Hello all. I just had a bride email me about doing a tasting. I do a 6" cake their choice cake, filling and icing. She said that she was having a hard time deciding on a couple combinations for the taste cakes and she wanted to know if she could try all of the cakes, all of the fillings and all of the icings so they could mix and match as they like. All be it she asked what it would cost it not just about money. We're talking about 10 different cakes, 15 or so fillings and 4 icings. For her sake I am going to assume that she didn't mean ALL of the flavors and perhaps she miss spoke, I hope so cause I think I'm about to lose my mind with some of these brides! I wrote back that I would be more than happy to walk her through the combinations she had questions with. Am I being unreasonable because I don't want to go through all of that for her tasting?
let me start out by saying that I have never had the opportunity to provide a tasting session but I have been a bride. From the bride side-I would want a few different tastings. Is there a way you could do a pick 3-maybe with cupcakes and little cups of filling/frosting so she could mix and match?
Just tell her there will be an extra charge even as a bride (never was one) I don't expect hard working people to give their stuff away! I would just assume I would be allowed two cakes and pick what I think I would like best, no you are mean. Tell her how much the extra fee will be and you will see how quickly her mind will change 
You are not too mean. Us one-person operations who do only custom orders can't afford to make an entire recipe of each cake/filling/frosting for a bridal tasting.
I make them white cake, chocolate cake, and two popular kinds of filling. If they like those, they will like the other things I make. Also, this way, I can do multiple tastings in one day with maximum efficiency.
I had a bride email me after a tasting, wanting to sample more cake, and several different fillings and icings. I told her if she wanted an additional tasting it would be $30. She never said another word about it, and mailed her deposit to me the next week, so I guess I wasn't too mean! 
I say have a SMALL selection of cupcakes, icings and fillings.
Kinda long....
I recently did a tasting for a September bride. She wanted a cake with fresh strawberries in the middle. I explained that strawberries are not in season in the fall and it might be difficult to get what she wants. She insisted so I did it. I made her 3 samples, per her request: White Almond with IMBC and fresh strawberries in the middle and fresh strawberry puree filling in between two of the four layers, Dark Chocolate with Chocolate Hazelnut IMBC, and Red Velvet with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing. Each sample cake was half of a 6" round and was covered in white or chocolate fondant. I had another tasting with another bride so I used the other halves for her. It was alot of cake!
I drove 45 minutes to her job and met her there. She treated me to lunch. After lunch, she tasted a bite of each one of the cakes.
She loved them all and said she had to see what her fiance thought of them. Never heard back from her. She is my sister-in-law's boss.
My SIL runs into this gal's mother (who is an excellent pastry chef, but not doing her daughter's wedding cake) and tells my SIL that she tried my cakes and they were fabulous, the best she's tasted and wanted to know if I also did pastries. Still no response.
Last weekend, I went shopping and ran into the bride. She came over to me and greeted me. She apologized for not getting back to me and told me she'd hurt her back, blah blah blah...one of many different excuses. She said her boyfriend loved the cake with the fresh strawberries the best and that's what they really wanted but they also wanted to have a 'back up choice' in case the fresh strawberries weren't available in the fall.
She then asks me if I could make her a White Chocolate cake. I told her I would recommend a white cake with white chocolate IMBC as an option. She said that would be fine. As I turned to leave, she said 'You don't have to bring that next week, it can be after that. I know you're busy with bridal season.' I was clearly annoyed at this point.
I don't like to hound people or ever want them to feel obligated to book me. But I was clearly annoyed that after all this time, this is what she came up with. I am not even sure I want to do it at this point. I mean, if she and her fiance - and her mother, loved the cakes so much, does she really need another sample?
Sometimes people just don't think when they make requests like that. Tastings are great and help with the selections but you have to be reasonable about the amount. You were not mean, you were being professional about it.
Hey cykrivera, just realized you are in Maryland, too! Maybe it's the same person!
