Hi everyone! Well, obviously I haven’t been posting much lately, but the shower/wedding season is fast approaching, so I expect to be busier (and thus have more new cakes to post) in the upcoming months. This is also a good time for me to mention that if you or someone you know is getting married/having a baby/getting older/retiring, etc. this spring or summer, and you are looking for the perfect cake to compliment your event, please think of yours truly! Speaking of wedding season, that brings me to something I overheard recently.
I was in a restaurant the other day having breakfast, when I overheard two girls talking about their friend’s wedding. Apparently, a lot of things had gone wrong for this poor bride, but what piqued my interest was their talk of the cake. Girl one says,
“Well, I guess she [I infer this to be a decorator, not the bride herself. Who is crazy enough to make their own wedding cake?] made the top of the cake too heavy, because it all collapsed in on itself before dinner. ”
Now, I have a big problem with this. Anyone who signs on for the challenge of making someone’s wedding cake should have at least a basic idea of how to construct a tiered cake. There is more to it than just stacking some cakes on top of one another! If the cake collapsed, it was likely because the proper supports were not used between tiers. There are lots of hidden parts in a tiered cake such as dowels, plastic supports, and cardboard circles to prevent this very thing from happening. Information on how to construct a tiered cake is easy to find online, and for free. So…I’m thinking either there was a major disaster here (and yes, they do happen even to good cake designers) or this person simply did not know what she was doing.
I also overheard girl number one say,
“Yeah [the bride] was pretty upset. I mean, she paid over $400 for this cake, which I think is insane anyways, even if it didn’t collapse. It’s cake!”
You can imagine the restraint it took not to turn around and tell these gals a thing or two about wedding cakes. Basically, the bride in this situation got charged a fairly large sum of money for a cake which fell apart. That’s awful. I feel badly for the bride, because in this case she definitely did not get what she paid for. However, if the bride had gotten a beautiful custom wedding cake, made by an experienced and/or talented baker that looked and tasted wonderful, $400 is not an unreasonable price. The price will depend on the number of servings in the cake, of course, so if she ordered a cake for 150 people, that works out to $2.60 per serving. You can’t buy a slice of cake at Starbucks for that. Of course I’m speculating here, maybe it was a cake for 10 people - in which case, yeah that might be a little pricey. 
I just find it strange that people have no problem spending large, and sometimes very large, sums of money on flowers or table linens for their weddings, but are often so shocked at the price of cakes. “It’s just cake” as an argument doesn’t make any sense to me. Are they “just flowers?” No. They are specific flowers, hand-chosen by your florist, often imported from a great distance, arranged in bouquets with other complimentary flowers…you get the idea.
A wedding cake is no different. When you order a wedding cake you are (or should be!) getting something designed and baked specifically for you, in a flavour and style chosen to compliment both your wedding decor as well as your menu. A wedding cake is, after all, a tasty dessert, and a beautiful showpiece. Next, the amount of time and work that goes into designing the cake, baking it, frosting and decorating it, constructing it, storing and transporting it…well it’s a lot of work! Your decorator needs special equipment, knowledge and training, creativity, and resourcefulness to make sure that cake makes it to your wedding looking and tasting amazing. Sometimes decorators will even offer little extras, such as tasting samples ahead of time before you commit to ordering. All of these factors are what drive the price of a wedding cake.
If you have a set budget in mind, however, be upfront about it. Most decorators will be happy to work within your budget. A beautiful cake doesn’t have to cost $400. You may have to compromise, by, say, going with a less intricate design or smaller cake than you had originally planned, but a beautiful, delicious wedding cake does not have to cost a fortune.
Of course, if the cake falls apart, any money spent is just money down the drain, so make sure to check your potential decorator’s credentials BEFORE you sign on the dotted line. And, if the unthinkable happens, be polite and approach the designer about it as soon as possible after the event. Pictures are a definite necessity if there is damage being reported. Sometimes these things are beyond our control as decorators - for example, your money likely won’t be refunded if you, say, knocked the cake on the floor doing the chicken dance, or sat it in direct sunlight so that the icing melted. But if the problem was genuinely the fault of the person who made the cake, he or she just might be willing to provide at least a partial refund. Because us decorators, we’re mostly good people!
