I have been asked a few times if I do cake tasting (esp. for wedding cakes). I do my business at home and can't afford the expenses of making a variety of cakes for tasting everytime somebody wants to. Any feedback would help. Thanks!
I bake mini-cupcakes ahead of time and freeze them. White and chocolate only. I usually have filling and icing around, and I provide my most popular flavors of those. I tried letting the bride choose 3 cake flavors/3 filling flavors/3 icing flavors, and it just was not practical. Here is a GREAT thread on tastings that will give you lots of ideas!
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-14134-0-days0-orderasc-.html
Kelly gave some good advice and a great link there.
I would suggest only doing them for wedding cakes, or for any cake that will be more than 150 servings, or set a base price of $300 or something. You want to make sure that the time you will be taking for the tasting will be covered, you don't want to do it for a $30-40 cake or you will loose money.
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-343753-six.html+inch+square
Above is another good link on this topic.
Basically, I do 2 small cakes (3x6 square), white cake with 2 different fillings, decorated in a zig-zag with a star tip.
I always have brides ask, "what is the best cake flavor you do, or what is your biggest request?" I do not do tastings much as most of my business is on referral, but when I do, I bake a sheet cake, make petifors out of it and freeze well covered. When I find out how many will be at the tasting, I pull out what I need, split and fill and put in petifors cup papers. I do not give them extra unless they request one for the groom to taste. I only use half of the sheet cake, the other half I make smash cakes out of.
you could always charge for the tasting. $25 that would be subtracted from the order when they book with you. This would cover a lot of the costs.
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