Strange restrictions on cake tasting?

[Halo]

I''m not engaged yet, but my FF and I have been researching a lot of the wedding details in advance so we''ll be more likely to get the date, venue and vendors we want

As such, I''ve been looking into the wedding cake and I came across a bakery that has a great range of flavors and cake designs. However, their website states that they charge $20 for a tasting (which will be "refunded" if your order is over $500) and only allow you to try 2 of their "most popular" flavours (they have 11 flavors, only 4 of which they classify as their "most popular"). In addition, if you want to try other flavours, they charge $5 per flavour and only if that flavour is available.

I''m still new to wedding cakes, but this seems incredibly restrictive to me and doesn''t exactly endear me to a bakery when there are so many limitations.

Has anyone else come across a bakery like this? Is this normal?

 

[Halo]

I should note that I guess this particular bakery is a better candidate than the one that has a gallery that features a cake with 5 naked fondant women sitting on a bed. Somehow I don't think that bakery has quite the vibe I'm looking for

And no it's not an erotic bakery, lol. They also make children's cakes (which kind of creeps me out after the "girly" cake) and wedding cakes.

 

[emeraldlover1]

Just an FYI...you may want to hold off looking for cakes until you actually book a venue. Some venues have required vendors, some have recomendations and some actually bake the cake themselves. The cake is probably the last vendor that I would look for. In my case our caterer does cakes that are actually quite good. If we weren''t going to use I would use a bakery here in nyc and most do charge for cake tastings. However some venues charge a plating and cutting fee if you don''t use their cake. If you want to start looking for vendors maybe look for photography, videography, venues etc.

 

[Halo]

We actually have narrowed it down to 2 venues, neither of which provide the cake nor have restrictions on where we can get it from, however both do charge a cutting and plating fee.

We have actually already looked at venues, photographers and such things. I hated looking for them, I found that part so boring, lol. To me, the cake is one of the fun parts

 

[emeraldlover1]

Date: 11/17/2008 6:34:34 AM
Author: Halo
We actually have narrowed it down to 2 venues, neither of which provide the cake nor have restrictions on where we can get it from, however both do charge a cutting and plating fee.

We have actually already looked at venues, photographers and such things. I hated looking for them, I found that part so boring, lol. To me, the cake is one of the fun parts

I hear ya. That stinks about the cutting and plating thing. Anyway, I think charging for a tasting is normal unless you wind up booking that place. You may be able to call ahead and ask them to let you know when the flavors that you want to taste will be available. The naked lady cake is a little weird though.

 

[Halo]

Yeah, the bakery I posted about in the first post charges $20 while the "naked lady" bakery charges $50. I don't know, that seems a bit steep to me, but again, what do I know?

I wonder if it's normal to be so limited on which flavors you can choose? Especially when the first bakery has 11 flavors but force you to choose between their 4 "most popular" flavours, of which you can only taste 2? I see no reason why they can't let people choose 2 out of the 11 flavors. Plus the "popular flavours" are ones I would never want to eat. Blech.

Yes, the naked lady bakery is definitely strange. I'm going to stay (far) away from that one.

 

[emeraldlover1]

Date: 11/17/2008 6:50:57 AM
Author: Halo
Yeah, the bakery I posted about in the first post charges $20 while the ''naked lady'' bakery charges $50. I don''t know, that seems a bit steep to me, but again, what do I know?

I wonder if it''s normal to be so limited on which flavors you can choose? Especially when the first bakery has 11 flavors but force you to choose between their 4 ''most popular'' flavours, of which you can only taste 2? I see no reason why they can''t let people choose 2 out of the 11 flavors. Plus the ''popular flavours'' are ones I would never want to eat. Blech.

Yes, the naked lady bakery is definitely strange. I''m going to stay (far) away from that one.

Depending on how many cakes that bakery actually bakes they might have to bake more cakes just so you can taste the flavors, you know what I mean? So, the cost doesn''t seem unresonable if they are going to have to bake other cakes just so you can taste the flavor. If you know you like that bakery and know what flavors you want to taste I still think you can work something out with them if you call ahead.

I actually never eat the cake at weddings so my fiance and I put that at the bottom of the list of things we care about. We aren''t doing our tasting till March so until then I''m not even going to think about it.

 

[Halo]

Yes, that makes sense. That''s a good idea, I may see if I could call ahead and work something out whereby I could try flavours other than their most popular.

I''m such a cake lover so maybe that''s why I''m taking the wedding cake so seriously, hehe. You''re lucky though, you are engaged and have a concrete date to look forward to, with the tasting and wedding

It could be 4 years before my FF proposes; he has to save up for the ring. But it is worth the wait and if I''m excited about planning now I can only imagine how excited I''ll be once I''m engaged!

