Wedding Cake Articles

“Crucial Information You Need to Know Before Choosing a Wedding Cake Baker/Designer”

This article will cover: THE BAKERY.

Ask: How many years have they been in business and how many different owners have operated the bakery in the last 6-10 years?

Stability is the key here. You want to make sure that the cake shop/bakery will be around when the most important day of your life arrives. There are countless stories of brides that didn’t receive their wedding cake for the reception because the bakery or person working out of their home or start-up bakery who was supposed to do the wedding cake closed up because the owner got sick, was not financially strong, or simply couldn’t keep the doors open for various reasons.

Do you really want to take the chance that the bakery or person doing your wedding cake could bail on you? Order your wedding cake from an existing established bakery that has demonstrated their ability to be successful and trustworthy. If they have been in business 6-8 years (80% of all businesses fail within 5 years), you can feel pretty comfortable they will be there when your special day arrives.

In my research, while writing Wedding Cake Secrets Exposed, I uncovered a couple of wedding cake horror stories I will share with you to illustrate my point.

In Los Angeles, a well know gentleman had taken thousands of dollars from brides’ initial and full payments for wedding cakes and then disappeared with their money. The gentlemen’s shop was a media darling so, of course, you never heard about it on the radio, TV, or in the newspapers. The bottom line was that he had only been open three years before he took off in the night with all their money.

Don’t let yourself become a victim by one of these one-person operators. Before you think I am slamming all the talented and honest one-person home based cake decorators, I’m not. However, my research clearly shows most wedding cake disasters are caused by cake designers/decorators working from home. Just make sure you take preventative measures brought up in Wedding Cake Secrets Exposed to keep this from happening to you.

In Omaha, Nebraska, a very well known and decorated award winning veteran of the wedding cake world opened a cake shop and brides flocked to her store to order their dream wedding cakes. Unfortunately, expenses for her business were overwhelming and within 18 months her business closed leaving around 50 brides high and dry with no chance of recovering their hard earned money.

Ask:Do you specialize in cakes or do you provide a full line of bakery products?

Most bakeries are the in-store grocery type; some bakeries are a combination of bakery/restaurant, and others are your full-line donuts, bread, pies, cakes etc. The final group is your specialty cake bakeries that typically only provide all occasion cakes and wedding cakes. Usually, the final group are the real professionals when it comes to creating the best possible wedding cake. If a bakery makes a full-line of products, they are not focused enough on one product line to be great at everything. Wedding cakes are not at the top of their priority list, usually it’s bread. The grocery store and full-line bakeries normally offer the least when it comes to options and variety in wedding cakes. Also, their quality of product is typically below average. Many grocery stores will package their catering service, flowers, and wedding cake. If you have a limited budget, this could be a good option for you. But if you want the most variety and skilled personnel creating your wedding cake along with piece of mind, choose a specialty cake shop.

Ask: Do you have wedding cake information that can be mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to me?

When you initially contact different baker/designers, they all should be able to mail, fax, or e-mail a marketing piece of some sort that gives you details about their wedding cakes. The provided information should be detailed enough so that you can make an informed decision to least understand why you would want to visit them or consider using their services to create your wedding cake.

The Internet is a great tool and more bakeries, specialty cake shops and decorators working from their home are using it to provide photos and information about their artistic wedding cake abilities.

While the Internet is great for research, BEWARE! Anyone can hire a great web designer and copy writer to create a wedding cake store front that makes them look like a million dollars. I caution you to be careful. If their wedding cake marketing ability on the Internet has peaked your interest, make an appointment to see them and make sure they live up to their Internet presence.

Keep in mind, if a baker/designer says they are using the latest techniques to create stunning wedding cakes, shouldn’t they have a stunning wedding cake website as well? It only makes sense that if they claim to be on the leading edge of wedding cake design, they should also be technically up to date on the web. If they don’t…RUN!

Want to make sure your wedding cake looks great, tastes great, shows up on time, and you’re not getting gouged on price? Click now: www.WeddingCakeSecretsExposed.com

There are seven areas that you need to question: 1. The Bakery | 2. Sales staff | 3. Displays/photos | 4. Setup arrangements | 5. Cake types/fillings | 6. Decorator’s expertise | 7. Delivery process.

This article was written by Edward Otto, author of “Wedding Cake Secrets Exposed.” Mr. Otto has owned and operated a multi-million dollar cake bakery since 1980 and operates a strategic marketing firm helping baker/designers/cake decorators dominate their wedding cake markets. Mr. Otto can be contacted at either www.weddingcakesecretsexposed.com or www.makebiggerprofits.com