My new attached-to-my-house bakery is now inspected, approved and licensed; woo hoo!! So far I've done a couple of birthday cakes and some petit fours, but that's it. I'll likely do a cake or two for the upcoming ICES convention, but that's months away. Due to "technical difficulties beyond my control" there are no photos of the best cakes that I've done. The remaining photos are either of cakes I'm now ashamed of, or are very poor quality photography.
How do I promote myself? To say "sure, I can do that" to a bride just isn't enough. (That is, if I had a bride to say it to 
) I have someone who will help me build a website, but again cake photos are an integral part of that. Should I just waste ingredients by doing cake dummies, photographing, then tear it off and do another? I could do small 4/6/8 three-tier cakes and photograph those since the size isn't apparent in the picture, but that's still quite a bit of cake and my family can't take any more. My pregnant daughter-in-law currently is mad as h*** and not speaking to me because I wanted to make a baby cake for her! Seriously.
All ideas are most welcome. TIA
I wouldn't look at it as wasting ingredients, but more like investing in your new business...congratulations by the way!
You definitely should have proof of the caliber of work you're capable of. Just think of it this way, would you be comfortable purchasing a product (of that price) that you've never seen?
I don't mean to be rude, but what does your pregnant DIL have to do with you getting pics?
Yes, you're going to have to do some dummy work to take photos. Get a few pieces of foam if you don't want to buy actual dummies, and think about it before you get started. See how many cakes you can get out of one dummy before having to break it down and re-do it. In other words, start with something very plain, smooth surface, and perhaps some elegant flowers, then take those flowers off and add some piping or something, then add other decor to the piping... taking pictures at every new 'phase' of the cake. You can also rearrange dummy tiers to make it look different, using different pillars and separators, etc. If you want to see some examples of what I mean, PM me and I can show you!
HEY!! I looked GOOD in that fairy outfit! Hehehe
And not to put words in her mouth, but what I understood it to mean was that her family does NOT want any more cake. That her DIL didn't even want one for her shower. So she doesn't want to bake a bunch of cakes for pix and have people mad because they're sick of eating it!
OF COURSE>>>a GREAT way to deal with that... definitely do the dummies too, but also make a few real cakes and decorate them in different ways, then give them to local agencies as sort of gifts. Go to your local fire department, tell them who you are, GIVE THEM A BIZ CARD so they know you're not a loon, then tell them that you've been working on your skills and wanted to donate this cake to the hardworking men and women in their unit. Guaranteed they will think you are awesome! And, who knows, the next time they need a cake, they may call you!
I definitely agree with you Melvira! I love the idea about thinking about how you can do one dummy and change it to get several different cakes out.
I was also thinking of doing some real cakes and/or cupcakes, if you are going to offer them, and take them around to different places. If there is a technique you want to practice or try, it would be a great way to try it and then donate to the fire department or a local women's shelter or a Ronald McDonald house if there is one nearby.
I took my dummies and decorated one side of them and made tiered cakes. I only did the fronts and sides and THEN I spun it around and took off a tier and designed a whole other cake! 
No one will ever know! LOL
One of the things that I said when I was starting out (on my FAQ page) was
" Q Why aren't there as many cakes on your site as other bakers? Does this mean you aren't as good?
A. It simply means that we haven't had the opportunity to please as many customers yet. We will update our photo galleries as our orders increase."
This helped them to understand that while we may be new, we were still good.
And actually you only have to decorate the front half of the dummy cake, because that's all that shows in the pictures. When I was starting out, I did exactly what what suggested above. Did a design in 6/8/10. Placed them on a floating stand with some silk flowers took a pic. Then stacked two put in pillars, put flowers in and took a picture. Stacked all three changed out the flowers and took a picture. Added swiss pots, took a pictue. Added swirls in color, took a picture.
You can get a lot of mileage out of three tiers before you have to scrape down.
Melvira and Leahs--those are wonderful suggestions, and I can see how I could especially get quite a bit of mileage out of a square cake. And yes, it was that the DIL doesn't want any more cake. Now I just need to get to work--and also improve my photography skills!
Great suggestions Melvira and Leahs!
Over my Christmas break from work I made a cake (in my photos), it was just a 6" round, but I only had enough decorations for the top, front and some for the sides. Snapped a picture of it and you can't even tell that only half of the cake is decorated! 
Who in their right mind would get mad about having cake? That's just silly! I think my DH gets mad when he doesn't have ENOUGH cake. Oh, well, all the above suggestions sound awesome. I never thought about giving away the cake to a local charity or organization...
those are great suggestions!! i agree that you could do cupcakes or such and take to some business or say you're city hall, fire, police or hospital or senior's home (speaking for an employee of such home we definately appreciate homemade goodies) the side benefit is you're getting your name out there and they all have bdays, anniversaries, promotions even for fundraising events they'll think of you first!! and they've already tasted your product (just don't go crazy or people might be expecting freebies all the time-limited time only) good luck and i can't wait to see more from you
You can also use it as a double opportunity to bake and decorate. Make the cake, decorate, take pictures, bring the cake and some business cards to a venue and drop it off. Advertising and pictures all in one.
You can also use it as a double opportunity to bake and decorate. Make the cake, decorate, take pictures, bring the cake and some business cards to a venue and drop it off. Advertising and pictures all in one.
I took my dummies and decorated one side of them and made tiered cakes. I only did the fronts and sides and THEN I spun it around and took off a tier and designed a whole other cake! No one will ever know! LOL
This is so funny. My partner does the same thing. lol
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%