Or here's an idea.

Why don't we all just tell any and every bride that we "do not offer dummy cakes". Not available. Not possible. Not ever, for any price. Not cheaper, no matter what those cake-savvy, finger-on-the-pulse-of-the-wedding-industry magazines like Reader's Digest will tell you. And, most especially, NOT NECESSARY.

Tell them instead that they should order the (real) cake that they need to feed the (real) serving number they expect, and pay whatever fits their (real) budget. Why are we catering to them so they can try to fool people who don't really care into believing that they have money to burn that they don't really have?? Umm...BIG eye roll here.

It's like renting a limo to go to your class reunion so no one will hopefully find out that you're actually driving a Toyota (just like the rest of the class).

I think I'll boycott dummies myself, except for display purposes only. Much easier on my pricing matrix, too. If brides are so budget-minded that they want to pay the wee bit less for sheet cakes (and mine aren't MUCH less, partly for that reason), then they can line up the sheet cakes on the wedding table and serve away!

And it's not actually cheaper to do a combo, usually. I had a couple of brides actually price their weddings this way last summer; they both wanted a 3-tiered dummy and then two 12 x 18 sheets. It priced out to be cheaper for them to just buy an actual tiered wedding cake for 200...(naturally and not surprisingly, they both didn't book with me )

whoa...where did this all come from?
I must have had too much caffeine before dinner! lol

"I'll give you a topic! Cake dummies: neither edible nor useful...Discuss!"--Linda Richmond from SNL

I had a bride ask me to make her two styrofoam dummies to give her cake height. I told her I would have to charge her the same as I would for real cake. She was shocked.

I calculated the cost of the larger dummies and they were about the same as my cost for real cake. The cost for fondant and decorations would be the same. The bride wanted me to copy a design from another area bakery, who had quoted her their price of $25 per serving. I was charging her under $5. Then she wanted dummies on top of that, thinking it would save her yet another snall fortune. My total for her 'real' cake came to $350 versus the $2500 should would have had to pay if she'd ordered it from the original cake designer.

For me personally, the most disturbing thing about that article is the assumption that all you have to do is slap some icing on something and it's wedding cake worthy. It minimizes and cheapens what we work so hard to do.

I had a wedding planner ask me last week if I could make a very small wedding cake (for a wedding where there will be 275 guests) and that the bride would be getting a bunch of sheet cakes from Sam's Club to cut in the back and serve to the guests. I turned it down. Next question was the 'dummy' question. I guess you can figure out what my answer was to that one. Today she told me the bride's grandmother ordered 300 cupcakes from Sam's Club in lieu of a cake.

The nerve of those people ordering cupcakes from Sam's Club when they could have had delicious gourmet styrofoam for only $100.

I have to say that if a bride came to me and wanted an elaborate dummy cake and sheet cakes to serve, I would be ecstatic! A dummy cake is so much easier to work with... have you ever been able to cover a real cake in fondant, then turn it over on it's head to smooth the bottom edge?!? Oh, and the smooth, straight edges! I love working with dummies! BUT, I want to qualify this by saying, I would not do it for nothing, they would have to pay for the dummy cake, and I would insist that ALL sheet cakes were purchased from me as well. I would not have my name being used and a generic sheet cake served.

I am also perplexed with the 'take the cake to the kitchen to cut and serve' thing. I'm in Iowa, and after the couple do their first cut and bite, they step aside and someone steps in and starts to cut and serve right there on the spot. I definitely think it must be a regional thing. Or, perhaps it's all about how "full-service" your reception hall is. In other words, if it's the type of place that does the cake serving for you, perhaps they cut in the kitchen, but if you are providing your own 'staff' (usually friends and family pitching in to help out, you do it on the spot. That is a very interesting question! I'd love to know!

My daughter married this summer and I did the cake. After the bride and groom cut it the caterer took it to the kitchen and they cut and plated it in there while dinner was being served. Yep! The cake cutting was before the dinner. This was in central Wisconsin and I've got to say her friends' weddings, my wedding, my friends weddings, relatives too, all in this area over a long span of years, were done the same. However, the cakes I did when we lived in Va. and the ones done here in Tn. ... they've been cut after the dinner, in front of everyone.... so maybe it is a regional thing.

I have a wedding cake for Nov. 4th and the bride was on a budget. She wanted a 3 tier cake with 2 of the tiers dummies (middle tier regular cake). I charged her for designing the dummies and regular per serving on the middle tier and she also ordered 2 sheet cakes for the kitchen and I charged less per serving as I do not have to do any decoration on it and with a delivery fee, the order came out to $643! This is with a simple design. I was very fair with prices. I don't mind not having to hassle with baking, levelling, filling, icing, etc. a real cake when it is easier to do it on a dummy!
I do not however think it would ever cost a bride $100! That is just silly - the decorating part takes as long whether it is real cake or not!

