I have my very first wedding cake client for 175 guests. I have only ever made Twelve cakes ever (two for clients the others were practice) and I am totally clueless about the process. Please let me know what steps you take to ensure your clients satisfaction regarding style, flavor, transportation, set-up, and billing etc. I never really intended to do cakes for money until my self imposed year of practice was finished. I have seen threads here on tastings and the top layer as a gift, but never paid any real attention to them, because I wasn't ready. So I am totally lostany help would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't done a "paid for" wedding cake yet but I do have one for a baby shower cake (80 people) and I'm going to do some practice "run throughs" to make sure I don't have any disasters come up. Plus, I can fine tune things before the real thing comes up.

You might also get some tips from one of the Wilton magazines about wedding cakes. Theres also some good books out too that give good tips you can try on a practice wedding cake.

I'm just a beginner as far as decorating but that's what I would do. Hope it helps. Good luck.

I feel your pain.....I am doing my first paid wedding cake this Saturday! I am a nervous wreck! My top 2 tiers are baked and cooling as I write this, then it is filling, icing and off to the fridge for settling before fondant day on Thursday! I also am doing the grooms cake.

What I did, my bride liked the look of fondant but she didn't like the taste. So, I made up two small cakes and did the viva method on one and mmf on the other. I let her look and taste....she picked the mmf and loved it. So, tastings are recommended...just small cakes if your bride knows what cake flavor she wants. Luckily this little gal didn't want a real fussy cake, which is good for my first time......and I was a little easier on the price due to the fact that there are really no icing flowers, fancy borders and such...I have only been decorating about 2 years and have just this year started selling quite a lot of cakes, birthday and such. But the wedding cakes do make you a bit more nervous as they are higher priced and fancier........you will do just fine.....have faith and forge ahead.

Do you know what kind of cake she wants? Has she shown you any pictures or described what she wants it to look like?

Don't be nervous. Just take deep breaths and think of it as doing a series of smaller cakes than as a huge cake. Read as much as you can about construction, and if you have time do a smaller practice version to build your confidence and "see" how it goes together.

And as always, come here, ask questions, and vent frustrations as they occur -- just don't stay on too long, you have baking to do!!

You'll be fine!

It's easy stuff!! Just remember ONE thing!!! Bring your repair kit with you when setting up!!!! From prior experience you REALLY want to remember that!! I usually have bags of frosting filled with all of the tips I used, Extra frosting in a bowl, napkins or wet ones, an extra smoothing knife and extra flowers in case I'm doing flowers w/the cake. It'll be easy. You'll drive yourself nuts for awhile beforehand but take a friend w/you because if it's a tiered cake you will need the help to put it together. And, if you've forgotten something that person can be the runner for you!!!!!!!! Plus your friends will give the most honest opinions!!! Good luck!!!!!!

I almost forgot! This is important! When transporting the cakes, buy some shelf liners (wal-mart has rolls of them for 97cents) The kind that is like rubber but not. Line your trunk or suface of the vehicle w/these and this will help to prevent the cake boxes from sliding around. To make them extra sturdy, I take masking tape and tape the boxes to the trunk/floor of the vehicle besides and it makes me a little less nervous.

Hi tiptop57,


I just wanted to say congrats on you cake order & Good Luck.

You will do just fine. I was just looking at your photos, why are you even worried? You do GREAT work. Your cakes are AWESOME .


Just don't forget to take pictures. I would love to see what you come up with.

A wedding cake is sometimes easier (I think) than party cakes! If you don't have any experience in stacking cakes, you may want to take a look at a book (cake books at your local cake store or Michaels) and read up on instruction as far as dowels, serving sizes, etc. If the design is basic, and you have previous experience, you can pull it off! Just don't commit to something you "can't" do... nothing worse than getting in over your head.

Whatever you and the bride decide how the cake is going to look, be sure you have everything in writiong, including pricing and her signature. Always collect a deposit!

Do you have a pic of the cake she wants?

I've done only about 6-7 paid wedding cakes, and one HUGE Quienceanera cake. Most important things I always do...

1. Make sure your dowels are cut perfectly even- to me the worst look is when cakes are leaning, and that's something that others notice also. But if you get them straight, you can't fail with a great looking cake, and it's really a very easy thing to do.

2. GET DETAILS from your client- make sure you know EXACTLY what they want so you both know what to expect when you get there and they first see it.

3. I make sure to show them the pans stacked up so they get the idea of the look, and then they know how big or small it will be- that also prevents any surprises when you deliver.

4. Maybe do a cake tasting for them if necessary (only if you're nervous about what you're baking or trying a new recipe).

5. And RELAX!! Every cake I've delivered (even ones I wasn't all that pleased with) were met with much excitement and praise- MEANING that it always looks better to others than yourself cause we tend to only focus on the little mistakes we make.

Wish you lots of luck!!!

HbCakes you are totally right! We are our own worst critics!!

Oh great!! I need this info too. I've done small wedding cakes, but I'm doing my first "big" one - 5 tiers!!!

Just like tiptop57, I've always seen the posts talking about 'first wedding cake HELP!!' but never really paid attention until now.

tiptop57, I would suggest you do what I'm doing now - make sure you have lots of time, sit down at your computer and do a search on this same topic and you'll find pages and pages of good threads with loads of advice from CC members.

Good luck!!

Alacey & HbCakes,
Ditto on that one. Sometimes other people have to bring me back down to earth because I'm so hard on myself. And they always end up liking it.

We just did our 1st wedding cake a few weeks ago - we did as much as we could ahead of time because I have a full-time (very stressful) day job. Also, give yourself way more time to decorate than you normally would. The thing that gave me fits on our wedding cake was icing the top tier - I couldn't get it on right no matter what I did! It was infuriating! But once we got the cake set up and piped the decorations, it looked great. By all means, take everything with you that you might possibly need. And a friend is the most important thing!! I even had to call my son to bring duct tape because we had to tape an extension cord to the floor - I had specifically asked for the cake table to be near an electrical outlet because we had to plug in the fountain, and of course it was nowhere near the cake table! Who would've thought you'd need duct tape to set up a wedding cake?????