Do any of you have an idea book of cakes for potential clients to look through? Do you use all of your own pictures or do you combine them with pictures from magazines that you know you can do? Someone asked me if I had a book and I don't I just have a few pictures. Also I am just starting out, so I don't have a lot of pictures... but looking at cakes in magazines, I know that I can do them as well and would like to offer that as an option. What do you think?

Thanks,

Missa!

I have a book of all my cakes, and I also pull up pictures that I've found online, of other people's cake that I know I can do, to show potential customers. If I had a good photo printer I'd probably make up a book of them also, but I don't.

I think it's the only thing we can do right now, as beginners. I am just starting out also, I've made probably less than 2 dozen cakes total, so I don't have a lot of pictures. Most of mine are from my kids' birthdays or the ones from my classes, so I dont have a lot of variety.

I am careful not to show them any pictures that are super-professional looking though, 'cause I don't want anyone to expect my cake to be as perfect! I try to find pics that look like they're my skill level.

Melissa

I have a book of all the cakes I have made thus far. I also have some pics of cakes that I really liked from the internet that I can use for ideas; of course, I have them marked as being from other sources, and that they are for ideas. I don't like to take credit for work by others, so I make sure people know that I did not create the cakes that they may be looking at. At least, they can go through something and get some ideas. We can then discuss what they want and what my interpretation of the cake might be.

I have Kerry VIncent, titled: Romantic Wedding Cakes.
The styles are very advance. I laso have Colette Peters and Sylvia Weinstock... I love their cakes and style..I woun;d do it any either way.

I have a bunch of different books. I also have got the three issues of here comes the cake, I just love them.

I don't have that many cake pictures of my own cakes but I do show my clients what I've done so far. I have a collection of other books from Wilton, Colette Peter's, and other authors. However, I find Colette Peters cakes a little complicated for my experience so I don't show clients those books. I will if I could do the cakes but I don't want to say I can and the client isn't happy with the final result.

I just got three wedding cake books from ebay this week. my latest is the hardbound colette's wedding cakes for $6.00! I love ebay!

Right now I have just a 4' x 6" folder of photos of my cakes (I haven't done that many either), it is small enough to carry in my purse, but I have them all saved to my computer so that I can make a better "portfolio" if I need to do that in the future.

I love eBay too, and also recently got a couple of books from there...but found better prices on some of them at half.com (which is still part of eBay).

My collection is growing, with the "new" books, some Wilton yearbooks, some older ACD and my subscription, I really like looking through them and dreaming of being able to make cakes like those.

I also collect photos from Google searches, save them to the computer, so I can go back and look at those when I need an idea. Janice

Thanks for asking this question, it is something I've wondered about as a beginner also. I've kept pictures of all of the cakes I have made (not many), along with close-ups of flowers or special detail. I don't see anything wrong with pointing out pics from books or magazines that you feel comfortable with design-wise. I think most customers are looking more for ideas than your skill levels in the pictures. (Am I wrong on that?)

I LOVE the idea of a little 4x6 cake album that I can keep in my purse! I'm working on a biz card design right now, this would be great to show when I hand someone my card. Cool! I'm going to buy a little cheapie book tomorrow! Thanks for sharing that!

By books, what do you all mean? I've been meaning to make one of my own but I'm not sure what to use. Are pictures in a photo album good enough? I'm very much a beginner but I do make cakes for people and I'd like to have something handy with what little work I have done.