I am so mad I can hardly type! A friend of mine had her friend add me on facebook to see my cakes because she just gott engaged. She said she loved my cakes and wanted to have a tasting.(I work from home and can't pull samples out of thin air)
I agreed but had to put her off a week because I had a wedding last week. I explained that I would have to bake everything fresh and needed a couple of days for that. I asked her if Thursday was good for her......SHE SAID YES!!! Even told me it would be after 5:30.
So I emailed her yesterday to give her directions and confirm a time. She emailed this morning (Thursday) and says she already got a cake and wants to talk to me about cookie favors.
Are you freakin serious??? Yesterday, I baked FOUR cakes for her to sample....FOUR!!!! Do I know someone who can eat them now? Sure, but I would have never baked all this. I am so pissed I can't even think of what to say to her. I should have charged for the tasting and applied it to the cake if she went with me. Man, hindsight!!!!!!
I have learned so much from everybody here at CC, but I have so much more to learn!
Thanks for listening, it helped! 
Sorry to hear the deal fell thru. But at least you didn't have to deal with a Bridezilla ... anyone who asks for a tasting then desides to book elsewhere before giving you a chance just might be one. And at least it only cost (okay, and time) you the cost of a few cakes, and not the entire wedding cake.
OMG - sorry this happened to you. All I can think of is to be straight forward with her. Tell her you baked 4 cakes for her tasting and she changed her mind and did not even notify you. For the cookies you will need to charge her and maybe even increase the fee (that is if you don't want to really work with her) After what she just pulled she may be difficult to work with. HTH. I feel your pain. Good luck and keep us posted.
i'm so sorry that happened to you and you're right about hindsight! i would either send her an invoice for your ingredients and time (word it as nicely as you can so she doesn't get too defensive and thus bettering your chance to get reimbursed) or if she does go with you for the cookies, work the price of your cake tasting in to those. or it could be a separate line item on the cookie invoice. once again, this is a great example of how people think we just magically make cakes appear out of thin air
OMG - sorry this happened to you. All I can think of is to be straight forward with her. Tell her you baked 4 cakes for her tasting and she changed her mind and did not even notify you. For the cookies you will need to charge her and maybe even increase the fee (that is if you don't want to really work with her) After what she just pulled she may be difficult to work with. HTH. I feel your pain. Good luck and keep us posted.
OMG - sorry this happened to you. All I can think of is to be straight forward with her. Tell her you baked 4 cakes for her tasting and she changed her mind and did not even notify you. For the cookies you will need to charge her and maybe even increase the fee (that is if you don't want to really work with her) After what she just pulled she may be difficult to work with. HTH. I feel your pain. Good luck and keep us posted.
OMG - sorry this happened to you. All I can think of is to be straight forward with her. Tell her you baked 4 cakes for her tasting and she changed her mind and did not even notify you. For the cookies you will need to charge her and maybe even increase the fee (that is if you don't want to really work with her) After what she just pulled she may be difficult to work with. HTH. I feel your pain. Good luck and keep us posted.
Sorry. double post. (For some reason, it takes me ages to post here.)
But since I had to edit it anyway, I remembered something to pass along.
Since you've got all that cake baked anyway, why not prepare it as if you were doing a cake sampling, slice it into tast sizes, and freeze the lot! That way, if you get another tasting request, you just need to bring out a couple of pieces of each cake. BUT only add icing to the torting, don't decorate with fondant or anything else. You'd end up spending more money. They are there to taste your cakes, not your fondant.
HTH!
Wait, so some people charge for letting someone do a tasting? I figured people would "bake" the cost of making samples into the overall price of their cakes. It's essentiallly a part of your advertising expense to make cake testers. It definitely stinks that she went with someone else. But what if she tasted the cakes and didn't like them? You'd still be out the time and money. I think that's part of being in the cake business, isn't it? It stinks, but I think it's a risk we take sometimes. We won't always win the customer because they have free will. It's hard to not take it personally when the work you do is so personal, but look at it from a business perspective. You win some and you lose some. Don't let it discourage you. It was her loss.
Take the cookie order and tack in the cost for those cakes!!!!! And make sure she pays upfront. That way it works out.
I agree! Great idea on slicing and freezing for future tastings! So sorry you had to go through this. 
that bites!!! 
i've just started deleting people the other day on facebook, because it was getting to where i didn't recognize a third of the people on there because they were friends of friends who wanted to see my cakes...that's why i started a group for my business...i appreciate the advertisements my friends are doing, but all of the people are from other states,e ven other countries, so in the long run, i'm not going to get business from them...they can join my group "sugarbabies", see my photos, but i'm not wondering who this "friend" is!
