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Important considerations about CAKES
With so many choices and options, sometimes important aspects get overlooked. We will keep an ongoing blog here where we address important considerations, common misunderstandings and tips for ordering a wedding or other special event cake. If you have a story about something you learnt during the design of your cake that you think will be helpful send us an e-mail and we can feature it here as well.
Don't forget the Cake Table!
One of the most common oversights at weddings is the cake table! To many this probably sounds surprising, but it's true! We can't tell you how often we've arrived to deliver a cake at a venue and there isn't even a table at all or the staff have no idea where it should go. The cake cutting is one of the most important photo opps during your reception, take the time to carefully think it through. Here's a few tips:
-Review cake table locations while booking your venue. Make sure the size and location of your cake table is marked on your layout.
-Pay attention to the background. If there is an emergency exit with a pretty glowing red EXIT sign above it, chances are it will still be there at your wedding and in perpetuity in your photographs. (true story).
- Don't forget the cake table when styling your decor. It happens, all the time. Flowers, matching decor, candles etc that you have on all of your tables should be included on your cake table.
-Ensure your delivery schedule is marked on your venue contract so they know when to expect your decorator and are prepared in advance. (We usually book a 2-3 hour delivery window prior to your reception)
Cake it or Fake it?
We're greeted with surprise quite frequently when it comes to the matter of fake tiers on wedding cake. So we hope to clarify some facts in this section.
Cake itself neither takes very long to bake, nor is it costly. Neither is styrofoam. When you contract a professional cake decorator, you are paying for just that. We pride ourselves, and are told that we have the best tasting cakes out there, sadly we have to admit that our styrofoam tastes horrible. And we've tried it.
While fake tiers are marginally less expensive than cake, cost is actually not the factor that will bring a bride and groom to choosing fake tiers. The two considerations are: grandeur and constructability. Imagine your a bride that's always dreamed of a spectacular, towering 5 tier cake but only have 75 guests attending your reception. Fake tiers are a good option, they will save a little bit of dough (no pun intended, yes we know there's no dough in cake, it still made me giggle) and have fantastic lines and stability. Some other styles are difficult or nearly impossible to achieve with real cake. Fake tiers can sometimes make wild designs possible or at least more simple to create, saving overall cost.
Last Minute?
Always.
We are asked all the time...."Is it too late to order a cake for Friday?" It's, never too late we say! As we are a full service bakery, we stock all things for almost every cake.
We never pre-bake or freeze, so any order up to about 2-3 days before pickup is welcome. If we have the availability, we'll take it on.
We're creative too, we had an order placed at 2pm on a Friday for pickup at 4pm Saturday and we were happy to accommodate! We pulled baked cakes off the cooling rack for Saturday delivery, decorated it and sent it on it's way. Having time left to re-bake cake for the remaining orders was no problem.
Understanding Cake Sizing
Wedding cake sizing is not always as straight forward as you would think. There are many variables to consider. During your consultaton you will usually discuss sizing options in two ways. Circumference and height and number of servings. At all times when servings are discussed the number is based on the industry standard weddings portion size of 1" x 2" by 2 layers of cake (3"-4").
A wedding cake portion is a fairly small serving and assumes that the catering staff / guests know how to properly cut and serve wedding cake, which in more cases than you'd think isn't the case resulting in far fewer servings than expected.
This should be dscussed early on in the planning process with your catering or serving staff and your cake decorator to ensure there is no dissapointment on the day of.
Options can be designing your wedding cake using desert / party sizing for larger portions or simply discussing proper cutting techniques with the individual responsible at your reception. Also, don't forget to decide if you are keeping the top teir so that you subtract it from number of available servings.
Fake, Fondant or flourishing.
There are many options when it comes down to flowers on your cake. Hand made fondant or gumpaste flowers, fresh flowers and silk flowers are all great options. We will work with your design and incorporate your flowers onto the cake or cake table. Silk flowers should be provided to us prior to your order date. Fresh flowers can be dropped off the day before or delivered to your venue and they will be placed on the cake at the location. Remember to consult with your florist to make sure your flower choices are food safe as many should not come into contact with food products. These types of flowers can still be used in the decoration of the cake table to tie it into your decor.
Flowers can also be placed inside cupcake stands and around cake risers. Consult your wedding planner or decorator to come up with more ways to use your decor in the design of your cake!
When to order?
This is probably the most common question were ever asked... "When do I need to order before?" It relates to the last topic, unfortunately it's an impossible question to answer. The reason is, cake orders are not typically limited by our capacity, especially when it comes to wedding cakes. All wedding cakes over three tiers are currently delivered by Teresa personally. As most wedding cakes are delivered on weekends, particularly Saturdays, delivery schedules usually limit us before capacity does.
A Wedding cake delivery and setup can take up to as much as 2 hours not including travel time, while cupcakes and smaller cakes can be delivered by other staff, most wedding cakes are usually delivered by Teresa.
If we for example, take an order for a 5 Teir wedding cake, delivered to Jasper, our capacity for that Saturday may be 1. However we have accommodated as many as 13 (wedding cakes) in one weekend, plus numerous other small events. The average capacity for wedding cakes on a Saturday is four.