Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Wedding cake samples/guest supplying decorations
I’ve been asked to make my first wedding cake. It’s a really simple sugarpaste stacked 3 tier (6/8/10″) . Their florist will supply artificial flowers and her mum would like to supply a bride/groom topper and a model of their cat to sit on the top edge of the first tier. No other decoration. I’m worried that when I receive it the model of the cat could be too big to fit – how can I work out how big it needs to be so I can advise?
Also, samples. They want to try 6 flavours. They’d like ganache between layers so is it best to make samples in a square tin rather than as cupcakes? Can’t think how I’d get ganache into cupcakes to give the effect of layers. I’m not planning on doing any more weddings this year so don’t want loads left over!
I’ve been asked to make my first wedding cake. It’s a really simple sugarpaste stacked 3 tier (6/8/10″) . Their florist will supply artificial flowers and her mum would like to supply a bride/groom topper and a model of their cat to sit on the top edge of the first tier. No other decoration. I’m worried that when I receive it the model of the cat could be too big to fit – how can I work out how big it needs to be so I can advise?
Also, samples. They want to try 6 flavours. They’d like ganache between layers so is it best to make samples in a square tin rather than as cupcakes? Can’t think how I’d get ganache into cupcakes to give the effect of layers. I’m not planning on doing any more weddings this year so don’t want loads left over!
Hi Leapyleo
First, congratulations on securing your first wedding cake order. I’ll try and answer the best I can.
Since the mother of the bride is supplying the bride and groom toppers, it may be easier to direct your customer to online cake decorating sites that supply ready-made toppers for the cat too. They will be able to advise the size of the topper required for a 6″ cake. If you would like to gauge the size yourself, take a handful of fondant, form it into a teardrop shape, and place it against either a dummy cake or a cake board to see how it looks. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube which would give you a better idea.
The cake flavours might be a little trickier because you don’t want lots of leftover cake. I think you could get away with minimum waste by making 4″ cakes and cutting them into 1″ x 2″ portions if they are all sponge cakes. For fruit cake, it would be 1″ x 1″ finger. To convert any recipe to the size you want, use the Cakeflix calculator and select the recipe re-calculator here:
I feel it would be sensible for you to make an upfront nonrefundable charge for each flavour sample. This is to protect your outlay in the event of the customer pulling out. If the customer goes ahead with the order, this can be taken off of the final billing. I can’t advise you on how much to charge for samples, however, please take a peek at the following:
https://www.sweetsuccess.uk.com/cake-and-sugarpaste-samples
It should give you a general idea of what to charge for 6 flavours.
I hope these suggestions help and please come back if you need more information. 🙂