 

[emeraldlover1]

Date: 11/17/2008 7:03:09 AM
Author: Halo
Yes, that makes sense. That''s a good idea, I may see if I could call ahead and work something out whereby I could try flavours other than their most popular.

I''m such a cake lover so maybe that''s why I''m taking the wedding cake so seriously, hehe. You''re lucky though, you are engaged and have a concrete date to look forward to, with the tasting and wedding

It could be 4 years before my FF proposes; he has to save up for the ring. But it is worth the wait and if I''m excited about planning now I can only imagine how excited I''ll be once I''m engaged!

I know how you feel. I was on Ps for 2+ years before it happened. I had a good idea of who I wanted to look at for all my vendors so its good to start early. I think it helps take some of the edge off too. I get so busy with work that I was terrifed that I wouldn''t have enough time to get everything done. Well, my wedding is 10 months away and I have a pretty good idea of almost everything. I think I got a little too excited. Oh well. Yeah, its good to have a date however, we got engaged the same weekend that our friends did and they are getting married in June. I am so jealous of that right now. I have so much of the planning done I can''t wait for it to finally get here.

 

[emeraldlover1]

Ps. I found a lot of vendors really easy to work with especially if they wanted our business so I''m sure they could do something for you. It doesn''t hurt to ask.

 

[bee*]

We didn''t have to pay a penny for our cake tasting. We went to three different places and then picked it from those. We tried nearly all the samples that they had. That was definitely D''s favourite part of the planning.

 

[FrekeChild]

I''m guessing that the reason for the cost is so they don''t get completely screwed over and have random people who aren''t seriously considering having them make their wedding cake, eating their product. It''s all about wedding out the browsers. They just want to know that you are serious about it, and the best way to do that is to charge for it.

As for the flavor thing, I''m betting that if you request certain flavors, that they will schedule your visit on a weekend when they are making those specific flavors of cake. Frankly, unless this is a huge operation, and they are making 20 different wedding cakes each weekend, you''re probably going to hear a lot about chocolate, and white or yellow. If you ask for something else, they will most likely have to make it specially for your tasting. Wedding cakes take about 3 days to a week to complete from start to finish (depending on how complex it is) so they aren''t going to be making random flavors for sampling unless they have reason to (cake that''s been frozen doesn''t usually taste very good, and that isn''t a good way to try and sell your product).

So looking at it from their perspective, it makes perfect sense.

Just out of my own curiosity, what cake flavors do they offer anyway?

 

[neatfreak]

If they refund it if you get your cake from them I don't think it's that unreasonable. I don't think it's the norm, but I understand why they do it. I mean you can still taste the cakes you want, they just aren't claiming that they will have them all all the time, which is reasonable IMO.

 

[doodle]

our cake lady made us a mini-tier (as in, small enough that it fit in a takeout box) for us to sample, and we weren''t charged for it. however, her daughter was the coordinator for the catering company we went through, so she knew we were legitimately looking for a wedding cake baker! had she not already known that, i''m not sure what her typical tasting practices would have been.

me personally, i wouldn''t let a naked lady cake scare me off, but my best friend once requested one for his birthday, so maybe i don''t find it as shocking. i was, after all, the one who baked it for him.

 

[Keepingthefaith21]

I don''t think it''s too weird that they have these limitations in place. As many pointed out already, charging for a tasting is a very good way of weeding out people who are looking to taste for fun and those who are very serious.

My second tasting is this Saturday. She creates one "mini sample" which she describes as being similar in size to the "top layer of your wedding cake" and if I wanted any other samples she charges $10 for them but again, they are similar to the top layer of the cake so I can understand why there is a charge. These are not just slices we can take a bite out of - it''s actual cakes. I love the fact that she packages up the cakes for us to take home as I can share the flavors with my family.

My first tasting was free. We were each given 1/2 of a cupcake - one yellow cake with chocolate frosting and one chocolate cake with buttercream frosting along side a sample of their fondant. This would have been acceptable had we been looking for those flavors and hadn''t expressed our explicit rule of absolutely no fondant! I had made it clear to the bakery we were looking to try red velvet and spice cake. Needless to say, we did not go back to this bakery!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Ooo, cake tasting was definitely my favorite part of planning---well, that and the menu tasting.

We were very particular about how the cake tasted (and couldn''t have cared less about how it looked). Our bakery didn''t charge us even when we requested a flavor combination that was not on the normal tasting menu, but I would have understood if they did. We did go multiple times, after all...

When we started the process we had about 4 bakeries we were considering. In order to save time, we just went to all of them and bought cupcakes. Cupcakes are cheap and a good way to judge the quality of the bakery. We didn''t like the flavor/texture of 2 bakeries, but the other 2 we did like. We went ahead and scheduled tastings at those 2 bakeries.

I think this would be a good idea for you--if you''re considering multiple bakeries, it''s much easier to rule them out with a $2 cupcake than a $20 tasting.

