This is a first for me. I have a customer who order a 3-D boat, but also needs 2 sheet cakes to serve to the guests. Do I decorate the sheet cakes or frost blank?

I frost it plain white with border and that's about it..No design really...

I'd ask the customer what they want. If they are want it decorated then it would be an additional cost.

I usually only do them for weddings, but I offer them iced plain in the same color as the main cake so the guests can't tell them apart. If they want it decorated, I charge for a decorated cake.

For kitchen cakes (I don't do sheet cakes) I flat ice the top and use a tip 21 on the sides in an up and down pattern. FAST.

I trim the bottoms of the kitchen cake to match the trim on the wedding cake. No other decorations. That way when it is plated, it looks like the wedding cake too.

So what's the difference between a kitchen cake and a sheet cake?

If they want some plain, secret cakes in the back room to serve to their "Non-A-List" guests, then they get "plain and ugly". The price was the same from me, so I dont' know that they thought they were saving.

I swear, I think people do the "get a big cake and a couple of sheet cakes on the side" out of habit, without really knowing WHY they are ordering it that way. I mean, in my shop the cost was the same, so they can't use the excuse of saving money ..... because they didnt'.

FH_Cakes: I would ask the customer what they want and if they want the sheets decorated, extra charge for your extra time. Around here a "cake on the side to add servings" gets scored so kitchen help knows how to cut it, then a little detail on every other piece. So in your case, you could use round tips to make a little life preserver, blue dots to look like bubbles, little fish outline, age of the child, just something theme related.

Wow! You ladies really have a thing against sheet cakes! LOL Must be a regional thing. I've never heard of them--or the concept.

Around here, wedding guests assume they will be served sheet cakes and not the display. I have had so many people want a fake cake and sheet cakes because of the cutting diagrams for the tiers. So many have complained that when it comes time to serve the cake, the poor cake cutters have a demanding line of people and have no idea how to take apart the cake to cut (and no desire to look at the instructions) and end up just hacking away at it hoping they get the right amoung of pieces. Sheet cakes can come with fillings just like the display would have, but no one around here really asks for that.

So if I'm getting this right, you would torte and layer 2 sheet cakes so they are 4" tall just like the display cakes? And then just decorate the sides so it matches the display's tiers? Hmmm, that would be something unique to introduce to the area. (That my competition doesn't have. I like being unique.) And it would still be a way to stay away from having to cut the display, which would keep the customers happy.

So for FH_cakes, here's an idea stack the 2 sheet cakes like a kitchen cake, but ice blue to look like water with piped on waves, the put your boat on top. Would certainly give your customer the WOW factor.

Yeah, but if you do all that work decorating the kitchen cake, you should be charging the SAME price as for the display cake. Same decorating/same work/same price.

Whenever I have a bride with the great idea to use an ACTUAL sheet cake, not a kitchen cake, I always remind her, "You'll need to identify the guests for your caterer that are supposed to get the real wedding cake and the guests who are to get the sheet cake. Because there's a big difference in the ways it looks on the plate and ALL your guests are gonna know that some are more special than others."

That usually ends that part of the conversation.

No decoration...just iced. if it's for a wedding, it gets split and filled the same as the main cake....just not decorated. I've never gotten a request for kitchen cakes with a novelty cake. hmmmm...LOL...couldn't ya take all the trimmin's and slap some icing on 'em???? or pile 'em on a tray for back up? LOL! I just imagined the facial expression of someone seeing a pile of scraps on a tray....

1. When a sheet cake gets torted and filled it's a kitchen cake. I'll do those.
2. Sheet cake is slab cake, one tallish layer, aka kids birthday cake. I don't do those.
3. Yes, guests get plenty pissed off about all sorts of things, and you can find lots of websites where they voice their opinion about weddings. Part of my job is to understand receptions from the guests' perspective too.
4. Why not just order a bigger wedding cake? That's my point.

It's more work for me to make separate kitchen cakes than to up the size the tiers a couple of inches. I charge MORE to do kitchen cakes. But I never get taken up on the offer. Wonder why?

for one thing, sometimes the design of the cake doesn't reasonably allow for additional cake (a six tiered cake, depending on the shapes used, and design chosen, a larger cake could mean way the heck too much cake or altering the design somewhat)...there's plenty of reasons kitchen cakes are ordered (just in case everyone shows up...if not, they can be given away whole.)

Right...but if the design includes say hexs and rounds and the top round is a 4", the b-t-b would have to alter the desired design or opt for a honkin' tier on the bottom when actually an 8" kitchen cake would suffice.

or all hexs, petals, teardrops, paisley, oval...

[quote="indydebi"]

Whole round 8" cakes and 10" round cakes can ALSO be given away whole. quote]

huh?

LOL! Did I word that so that those who don't show up can be given away whole? LOL! Yeah, that too! I'ma tell ya now, you're gonna be mightily busy if you plan on correcting my writing skills....I think I may be one who gives ya the eeby jeebies with the use of ...

I get this all the time, "well, we sent out ___ invites. there's several people on some of those. some, i know won't be coming. so, maybe ____." they do their own figuring. I don't know their families and friends and refuse to use the percentages on any of 'em.

Oh, yeah...and sometimes. A week or less, a call comes in, "we just counted all the confirmed invites. we need more cake." not a problem...kitchen cake. done.

[quote="all4cake"]

No, no, no! I read your post as whole leftover sheet cakes can be given away and I was just saying that whole leftover 8" and 10" round tiers can be given away!

Maybe we both need to recharge with more coffee!

LOL! Ooooooooooooh. I see said the blind man. I've not yet made sheet cake for a kitchen cake. I reckon that's why what you said wasn't clickin'. It's all clickin' now though. Especially, the part about more coffee!

Please, forgive me. I wasn't nitpicking. I was just stating that there were reasons that would justify a kitchen cake over adding the servings to the main cake.

Thank you everyone for replying. My situation is a first for me, so I appreciate the feedback. I do alot of 3-D cakes. In this case the Groom was very specific on the design of the boat he wanted, he also requested the sheet cakes. I tried to get him to do it all in one but this was ultimately his decision.

I explained to him the cakes would simply be iced, but after thinking about it further I was unsure if that was the right way to provide the kitchen cake. Thank you again to everyone who chimed in!