I received an e-mail from a lady wanting a cake for a baby shower to serve 45 people. She said "like a mad hatter cake". Ok, topsy turvy then.

I e-mail her back asking what flavors, fillings, BC or fondant so that I can give a better estimate. She writes back saying the following:

"I am really not a picky person with the flavor. I care more about how it
looks. What's the best deal?"..

How can someone not care about the taste?? For some reason, I have this feeling in my gut that IF I decide to make this cake that either 1) It's someone calling for my prices or 2) She will be impossible with the cake.

What do you all think? I just think that it's strange for someone not to care about the taste of the cake. For that I might as well make a dummy cake then...

Please, I need your advise....thanks

To a certain point I'm not that surprised. Some people don't know that cakes come in flavors other than white and chocolate!

However, if I were you I would 1. suggest the most popular flavors and some favorites, 2. TAKE A DEPOSIT! I normally only take deposit for really big orders, but if you've got a non-refundable deposit you won't have to worry too much about not getting paid.

Also, really, she could just be one of those people that wants a pretty cake.

Since it's just an inquiry at this point, go ahead and price out the cake using basic yellow batter/buttercream filling and some nice decorating details...
She could be a PITA, but then she could be a person who just doesn't care for eating cake (perish the thought!), but knows one is needed for the event

HTH!
Anita

i would ignore her last comment and email her back with the price for the topsy turvey cake done in what ever flavour you want to do it in with what ever icing you would like to do it in.
and also give her some options so you dont loose the order all together. she probably has no idea what a topsy turvey cake will cost and if you only give her the price for it she'll say thats too expensive for what they need and go somewhere else, so i always offer options. that leaves the email open for her to get back with you with more then a sorry.

and if she is only looking to get a price thats ok too. customers do it, we do it here by asking each other, and we also tell others to call bakeries in their area for prices to compare with, so its all the same thing in the end.

OK , well she had mentioned that she had some pictures to show for some ideas. I told her to send them, but no word from her since this morning...

I guess we'll see...

Not that strange. I have two wedding cakes to do this summer and both brides did not want tastings or flavor choice. We went over the flavor choices and they still did not care. Finally I just asked if they had a preference to vanilla or chocolate.

Well...this is a little strange. I checked my e-mails earlier this morning and I get an e-mail from another Baker. A baker that I know of who is friends with some of my friends. She lives like 15 min. away from me. BUT the e-mail was directed to the client and I was copied on. The other baker basically said that she is also working on some quotes for the "three cakes" .

The client had sent me pictures last night of the topsy turvey cakes. My question is, how the heck did I get looped in to this e-mail with the other baker and now what do I do??

She probably sent the email out to both of you, and when the other baker replied she replied to all.

Yeah, it's not that strange that people don't really know or care about the flavor of the cake. If I have to make one more "yellow" cake, I think I'll scream!! Sometimes they look at me like I'm dumb when I ask them what flavor and they're especially confused when I ask about a filling.

She was probably trying to get several estimates at a time. I don't think it's that strange.