I am so glad I found this place! I've spent years being the only person in my circle of friends that's "into cake"... This place is my own personal heaven!

I'm doing a birthday cake for a girlfriend in September. I had a few questions... Are cupcakes or slices better for a tasting? She's never had my cake before, so I thought one was in order.... Also, I was reading the thread about apprenticing... Atlanta has a lot of high end bakeries, but not many of them are into letting a beginner into their kitchen. If anyone has heard different, please let me know!

Thanks!!!

I use mini cupcakes.

About intership I suggest you take a good year playing around build up a portfolio then may be the bakeries will let you in, for a cake tasting I think it looks better if you do little cakes you can decorate them real cute too, but that's just what I would do, this will get you a bump though

I have used mini cupcakes, but I by far like a pan I have that's not really tiny, but it's close. I make several of these in different flavors and such and they seem to go over well.

Good Luck and welcome

Patricia

I would think presentation wise I would do smaller cakes.

I think I saw on Ace of Cakes that a guy had wedged slices from a regular cake and was separating that and using different fillings for each one. That way if you make one cake you can have multiple fillings and it will look as if the cake was just cut. But, they had the wedges cut first and then filling them!

edit : extra post

I personally think slices are better, especially for presentation so they can see the layers of filling too. I have read on CC that some will make cakes specifically for tastings, cut into slices and freeze, then when the tasting comes, decorate different flavors and piece them together to make a cake that has different designs (buttercream vs. fondant, chocolate vs. vanilla, raspberry mousse vs. chocolate....) HTH!

Oh yeah! I also agree with building a portfolio for about a year or so before trying for an apprenticeship. Just take photos of everything you do!

I agree with the others about spending some time building up a portfolio of your work and different techniques. One thought is that the bakery is going to teach you what they want you to do and how they want you to do it. You might consider since you're just starting out getting a job part-time in the grocery store bakery to learn production speed and techniques. Then move on from there. Speed is going to be an asset in the long term.

As for the tasting, since it's a birthday cake and you aren't making $$$ on it, it's not worth doing the tasting IMNSHO..

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I just got done making the sample cakes... and I'm beat! But everything came out great!

Thanks again,

Meg

I just made a WASC sheet cake that I over filled so I would have a full 2" cake when I was done. I had a lot to cut off, so I took my large round cookie cutter and made as many rounds as I could. I then put them together with left over filling and frosted them as mini cakes. I delivered a few of them as treats for the customer when I delivered the cakes. She was thrilled. You could probably cut the rounds when you have enough scrap and freeze them. Then fill and ice in the combination desired. Just an idea.