I forgot to mention it is my policy that if a bride is ordering sheet cakes, they MUST order them from me or I will not do the order - it is my name on all this afterall when the guests don't know they are being served sheet cake!

I like what someone said on here once that if are going to order a spendier but very small "actual" wedding cake and then a bunch of cheapo, goopy, single layer costco sheets to serve, they need to tell the caterers who will be serving it:

"YOU get to be the one to decide who gets the delicious almond genoise cake soaked with raspberry soaking syrup and filled with three layers of fresh raspberries and whipped white chocolate ganache...and who gets the el-cheapo goopy sheet cake glob from the back".

...So...special people (just the first 25 of you) in this line. All the rest of you, thanks for the gift, and here's your cake. No complaining or you'll get the styrofoam with icing instead!

Okay, let me age myself here for starters LOL, I remember when the marrying couple asked someone close to them to either cut the cake or help serve the cake. It was an honor for the couple to think so highly of someone. I went to weddings all the time because my Mom was often asked to be at the cake table. Sometimes, the caterers cut the cake and Mom only helped hand out plates and other times, she did it all. Never ever was there a fake cake.

This might have been a Southern thing but that is the way it was done and still is by some. Not as many do this now because caterers are used more regularly but I haven't seen any fake cake yet.

I had a dummy for my wedding b/c my Mom made it and wanted to have it done way ahead of time since we had to travel a couple hours. I think the real problem with the article is the assumption that a dummy cake is not actually a cake, so it does not actually cost anything to make (and no time too I guess). I have no problem with people wanting a dummy and serving sheet cakes, but a 80% discount? I don't think so!

Oh yes, the caterers cut the cake here right in front of everybody. I haven't been to a wedding where the cake was removed to another area for cutting.

Edited to add: Indydebi, I am always impressed with the way the caterers cut that cake with such precision and the way they can disassemble a cake in seconds. I can only dream about being that skilled.

I thought that when you cut into styro foam it lets off gases (bad for the enviroment) into the air and why would someone want a piece of cake that was sitting in the cut corner full of styro foam gas. I will do dummies but the bottom tier is real and I charge just as much as a real cake. I had someone ask for a quote and a very intricate design that would take hours and she wanted the $100 dummy cake so I priced it same as a real cake not worth my time since I couldn't accept other orders and I would be losing income. I haven't heard back.

hmmm, I am thinking here, well let's look at it another way shall we?
What if, just what if guys.
What if, we construct these "dummy" cakes and rent them out for occasions. (charge for wear n tear and take a deposit). We could conceivably make just one or two dummies to offer the clients and get them back in the end maybe with a couple of border parts missing here n there (hence the wear n tear charge). We would get back our dummy, not have to fuss over a grandiose piece of sugar for 4 or 5 days. We'd only have to make the sheet cakes.
Hmmmm that is a thought isn't it. hmmmmm?!?!?!

I don't see what the fuss is about here. If you're charging enough to cover your costs and make whatever profit you want to make - who cares if it's a dummy or not?

People are always going to want options and I don't suppose Prada is bothered about people buying clothes from a supermarket. I don't give a hoot if someone wants to eat a pile of twinkes, a sheet cake or whatever for their wedding. Do you really think that stopping dummies being available is going to increase our business?

well, RENTING an already decorated dummy for $100 is an entirely different prospect................you could rent it a few times, MAYBE. MAYBE. Personally, I would never want a cake that looked like somebody else's. Of course I live in a small town, where it is possible someone at the wedding would have seen the cake before. WEIRD!!
I am thinking out loud and trying to adjust to the whole idea!

regarding the cake being cut in the kitchen. I live in upstate NY and have seen it more than a few times. Generally, it seems, if there is ROOM to cut it in the reception area, they do, but sometimes there is simply not room.........

janicecold
I don't thinkyou are being harsh. I think the thing that set us all off was the price that this magazine quotes. Everyone has individual tastes, and if a fake cake fits your plan better, you should have it. Point is, this magazine makes the customer think that somehow the absence of butter, eggs flour makes for a MUCH MUCH cheaper cake, and we all know that's bunk. The implication that our labor, talent, labor, materials, labor, creativity and LABOR are not worth more than that is INSULTING and propagates ignorance. It's sad, especially in this day of the Food Network and Ace of Cakes.

