So I am transittioning from 100% boxed cakes to doctored mixes/scratch cakes. I want to try out recipes and get free back. I am fairly new to the area so really don't know anyone to get my "friends" to sample. I have sent cake to work with my hubby but they are guys and pretty much eat anything and not sure how helpful there feed back is, lol

I was thinking of baking up a small 6" cake (2 flavors possibly), filling and icing and post in one of my FB groups that I am looking for honest feedback. Would you charge for this to just recoup materials? I was thinking if I could get 5 girls to attend at $2 each person that I could at least cover majority of my materials.

Any feedback welcomed. Just wanting to real feedback on new recipes

I see it as.....you need to make yourself happy. So you make your cake, and you make samples for yourself and then send the rest off to the office to be eaten, so it doesn't go to waste. That way you know what the cake looked and tasted like, whether it was a successful recipe or not and you aren't stuck eating the whole thing.

As for other people, that can make you nuts. You take a cake and want 10 people's opinion and you may get 10 separate opinions, from "eeehhh, to yum!!!". There are cakes that I love that my mother hates, but her friends love. She can't look past what she likes so they are stuck with her taste for her parties. I keep trying to give her something different, but she orders the same white cake with white icing. To her there isn't any other flavor out there. Sad thing is most of her friends love chocolate.

I don't know what others will say about charging for samples, but I eat those costs. I'm subjecting people to experiments, so I wouldn't charge them.

Tami

I think you're asking people for some kind of a "favor" to give you their honest opinion about cakes. I would never charge.

A friend of mine baked 5 vanilla cakes one week, then invited people over to taste and tell her which one they would prefer out of those. Then she did chocolate, and so on. As it was her own research, nobody got charged.

In the professional world people are usually paid for their opinions when doing market research. You probably don't need to pay people if you are looking for more informal testing, but if you want more detailed opinions there are companies that can do everything from handling the entire market research process to helping you put together a feedback form (for a fee of course).

I planning on doing this but sending them with my mom to work and suppling comment cards. This way its more constant between, answering the same questions, and easier for me to read

People shouldn't pay for experiments. I don't think this sounds like a good idea. It sounds like you are being cheap.

Take the cakes to nursing stations at the hospital, or anywhere you think you could get an honest opinion. Maybe another department at your husband's work... like accounting. Stop by your Hospice administrative building or anywhere with volunteers or a non-profit organization. There are many places that may enjoy acting as your test group.