would be really upset.)
(Not trying to criticize you. I'm just amazed at the audacity of some people these days.)
mayamia Junior Member
Joined: Oct 04, 2007
Posts: 89
Posted:
Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:50 pm
Relax you made enough cake, what probably happened is that people were getting bigger pieces than what they suppose to get, sometimes people just can't help themselves with a great cake
karapags Regular Member
Joined: Apr 13, 2007
Posts: 168
Location: New Jersey
Birthday: May 21
Posted:
Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:59 pm
Thanks everyone! I feel better knowing you all think I made enough cake. I thought I made plenty but after speaking to the customer I was puzzled and felt bad.
Thanks again,
Kara
FrostinGal Frequent Member
Joined: Jul 07, 2007
Posts: 498
Location: San Diego
Posted:
Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:46 am
Even when I give a cake as a gift, I always explain the size of the servings and the amount of servings you can get with each size - single or double. Always charge the single size 1x2" as a serving it is a paid cake. If they want to pay double price per person so that they can give larger pieces, i.e. the cake is the only food at the party, or the family could give Jethro a run for his money, well, that is their business.
The last wedding cake I did, the bride and the MOB "forgot" to tell me that there were 50 more guests than they had originally planned for. A WEEK before the wedding. I offered a kitchen cake for 40 for next to nothing to make up the difference in servings ordered and servings needed. They still refused.
So I just did the cake like they wanted, and let the caterer know what had transpired so that she could shave off slices of cake for the guests when serving. She was appreciative of the heads-up, plus the fact that there were 80 large chocolate-covered strawberries to go around. I felt bad for laying on the caterer, but I had done all I could do. Even though the cake was done on barter, I was not going to simply give her 30% more servings for free!
You did what you could. Maybe you could explain serving sizes and cutting the cake or give them a handout with that information when ordering and with delivery. That would ensure that your hiney is covered.
tracycakes Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 27, 2007
Posts: 737
Location: North Little Rock, Arkansas
Birthday: Apr 24
Posted:
Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:02 pm
Years ago, before I took any cake classes, I was asked to serve the cake at a wedding. I had never done this before, there were over 300 guests and I had no one to help me! My saving grace was that it wasn't a stacked or tiered cake, each cake was on a stand and there were several satellite cakes. They were probably 10" round cakes and I had no idea how to cut and serve this, especially by myself. I know that I cut slices twice as big as they should have been.
I wish I had had a cutting chart or something to show me how to cut it, at that time. Of course, I later learned how but I didn't know then. I think providing a cutting chart would be helpful to whoever is cutting the cake, in case you get someone like me that was thrown into it.
lilmiz Junior Member
Joined: Apr 21, 2007
Posts: 24
Posted:
Mon Aug 18, 2008 12:10 pm
I was in a wedding party a few years ago (before I even made cakes).
I guess no one was in charge of slicing and serving the Cake.
I noticed a few people (young guys) just digging in and cutting huge pig size pieces for themselves!!!
Another bridesmaid and I swooped in and took over, cut proper sizes, all while the bride was having a good time dancing.
We just barley had enough after the pigs had eatin almost and entire teir!
That memory has stuck with me and I always remeber to tell them sevings are based on a size make sure someone is designated to slice and give the charts!
People can be Pigs
Jayde Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 22, 2007
Posts: 544
Posted:
Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:43 am
HAHA I am laughing as I read this. Cause I have the opposite problem.
A friend's mother asked me to make her daughter's wedding cake. Hey no problem, she wants a very simple design. When I quoted her $650 for a cake to feed 250, you could literally see her eyes bug out of her head. Just like this .
She was like oh that is way too much, and disappeared off my radar for awhile. I happen to see her at a Fourth of July party, she tells me that shes read up on cakes, and that she wants me to make a 4 tier dummy cake, with the top tier real (for the bride and groom to cut), and have kitchen cakes to be served in the back. She proceeds to ask me how much I would charge for that, rather smugly I might add. By this time she thinks she has bested me. So when I did some quick math in my head, I told her that the price would go to $550 if thats what she wanted.
I thought she was going to keel over! I calmly explained to her that I was still using the SAME amount of ingredients, and the SAME amount of icing, PLUS I had to make a cake out of styrofoam as well. I told her that it would be the SAME amount of time, if not more.
She emailed me last week saying that she was only going to order cake for about 150 people. Mind you that they are sending out 300+ invitations (jeez trim the darn guest list if you are looking to save money!). Her reasoning for purposefully not ordering enough cake, was that "People just dont eat cake at weddings anymore, like they used to. So I am figuring that of the 200-250 people that show up, only about 150 will actually eat cake."
I wasnt quite sure how to reply to that, so I havent yet...
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My saving grace was that it wasn't a stacked or tiered cake, each cake was on a stand and there were several satellite cakes. They were probably 10" round cakes and I had no idea how to cut and serve this, especially by myself. I know that I cut slices twice as big as they should have been. 
