When your bride-groom come in for a tasting, how many flavors/fillings do you allow them to choose? I am in the final strectch of setting up my business, have a lot of the things ironed out. I just need to set some rules and stick to them, this one is a sticky one for me, I don't want to offend anyone but then I don't want to get in the habit of letting the client run the tastings either. Any advice?

when I first started doing tastings, I made a white cake with white icing. Once I had increased capacity and space, I made white, choc, plus 1 add'l flavor of my choosing (usually carrot or red velvet).

I made my regular bC icing, the Hershey choc icing and my Dreamsicle Icing (my BC cream cheese with orange oil flavoring). I use sleeve fillings so always had a variety of these on hand.

Cakes were served "naked" with the icings and fillings just a blop on a 2x2" dish, allowing the bride to mix-n-match the cake, icing and fillings.

One of the things I ask when I'm gathering info for the appointment is how many guests they expect at the reception. If the answer is 50 or less, then they get to taste 1 flavor of cake. If they're expecting up to 75 guests, then 2 flavors of cake. If 100 or more guests then 3 flavors of cake. That's the max I'll do. I'll provide samples of whatever fillings I have on hand, and I only offer one bc and fondant.

I've found that three flavors of cake is about all anyone's palate can reasonably "taste" without getting overwhelmed.

It also cuts down on the "cake party" aspect of the **business** meeting.

I also DO NOT tell them that I'm basing the samples on how many guests. That question just gets lumped in with all the other things I ask, then I say, "For your appointment you get to sample X flavors of cake. You may choose X flavors for the Tasting Menu, which is . . ."

Tasting Menu - I highly rec you do this. I offer 31 flavors of cake but only 9 on the tasting menu. These are all flavors I can make from basic white and basic choc with the addition of extracts and flavor concentrates which I always have on hand.

Indy and Leah, Thank you so much. These are the types of things that I don't want to be blindsided by, I want to be ready with all the info in hand, I am still ironing out my contracts. You both are such an asset to this forum!