Ok ladies, what to do - we are thinking about getting our cake made for various reasons so we are now trying to arrange tastings/consultations etc. Now is it me, or is it a bit weird to go for the consultation, work out the design and then be expected to pay the deposit BEFORE she allows any tasting sessions to be arranged?? It's cake and you want to know it tastes good surely? I mean, you wouldn't pay a deposit on a dress before trying it on! Should we bring this up with her or just hope she's good? Personally we'd be uncomfortable and more than a little worried if we paid the deposit and then discovered that the cake was crap/not to our taste On the other hand, she seems professional, cakes look amazing, she's really nice and good at communicating promptly..... Help! How do we broach this!
Married my wife on 15.08.15
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CommentAuthorElinor Claire
Might be worth asking around a little bit to see if others have the same practice. Ours is being made by friends so I don't know if that's normal or not.
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CommentAuthorFlossie
It does seem a little strange, but then a cake is a cake.. it is probably going to taste nice!! I'd say the design is something you need to be very sure about, more so than the taste.. if you have seen her previous work and are impressed by it then I'd say you have nothing to worry about. Have you read any reviews?? xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
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CommentAuthorCatherineR
Others offer a tasting with the consultation but this lady doesn't until after you've paid the deposit which is to presumably to deter time wasters I'm guessing but cake is very important to us and we want to make sure it's good before loosing money unnecessarily! We'd be putting a lot of money into this after all! We've read the reviews on her website and they all seem great but there's something niggling in case we don't like it :/ cake is cake I guess but hear of horror stories! xx
Married my wife on 15.08.15
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CommentAuthorKatieH
We have found a couple of people who make wedding cakes and one offers a tasting for £15 before you decide to pay a deposit and the other offers a tasting free of charge also before you pay a deposit. At this time you still don't even have to do business with them if you don't want to. Asking for a deposit before you've even tasted the cakes seems very odd and wrong to me. I would look eslewhere xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
Lauren I'm gonna have to disagree with you on the cake is cake comment The lady we are booking a tasting with has about 8- 10 different flavour sponges and fillings. I couldn't believe there were so many. I can not wait to taste some of them xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorCatherineR
Exactly, you are paying enough as it is.. It doesn't cost anything to provide a few small samples if you want to guarantee some business surely?? On the other hand, we are thinking of getting this too if no-one satisfies us! A tad hypocritical but we can buy taster cakes to check but this is a Marks and Sparks cake - 4 tiers, 110 people approx., looks amazing and all the reviews are fantastic with not one bad review! xx
Cake.jpg
Married my wife on 15.08.15
Honeymooned on the Isles of Scilly :)
CommentAuthorCatherineR
edited
Minus fruit.jpg
Without fruit but I think we prefer with!
Married my wife on 15.08.15
Honeymooned on the Isles of Scilly :)
CommentAuthorFlossie
edited
Oh yeah I know there are looooaaaads of things to taste, but they should all be scrummy being made by a professional cake maker and with great reviews from previous customers. I do agree it's odd to ask for the deposit before.. just trying to find another way to look at it.
Catherine, would she not be prepared to make an exception just this once? I understand business is important to her and she doesn't want people messing her about etc. but if you explain to her how keen you are to have her as your cake maker and just let her know your reservations she might be prepared to make an exception..? xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorKatieH
Yes you are right, they should taste scrummy if they are professional :) Cake tasting has to be one of the best parts of planning a wedding lol xx
That cake looks fab! Love it with the fruit. I have heard great reviews about M&S cakes and they are very reasonable too :) xx
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Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
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CommentAuthorCatherineR
You read my mind MrsP, we've emailed her and explained our reservations about that.. At the end of the day, we have a small budget and don't want to make a mistake with what little we have! Until yesterday, I was going to be making the cake as I didn't trust anyone else to make it so I need to to have trust in the person doing it if we do ;) I think if we can find someone that can make something similar to that and at the price etc that we can manage/similar price to this then we'll do it that way as it will be more personalized! Would love the bottom layer to be multi-coloured, then a carrot cake, lemon drizzle and chocolate hopefully :D xx
Married my wife on 15.08.15
Honeymooned on the Isles of Scilly :)
CommentAuthorScottishbride2016
Good luck with cake xx
CommentAuthorKatieH
Sounds really nice. We are thinking of having lemon drizzle in one of our tiers but not sure on the other 2 yet xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorFlossie
Yummy.. I think we are going to have 3 tiers. At the moment I would choose chocolate, victoria sponge and a caramel/fudge one, but got lots of time to taste lots of cakes and change my mind hehe xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorKatieH
When we go for a tasting there will be chocolate orange and red velvet so those 2 are in with a chance lol xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorFlossie
Mmmmm chocolate orange is one of my favourites!! I'm not sure if other people would like it as much as me though.. I always seem to get the families' orange cremes out of Christmas chocolate tins haha xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorMrsCross2be
Seems odd - when we went for a meeting she gave us cake to taste before we paid anything. We opted for chocolate fudge, victoria and lemon (top to bottom), white iced with a purple heart theme. plus she is making models of us for the top £295
CommentAuthorJennK
It does sound strange that she doesn't offer tasting before deposit, seems a bit backwards!