Sorry about that bad way this went down. But I would take everyone's advice about filling and freezing. I never even thought of that before!!! But take the cookie order, too and work in the price!
I know it's hard not to be mad..but TRY not to be mad.
There are several things that you could do here. I'd do this though.....Tell her you'd love to do the cookie order.
This is how you do it....
Regular cookie price
+
Time
+
Cake Samples
+
The satisfaction of knowing you got her in the end
I'm so sorry this happened to you but try not to be too mad at the bride. She isn't in this business and doesn't understand the work that went into it. Yes - she should have tasted your cake before picking a vendor but with all the planning involved in a wedding, perhaps she just wanted to cross this off her to do list.
Cake tasting is part of your cost to do business. I think you should determine if you want to charge for tastings or put it into your marketing budget. Also is there a way you can make cupcakes in the future and 1/2 the recipes? Still a lot of time and effort but not as much expense. 4 cakes is alot! One person clearly can't eat them all.
If you do the cookies, definitely include the cost of the cakes!
I'm so sorry this happened to you but try not to be too mad at the bride. She isn't in this business and doesn't understand the work that went into it. Yes - she should have tasted your cake before picking a vendor but with all the planning involved in a wedding, perhaps she just wanted to cross this off her to do list.
Cake tasting is part of your cost to do business. I think you should determine if you want to charge for tastings or put it into your marketing budget. Also is there a way you can make cupcakes in the future and 1/2 the recipes? Still a lot of time and effort but not as much expense. 4 cakes is alot! One person clearly can't eat them all.
If you do the cookies, definitely include the cost of the cakes!
Agreeing with large bold. That's why I schedule them for many couples on one day, only every once in awhile. I get to bake fresh, once. If a couple of people flake out, I'm not out anything. Costs me at the most, $60 to bake/make icings/fondant for a surprisingly large number of people. I couldn't imagine having a tasting at the whim of a customer. No way.
I wouldn't include the cost of the cakes in with the cookies unless you charge for tastings and this b-t-b knew you charged for tastings. Otherwise, send them out to area businesses and write it off as advertising, toss it and write it off as a loss or or or....just make a note of it in your books as to what you did with them.
If she'd showed up and decided not to go with you or decided to go with someone else but showed up anyway to go through the motions, you'd been out of time, and creative juices designing and talking about her cake with her and a whole lot of BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH....
I try to group my tastings together also, if I can. If not, I do as suggested.. I slice mine up. I will usually make cupcakes, that way the bride can slice the cupcake into 4 pieces and be able to try the different fillings with the cake. Then I alway box up a couple for them to take home for the father of the bride and groom to taste !!!!! Plus if I get a call for some cupcakes or if I need a dessert to take somewhere.. I already have some made up...
Freezing is our friend!! Take advantage of it. A lot of people say it is bad and they would never freeze... I don't have a problem with it.. for short times.
P.S.... I also don't charge for my tasting...
This happened to me one time when I was just starting. I baked and decorated a cake for a young couple that seemingly didn't have a clue what they wanted and because it was a very small cake, I was in a time crunch and I know the whole family (bride's parents and sisters), I let them take the cake with them> THEY NEVER EVEN TASTED THE CAKE-it sat on the groom's back seat in his car for two weeks! It was a painful lesson for me to learn! But I learned it. Now I bake and freeze for tastings.
No way would I tack on the price of the cakes IF the bride didn't know about it beforehand! That's sneaky! Yes, she's out the cost and time of the 4 cakes, but how it's been stated freeze and save for next time. If I was the bride, not told there would be a charge for the tasting, and then sent an invoice for the cakes I never tried I would never do business with that baker and I wouldn't pay the bill.
Yes, it sucks what happened, but a big part of our industry is CUSTOMER SERVICE. Good customer service is the best advertising you'll ever get.
Don't charge her for the cakes, charge her for the cookies IF you have already told her their is a fee, otherwise - lesson learned. As Rachie Rache said, "Cake tasting is part of your cost to do business."
sorry to hear of your predicament... right now I am awaiting a cousin of my HS friend to confirm her order of a cake from me. No tasting involved, but I am giving her till Friday to confirm her order or it will be a no-go. I am not making her a cake only to find out that she won't pay for it. In fact, I had a bad feeling with her when I met her. I just didn't trust her.
Everyone is right about freezing the cakes. It would save you time for your next tasting...if not, you have ready made cakes for your next event.
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