Omy gosh.. I have a customer that wants to taste my cupcakes for her wedding... BUT she wants to order a dozen and a half of 9 different ones.. 2 of each flavor!!! I don't know what in the world to tell her... She is a niece of my good friend but that is an almost impossible order to do.. all of my cupcakes recipes make 2 dozen cupcakes and almost every one of them has a different icing and filling :( HELP! lol I know I should probably just uh no I can't do that but I also don't want to lose the order. Thanks! 

She's nuts. Do you have a few cupcakes in the freezer for her? Tell her the request is unreasonable (in as polite terms as you can), because you would have to make 216 cupcakes in order to get the 18 that she wants, and you have no one to buy the other 198. Also tell her the price of 216 cupcakes.

AHow many cupcakes is she planning on ordering for the wedding? I don't do tastings for orders less than 100 servings. Then I charge $25 for up to 4 flavors. If they book the $25 will be applied toward their order. That way I'm at least covered for my ingredients.

That's really a large request. You can let her know that you only allow X amount of flavors for tastings at this time. You can politely ask her to narrow it down from your list of flavors. I usually allow three clients to choose three flavors. Even if she were to pay you for nicely for the tasting, there's no way you'd want to stress yourself like that. You'll probably still have to freeze or giveaway a lot of cupcakes, even if she narrows it down, but it will definitely be less waste, time and money...

If you have a website, it would be good to explicitly state there a limit of choices for your tastings moving forward....

^ good advice.

It's doubtful that she'd go to the store,  grab 2 cookies out of every box on the shelf, and think that she'd not  have to pay for the whole boxes.  She's being fanciful, and your professional businesslike response will serve you best. 

Thank you everyone :) I know I have to tell her no but just wasn't sure how to do it I guess lol. I will  figure out a polite way  to tell her its just not possible!! I don't have a store front to sell what I would have leftover . I just do this on the weekends and take orders.. nothing is made ahead of time. I almost fell off my chair when I read her request she sent me!! Thanks again.. great advice as always from everyone on Cake Central! 

AI don't think I could sit and taste 9 different flavors. I know what I like, so I'd only want to taste something I've never had. She's crazy!

AI feel that the point of a tasting is so the person can judge your baking skills. If they like the one or two flavors you offer for sample, they can reasonably assume that choosing a flavor they didn't try will be just as good.

AYes, I understand your point, but as you said just tasting a couple should suffice. I would want to taste something more than a chocolate cupcake. I guess my theory is if you can nail a s'mores cupcake, I'll trust your lemon with blueberries will be delicious.

If several flavors won't work for her and this isn't a $2,500 order, I would tell her to use Sprinkles.
 

AI had a bride request several different flavors as well (I think exactly nine!). This was before I had the sense to charge for tastings now I do $25. I told her I'd be happy to make the additional flavors at $10 extra for each additional flavor. She quickly changed her mind and ended up having her aunt make cupcakes for her wedding with canned frosting (but that's a different story).

Whether you charge for tastings or not is irrelevant, for me it's helped weed out customers who aren't really going to end up with a custom cake from anyone. AZ is right, they know what flavors they like or want (or at least have an idea) the entire point is to see if they enjoy your baking not to decide between chocolate and double chocolate.

AYou shouldn't worry about losing an order from a bride with unrealistic expectations, if they're a pain now they'll be ten times worse closer to the day.

If she chooses say three flavors, how are you going to produce those? Still make the 2 dozen? You should probably figure out what you are going to do going forward with tastings if you intend to have them (not everyone does).

to AZCouture... I agree. Actually she knows what my baking taste like because they have ordered my white cupcakes/cake with red raspberry filling and believe it or not that was one of the flavors she requested to taste!! They already know what that taste like because every time they order they always comment that they should try something different but keep ordering the same thing lol. 

I did explain to her that it is impossible for me to do that many flavors and that even offering her a few flavors will have a lot of leftovers as well. She does know that I am a homebaker with a full time job but I dont think she is thinking this out too clearly lol. I told her that would be different if I had a store front and made these everyday for the public to purchase, then I could fill her request. I havent heard back from her yet but it usually takes her quite some time to respond. 

Oh and this is not a $2500 order so if she goes somewhere else I am not losing serious money but I am a single mom so any extra I can bring in does help me out :) T

Always good advice on here :) Thanks so much 

i think she is looking for a 'wedding experience' instead of reviewing the information she already has to make a informed decision. With her Bride Goggles on she probably thinks this is a very reasonable request, as it is for Her Special Day, and thought that it wouldn't hurt to ask.  But just as she can ask, you can say no to the request. 

If you want to give her 'the experience" to book the order, then can you do up variations on your vanilla cake and variations on your frosting/fillings to give her the impression of variety, but with really little product waste?  Same with the chocolate varieties.  

You can always freeze the remaining cupcakes for another tasting in the next couple of weeks, or use the left over frosting and gift them to your kid's school office or teachers lounge.  Or use the extra cupcakes as marketing samples to take to your bank, doctor's office, another wedding vendor or professional (ie wedding planner) who you would like to expose to your product. I know I always have a list five deep of potential clients sources or thank you's that I can drop off a pretty little box of cupcakes to when i have extras.