I can't say I've ever seen a cake taken to the kitchen for plating, either. For me, it costs just as much to buy the large styrofoam as it does to make cake. Sometimes, it works out less expensively!
When someone asks for a dummy cake, I explain this to them. When we break it down, they can get a delicious real wedding cake for less than what I would charge for a dummy.
When the cake is for family or friends, I don't have a problem adding an extra tier, because the materials cost is so minimal. For my daughter's sweet 16, I made twice as much cake as we needed, so that she could have a grand 5-tier confection! Cake or styrofoam, it's the time that costs!
What if we went around telling people that they shouldn't pay for subscriptions to magazines, since the magazines are already rolling in revenue from ads? It's just paper. Paper and ink! You have paper and ink at home!

This is what I'm getting at...for the purpose of I AM NOT DOING WEDDING CAKES! I already had one inquiry about doing a wedding cake for 300 and she wanted one tier a dummy and I was insulted! WhY!? Because I make awesome cake! You wouldn't go to some restaurant and have a very expensive dinner and then expect the dessert to be styrofoam...you know that you're paying for that!

I don't care about the dummy thing, but thinking this is a cheaper version of a cake when you are paying all this other elaborate expenses for the wedding just makes me mad! That is why I am not doing wedding cakes yet! Too much stress on me for something I love doing.

So, I guess we need to all ban together and tell them NO dummy!

HOW HERE THINKS INDYDEBI SHOULD WRITE TO READER'S DIGEST!???? MEEEE!!!

As I have said before, I don't see the big deal about the dummy cakes!! As I read some comments I am actually feeling like I am being scolded for having a fake cake at my wedding. As I have said before I had a fake cake, one due to the fact that cost of a real cake was considerabley alot more and the number two reason, the caterer already provided me with deserts in the charge of the meal and saw no reason to pay for real cake on top of it.

I know that it is not right for people to think that a fake cake should be so cheap, that is far from the truth. I know that there is just as much work to a dummy then a real one. What I am asking you to do is to consider other reasons for these brides requesting for a dummy. Making a dummy cake displays your decorating ability just as much as a real cake and man let me just say that the people on this site are very talanted and I wish I had half as much talent as some of the people on here!! You just might get more orders from other brides when they see your cake decorating abilities.

Maybe I am being abit sensative here but I do find some of the comments harsh towards brides wanting a fake cake.

whatever fits the budget. either way is ok. I don't see what the problem is. It's just like wearing fake or real diamonds as jewelry. Expensive Jewelry retailers are not angry that a lot of people wear fake jewelry that look real and expensive...

You can bet your butt that the jewelery makers would be angry if the wedding magazines started advising brides to make their own or buy at a pawn shop!

Like I've mentioned before - As a florist - wedding magazines are NOT our friend.. florist or caker. The suggestions to have DIY flowers, etc etc.. it's almost like they want brides to cheap out on other aspects of their wedding so they can afford the $7000 gowns that advertise.

I have YET to see a bridal magazine article on how to make your own gown.

To tell you the truth I never even knew that there was such a thing as a "dummy" cake.That is until CC, I always wondered what bakeries did with all the cakes in their windows, did they throw them away, how long can a cake actually stay fresh. I even thought the wedding cakes on display at wal-mart were real. But then again I am a grown women who has to sleep with a blanket pulled up past my neck because I am afraid of vampires, so I might not be the best person to contribute to this discussion.

To tell you the truth I never even knew that there was such a thing as a "dummy" cake.That is until CC, I always wondered what bakeries did with all the cakes in their windows, did they throw them away, how long can a cake actually stay fresh. I even thought the wedding cakes on display at wal-mart were real. But then again I am a grown women who has to sleep with a blanket pulled up past my neck because I am afraid of vampires, so I might not be the best person to contribute to this discussion.

I think what we were all trying to say is...we don't mind the fake cake. It's the fact that the magazines are saying that it is CONSIDERABLY cheaper when it's not that much cheaper! The article quotes a $540 cake to be $100 dummy wise. And we all know that we don't give that significant much of a discount on those!

So sorry if things were sounding harsh. I think we were all just debating the possibilities of why and how things are happening here. It's a good discussion!

My cake was cut in the room right after we cut it ourselves and we were married in Newport News, VA. My cousin just got married in Glen Ellyn, IL, (a surburb of Chicago) and this was the first time I've ever seen them take it to the back to cut it. At the time I thought it was a bit strange because the piece I got looked different than the actual cake (it had fondant on it but my and everyone else's piece had bc. The piece they cut was real and it was the second tier from the top. I mean sometimes you just aren't able to afford the most expensive cake that you would like but you can afford something else that isn't quite real but at the same time doesn't really harm anybody either. The most important aspect is to celebrate the couple's most important day in their lives (well until the children come along) and wish them the very best. It's about love, not whether or not the cake is fake. Celebrate the day!