Do You Give Cutting Guides To Customers?
Business By sugarsugargal Updated 15 Aug 2009 , 8:30pm by jhutch04
...or do you always assume caterers will know how to cut a wedding cake at a function ? ...and what about party cakes....do you advise how to cut/give a printed guide ? just curious as to what to do with regards to this ?!
thanks all ! xx
I give cutting guides to customers who pick up cakes and leave a cutting guide with my other paperwork when delivering. Not only does it illustrate how to cut a cake without it falling over, it explains about the center dowel, how big the pieces should be, how to account for a layer of fondant, etc..
If it's a sculpted cake, I explain what should be removed before cutting, what is cake and what is RKT or choc or whatever. After that, they're on their own. 
I actually print out the Wilton's cutting guide when I make a cake because the customer orders by servings. Depending on how they slice it they may not have enough.
Here's the link:
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/cake-cutting-guides/wedding-cake-cutting-guide.cfm
As a caterer, I hate to say it, but never assume a caterer knows how to cut a wedding cake. 
I've talked to caterers who flat out refuse to cut wedding cakes, because they dont' know how, and caterers who don't know how but they don't KNOW they don't know how. In general, leaving a cutting guide is always a good idea ... because you never know.
What guide other then the wilton are you guys using?
I generally like to include a cutting guide with my cakes. Unless you tell people how to cut, the general tendency is to cut too few pieces from each tier - with the resulting plates full of leftover cake sitting around after the party's over and maybe ending up with too few servings. Maybe caterers ought to know how to cut cakes (or maybe not, if they haven't made the cake themselves), but cake civilians really have no reason to have that in their knowledge base. I think it's only fair!
I find the person who's going to be cutting the cake and tell them about anything specific they should know, like wires in flowers or any weird supports in 3-D cakes. I leave an information sheet with the tier flavors, allergen information (the health dept suggested I do that, it makes sense), and how to cut the cake to get the right number of servings (they probably ignore that and just cut it how they want to, but at least I left it with them!) It also includes a description of how the cake supports work, in case someone's relative is cutting the cake and has no idea of what to do.
do you guys use the same guide for party and weddings... I feel they should be the same. Would anyone like to share their guide
I just tell them 1"X2"X Height of the cake. If they seem really confused when I'm going over the details with them I'll draw a picture of how they should cut it, but for the most part the people at the reception sites around here have cut one or two cakes in their time, so they're going to cut it how they want to, no matter what I tell them to do!
this has all been very helpful and enlightening, thanks !
do you guys use the same guide for party and weddings... I feel they should be the same. Would anyone like to share their guide
yes. They can cut them any size they want, but they bought it and paid for it based on the industry standard size.
KFC analogy here.
I have been including a cutting guide and an instruction sheet for cutting tiered cakes. I would feel bad if a wedding cake I made for say 100 people only ended up feeding 90 because the customer or even the caterer didn't know how to cut the cake properly. Better safe than sorry.
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