 

[Nocturnius]

Here was my experience with our bakeries:

One bakery was actually owned by a friend of my husband. They normally charge a $30 "deposit" for a tasting. Basically, if you didn't book with them, you paid for the tasting (which is fair, honestly, and I'll tell you why in a moment.) If you did book with them, that deposit went toward your order (regardless of the final cake price; there was no "if you spend at least...") They waived the deposit fee for us.
Now, they actually bake a cake for you with the different flavors and fillings you request. We got a 6" tier of chocolate cake body with four different fillings (chocolate ganache, strawberry, cherry, and whipped cream mousse). It doesn't LOOK pretty because they just very thinly ice it so they don't mask the flavors, but the fact of the matter is, they really go the extra mile. If you don't book with them, you still paid for the 6" tier they made just for you, which is fair.

The second bakery didn't charge for a tasting... but you couldn't request flavors. We didn't get to try any chocolate cake body, which made little sense considering that was the flavor we'd already decided on. Add to it they provided five fillings, but one was raspberry and one was coconut mousse... both my husband and I hate raspberry and I'm allergic to coconut. So... we tried white cake body with straberry mousse, marble cake body with chocolate ganache, and white cake body with peanut butter mousse.

...when the flavors we wanted were chocolate cake with cherry filling and chocolate cake with strawberry filling (not mousse.)

So we went with the first baker, and we would have gone with them if they had charged us a $30 deposit, too.

I would weigh your situation, personally. You can see from my experience that it was a choice between paying a bit for a tasting to know what you're getting, or not paying to try a bunch of flavors that were nothing like what you were ordering.

As for your original question, I think it's become a standard to be charged for a tasting, if the baker is going the extra mile to make flavors for you. Keep in mind they can't make those flavors by the slice, they have to use their full ingredients just for the one slice you're trying.

 

[Mediterranean]

Date: 11/17/2008 2:10:06 PM
Author: Nocturnius


As for your original question, I think it''s become a standard to be charged for a tasting, if the baker is going the extra mile to make flavors for you. Keep in mind they can''t make those flavors by the slice, they have to use their full ingredients just for the one slice you''re trying.

That makes sense. I would suppose that they''d either have to give you the whole cake after your tasting, or try and sell it slice-by-slice that day, and hope for the best.

We didn''t have a choice with the cake, the venue has a baker they work with, and I thought that was a negative at first. But the good thing about that is that the baker has contracts with a lot of other venues in town, so they always have every flavor and every filling available during business hours. They make cupcakes out of the cake flavors, and slice the cupcakes in half and add the filling you wanted to the cupcake you wanted before putting the thing on a plate for you. If you got too full, or just plain "caked-out" you could come back another day. As long as you showed them the signed contract from your venue, they didn''t charge. Once you''ve tasted everything, you make an actual appointment for the design "phase."

 

[Elmorton]

When we went for our cake tasting, we sampled just what was in the case that day for slices - and then they brought out a tiny thing of fondant for us to try too when my DH inquired. All of this was free - but it was not really the typical cake tasting that I''ve seen on TV. The fact that I didn''t get to sample every type of cake didn''t bother me in the slightest - we got married in Springfield, Illinois and the baker is pretty much the only french pastry chef in town. I would have stood on my head if that''s what it took to get my cake order in. The only reason I mention this is just to say that I wouldn''t be thrown off if the process isn''t what you think is typical, especially if you''ve had their stuff before or if the bakery has a reputation for being the best in your city. If it''s outstanding, then it''s outstanding I do agree that the cake tasting fee sounds a little crazy, but if you''re getting to eat 5 pieces of cake and they normally charge $4 a slice, then...why not? Bring your FI, a friend, and some coffee!

 

[honey22]

If the bakery you chose specialises in wedding cakes and are very popular, they will be cooking heaps of cakes everyweek and it then doesn''t take much to make a few extra cakes to set aside for tastings. I would be worried using a bakery that is so restrictive - aren''t they doing enough business?

The bakery we used for our engagement party is pretty huge when it comes to weddings etc. They are one of the most popular in Melbourne. We had to wait two weeks for an appointment, and then on the day of our app, we saw 4 other couples having appointments in the 40 minutes we were there. When each couple arrived, they were seated in the adjoining cafe, offered free coffee and given a tasting plate (also free). If the flavour wasn''t available that day, we were happy organise something, they would call back in the next few days to arrange a tasting of our selected flavour. Our cake was perfect, looked fabulous and tasted delicious!!

Seriously, a lot of bakeries actually make extra slab cakes, cut them into tasting portions and them freeze them. It''s not a huge thing. If you are serious about using them, ask to speak to the manager and explain that you wouldn''t be ordering without tasting, maybe you could narrow it down to 2 flavours. Even if you have to pay for it, I wouldn''t order a wedding cake without having a sample.