Something potentially amazing has happened, and I need some perspective.

One of my DH's colleagues bought a restaurant space in an old building in our downtown area. It's a pretty cool area - very up-and-coming, and the building is multipurpose. I think the owner of the building is going to turn it into a hotel.

Anyway, the restaurant only just opened and they are only serving "cold" food because the kitchen is under renovation and won't be ready until next winter (this building was built in the 1920's). The cool thing about this building is that it has a ballroom. A ballroom where people could potentially have weddings. Weddings that would be catered by this restaurant. I think you see where I'm going.

To make a long story short, there is a HUGE possibility that I could become the in-house cake designer for this restaurant/wedding venue. This would truly be an amazing opportunity because I have been looking around at commercial kitchen rentals, dreaming and hoping that one day I can afford it... and this just fell into my lap!

My only problem is that I don't have much of a portfolio. I've made a bunch of cakes/cupcakes/cookies, but I'm one of those doofs that usually forgets to take a picture. I have about 5 good cake pictures and tons of sketches. I've thought about just whipping up some dummies and decorating each side differently just to get some semblance of a portfolio together. Is that a harebrained idea?

My head is spinning. I don't want to let this opportunity slip away, but I'm not sure how to prepare. I'm supposed to call this guy tonight to talk about setting up a meeting, and I don't want to say "I forgot to take pictures of my cakes".

I don't know what my question is here, I'm just a little panicked. Panicked and excited.

Decorate a cake dummy plain and take a pic. Add a little bit as you go and take pictures along the way. Flowers...flowers with decorating on one side. Something totally different on the other side. That way you can get more pictures out of 1 cake dummy.
This is a great opportunity and I hope it all works out well for you.

Wow, sounds like a fabulous opportunity - follow it as far as it'll take you!

Yes, lots of dummies. Different BC versions first, then cover with fondant and do the same again. Change the settings and the flowers etc and it'll look like a different cake. Add champagne glasses and cake knives and it'll look like a 'real'wedding.

Make sure you take some yummy samples to that first meeting. Good luck to you!

WOW!!! How cool is that?! I hope it all works out perfectly for you!

I agree.......lots of dummies and photos in varying stages!!!!!!!
I am excited for you!!!
Hope you will keep us informed!!!!!!!

Best wishes!!!

YAY! Good for you - what a wonderful opportunity!

And yes - decorate the heck out of those dummies and take all kinds of pictures. If you need dummies, you can get them cheaply from www.**********.com  and they ship fairly quickly. If you're anywhere near San Antonio there's also a foam company that makes and sells cake dummies. Just tell them what sizes you need.

Where in TX are you? How fun if it's a downtown like McKinney - such a fun place to work and play. We used to live there and I loved the downtown area there. I'm sure there are lots of TX towns like that.

Good luck and keep us posted!

You can re-use the cake dummies too. After you have your pics taken, just run them under hot water to melt the icing off. Then, redecorate.

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity! Best of luck!

Good luck to you...what a wonderful opportunity...I can only wish something like that could happen to me LOL.

I would definitely do as many dummies as possilbe but also, I think sketches speak volumes. They show the versatility of a design. A few good pics that show your workmanship and skill along with some really good sketches showing different possible colour combos or detail options is a very effective visual.

I wish you all the luck and have FUN!!!

WOW! That's awesome! Good for you! I would love for something like that one day. Best of luck to you.

Sounds brilliant.
I wish you all the best of luck,
now get to decorating as many dummies as you can.
Don't rush it though, they have to be the best possible.

And I agree you should take some samples of yummy cake to the meeting.

. . . how exciting . . . have fun with the dummies . . . go crazy . . . build all those cakes you've had dancing around in your head that you've always wanted to do (what better reason could you have than now - to showcase your talents) . . . good luck . . .

If you know some of your past brides, you might be able to get a copy of a photo from them also.

So I spoke with the restaurant owner last night and we set up a meeting. Luckily for me, he will be out of town on business most of next week so we will meet a week from Monday. That gives me two weekends plus the weeknights to work.

When I got home from work yesterday I started covering my dummies in fondant. I've already gotten some pics of "simple" designs - plain white with ribbon borders, but this weekend I'm just going to keep adding different decorations. I think I'll be able to create quite a few cakes by next Monday.

Thank you guys so so much for your encouraging words and ideas! I just love this place! I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Oh, and newmansmom, I'm near Grapevine! How funny! And I use Dallas-Foam for my dummies, too.

Congrats txcupcake, I know you have been wanting this for awhile! You deserve it!