Oh, I forgot to mention that she's been to a number of bakeries in the mid-Atlantic area already. I bet you she's put on a few pounds just from all the tastings under her belt. Now THAT's being mean...LOL.
[quote="kelleym"]You are not too mean. Us one-person operations who do only custom orders can't afford to make an entire recipe of each cake/filling/frosting for a bridal tasting./quote]
Exactly. When someone does a tasting I have to make the cake, fillings and icing for that order. I charge $5 each cake with no complaints from the bride, they get it back if they sign with me anyway.
Thanks for the replies. We'll see what the bride has to say if she contacts me again.
Gingerela- What a pain! Sometimes I think that people don't realize that we have lives and other customers!
Kinda long....
I recently did a tasting for a September bride. She wanted a cake with fresh strawberries in the middle. I explained that strawberries are not in season in the fall and it might be difficult to get what she wants. She insisted so I did it. I made her 3 samples, per her request: White Almond with IMBC and fresh strawberries in the middle and fresh strawberry puree filling in between two of the four layers, Dark Chocolate with Chocolate Hazelnut IMBC, and Red Velvet with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing. Each sample cake was half of a 6" round and was covered in white or chocolate fondant. I had another tasting with another bride so I used the other halves for her. It was alot of cake!
I drove 45 minutes to her job and met her there. She treated me to lunch. After lunch, she tasted a bite of each one of the cakes.
She loved them all and said she had to see what her fiance thought of them. Never heard back from her. She is my sister-in-law's boss.
My SIL runs into this gal's mother (who is an excellent pastry chef, but not doing her daughter's wedding cake) and tells my SIL that she tried my cakes and they were fabulous, the best she's tasted and wanted to know if I also did pastries. Still no response.
Last weekend, I went shopping and ran into the bride. She came over to me and greeted me. She apologized for not getting back to me and told me she'd hurt her back, blah blah blah...one of many different excuses. She said her boyfriend loved the cake with the fresh strawberries the best and that's what they really wanted but they also wanted to have a 'back up choice' in case the fresh strawberries weren't available in the fall.
She then asks me if I could make her a White Chocolate cake. I told her I would recommend a white cake with white chocolate IMBC as an option. She said that would be fine. As I turned to leave, she said 'You don't have to bring that next week, it can be after that. I know you're busy with bridal season.' I was clearly annoyed at this point.
I don't like to hound people or ever want them to feel obligated to book me. But I was clearly annoyed that after all this time, this is what she came up with. I am not even sure I want to do it at this point. I mean, if she and her fiance - and her mother, loved the cakes so much, does she really need another sample?
I think they just like eating delicious "free" cake. And, let's not forget that gas is pushing $3.50/gal. So, running around buying ingredients and driving to appointments can be costly.
What they are not realizing is that most of us are not mass-producing bakeries, and we don't have 35 different flavored cakes just sitting the freezer waiting for a bride to come in and chow-down on them. I get the same thing as a caterer ..... I'm not a restaurant with a kitchen full of cooked foods that I can scoop up a 1/2 cup of this and a couple pieces of that for them. Each dish has to be purchased and prepared just for them, just like cakes have to be prepared just for the sampling.
No, I would not make "all" of the flavors. If she has a couple she's interested in, it's not unreasonable to try to work those into the sampling, but this isn't a smorgasbord.
I don't even do wedding cakes and I got asked for a tasting!
I was featured in our paper and I received an email from a wedding organiser wanting some of my business cards.
I told her I don't do wedding cakes but she said I organise hens nights so please send them.
I thought okay, and she was going to send some of hers (reciprical advertising..no probs there)
Then she emails me asking if her and her partner can come round for a tasting so she can recommend my cakes.
I said No. I don't offer tastings.
I haven't asked her to organise a wedding free for my friends to test out her services.
People just expect that because we offer cakes as a service that we can afford tasting as bakeries do. 
