So, I've been asked to do a wedding cake for a 'friend of a friend'. She wants to taste a few flavours of cake/filling/frosting so she knows exactly what she wants. I've only ever done stuff for family/friends so they've all tasted my stuff...I wonder how I should do this. Should I fill cupcakes with the fillings or provide her everything seperately so she can taste everything alone or mix/match however she would like?

THanks for any help!

Has she told you roughly what type of cake and fillings she does like?
Hae you mentioned to her what cakes you can and do make?
Or do you make every cake there is?

Because you could make 10 sample cupcakes with 10 different fillings and then she might turn around around and say - i like coconut flavours - yet you have made everything but.

You really need to ask her first before you make any.
Otherwise you are out of pocket by making samples that she might not like.

Remember, she is coming to sample your baking - not for a sit down *cake fest*
Some clients would at you out of house and home....... if allowed.

Bluehue

I don't give my clients a choice, a tasting is to see if they like my way of baking. To quote Indydebi, my lemon cake is the same as the vanilla cake, only it tastes lemon.
I give them 4 types of cake to taste, depending on what I have on hand and about 4-6 fillings/frostings (again what I have on hand). Also it is a small hunk of cake, not anywhere the size of a cupcake. HTH

I'm with Pattycakesnj. I have a couple who do ask for a specific flavor, and I'll do that no problem.

I have a tasting menu.
White, almond white, Strawberry, Lemon, orange, Chocolate, Choc raspberry and choc almond. ALL of that can be made from white and choco batters which I always have.

"I'd like yellow cake to taste."
"I'm sorry, although I offer yellow as a flavor to order, it's not on the tasting menu. Would you like me to repeat the list?"

I give my clients a choice but I limit their choices (you have to or they'll want to try eVerything!)

I give them 4 choices total, so if they pick 2 cakes they get 2 fillings. I bake cupcakes for each sample (4 of each flavor) and put the filling (about 4 Tblsp.) into a piping bag and tie off the end with a rubber band.

That way, they can snip the tip and try each filling with each cake flavor. The cupcakes are topped with a swirl of buttercream.

I also charge $20.00 for the tasting and apply that cost to their final payment on their cake!

I tell my customers they can try a small sample of chocolate or vanilla for free. I give them up to 3 cupcakes of each flavor. If they want anything else, they pay $6.00 - $8.00 per flavor, and they get a 5", undecorated cake. I dont make it look nice at all, either....on purpose. I wouldnt want my cake taken to someone's birthday. Actually, I was thinking of uping that price. The 6-8 bucks covers cost of ingrediants....barely. I have to do this, because there is NO WAY Im going to spend hours out of my day baking all sorts of crazy samples for free. Besides, the least I will make is a half batch, and Id hate to have so much go to waste just sitting in my freezer. I had a customer request 4 samples the other week. It took me 2 hours. I hate tastings.

I'm so glad you posted this. My friend is coming over tomorrow and we're going to talk about her wedding cake. She has absolutely NO idea what she wants. I've never done a tasting before, so I think I'm going to make 2 white cupcakes, 2 chocolate and come up with a couple different fillings, and then have a list of everything I can make.

I don't really want to go through the trouble of making a carrot or blueberry cake just to have her turn around and say that she wants yellow cake with chocolate BC, ya know?

When ever I bake an order I take a small amount of batter and bake a 4 or 6 inch cake, 1 layer and then freeze it. So if I have a tasting, I just cut a hunk out of the cake, put the rest back in the freezer. With this method, I always have cake for a tasting with no bother and time spent baking.