Sorry, but not for birthday cakes love! If I did wedding cakes maybe, but otherwise if they want to taste it, the have to buy it first.
Now I'm mean!
Well, I haven't been on the bakers side of wedding tastings, but I have been a bride (um, er, twice 
) and when I spent over $500 on my cake (back in 1999) I did a tasting and received a pre-cut serving size in three of their most popular flavors. My hubby to be and I even had to share the one serving of each. They tasted great, I went ahead with my order, and never once thought another thing about it.
These bridezillas sound absolutely crazy and demanding to me... geez, 6" sample cakes - that is a ton!!! They are taking a free ride on the how much can I get for nothing train. Charge them!!!!
I had some customers asking for a tasting for bday cakes, all but one got a sample. This lady was badly burned by a local bakery, so much so, that she had to throw the cake away last year, cause noone would eat it. But she offered to pay for the tasting (she got muffins free of charge in the end) and was willing to wait until I had a cake coming up in her flavour. Got the order (big one plus cookies) I don't do weddings, but ingredients are so expensive here , that even then, the customers are welcome to pay for tastings, nothing is free here in China
One thing you must remember when dealing with Brides is that they are all about them, and their day. They have an agenda, and an ideal of what they want their special day to be. Which often means that they have given no thought as to what it means for the people that they are employing to do things for them for that day. It doesn't make them any less annoying knowing that going in, but if you remember it, it will make it easier.
Also, while I agree that we have to be careful not to be taken advantage of, we also need to think in terms of what we want those that the bride may talk about us to, to think of us, and that potentially some of the those may become future customers if we do things right. Or they may tell a friend about our work and recommend us to them.
It's alot to factor in, but well worth it in the end. Just don't over compensate and get taken advantage of. Be kind and accomodating, but also firm and clear. Just like parenting. They will respect you for it in the end.
And no you weren't mean. We have to do what we have to do!
Lisa
Although i don't do wedding cakes yet to sell or tastings I would think you could do cupcakes or even mini cupcakes and freeze them for tastings of your different cakes. You could do several of your flavors and then have the icings too on hand. I would also charge for the tastings. I mean can you go into Walmart and get a tasting sample of their cakes ...NO and especially not for free.....so why should you be any different. Charge for your tastings. I don't think 5 or 10 dollars would be out of line for 3 or 4 different cake flavors in mini muffing pans.
I was sharing this topic with my hubby, who works at a car dealership. He told me that his car salesmen have told him "You have to have the ability to know, in the first few minutes, whether you are dealing with a serious buyer or not....." A salesman cannot afford to spend 2 hours with someone who has no intention of buying a car or someone who is just out to drive new cars all day. Their time is valuable and they have to be able to weed out the serious from the window shoppers.
So do we. I would think that someone who wants to sample "all" flavors" is just looking for the (as so properly described above) dessert buffet! If they were serious, they would have a couple of flavors in mind that they wanted to check out. Good lord, how long do they think it will take to sample 10 or 15 or 35 different flavors of cake????!!!!! It is my impression that this type of person would also be very hard to please, regardless.
In an inquiry that came in to me once, the bride had indicated, in detail, what she was looking for in her buffet, including "....some kick-a$$ apple pie!" Sorry, but that description raised a flag with me as someone who was going to be difficult to please and hard to work with. My time is more valuable than that and I hit the good 'ole delete key on that one!
A 6th sense on how to weed out these types really needs to be developed or we will spend way too much time with the wrong clientele.
As for this bride, I would ask her to narrow it down to 3 combos. But then you could use this as an opportunity to start making samples of everything for the future. Make and freeze cupcakes of all your flavors, a bag of each icing and filling. Then, in the future, ask your prospective brides to choose 3-5 combinations and you can just thaw them and whip them up. It's great customer service, which means referrals, which means $$$$.
I know it's a lot of work, but might be worth it.
I let them choose 2 flavors and 2 fillings. If they want more it's $10/extra flavor and filling.
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