I have a cake making gran who is the local expert at making flowers for wedding cakes so I haven't had to look into cakes too much!
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CommentAuthorKatieH
It's funny, I don't like the orange creams but I love chocolate orange lol xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorCatherineR
Thanks for being so helpful ladies! She emailed back and said this:
"Regarding the Taster session, I totally understand your reason for not wanting to part with your wedding fund and the only reason why I do this - is because the Tasters are baked freshly every time and to the specification of the bridal couple - this is why we book a Design Consultation first, discuss your ideas and wishes for your cake and I will then send you a quote based on what we discussed. Once you had a look at the quote and are happy with it and the service I provide - a refundable deposit of £150 (Wedding 2015) is paid to secure your date and then a Taster session is arranged - where we you sample your chosen cake flavour/s and this also gives us another opportunity to go through the final details - making sure everything is perfect!"
I can understand why to an extent she does it this way so she can narrow the choices down but so many couples aren't going to have a clue about what they want on cakes, still seems backward to me! Anyway, given that the deposit is £150 and then tiers start at £150 per tier minimum, we won't be using her!! xx
Married my wife on 15.08.15
Honeymooned on the Isles of Scilly :)
CommentAuthorBecky1608
Don't blame you!! It's very strange that she does that! Ours made us 6 cupcakes of different flavours and even put them in a box for us to take them away after the consultation! Xxx
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CommentAuthorKatieH
Still sounds backwards to me and she also sounds expensive! There are loads of other suppliers that are a lot more reasonable and who will let you taste first before paying a deposit. xx
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorMrsCross2be
WOW that is expensive and defo backwards!
CommentAuthorbride2b90
A couple of the shops I have been looking at offer £15 for a tasting otherwise free on a booking which I think is a good idea. its not going to cost her more than £5 for a couple of squares of cake surely so charging £15 for a few tasters incase you dont like it shouldn't be too bad. Maybe you could ask if she could offer this as a solution. Worst case scenario is she says no. In my honest opinion I would make sure I was 100% confident in the outcome before my money went down on anything x
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CommentAuthorbarbie86
Personally, I would definitely want a tasting before I even considered =booking, and I also wouldn't be prepared to pay for one.
Cakes vary massively; we tasted over a dozen and only loved 2, and then booked the person who's designs we preferred. Unfortunately she cancelled on us 2 weeks out, but recommended (weirdly) the other lady whose cakes we also loved the taste of (and she was available). As her style wasn't quite what we were after we decided to meet someone else too, who was also available and whose designs were what we wanted. Anyway, she was very reluctant to allow us to taste her cakes before booking, saying that she doesn't usually do that, yada yada yada, but I said we wouldn't book without tasting. Long story short, her cakes were awful; the sponge was really stodgy and just not at all light, and the fillings were stingy to the point you could barely taste them. Yeah, her designs were amazing: but for me, given that you are supposed to, you know, EAT the cake, the taste is most important.
So we met the other lady and OMG, what a difference! She specially baked 4 different flavours for us, and would have baked more had we not changed our appointment time right at the last minute (called at 11am Friday to see if we could see her that evenign rather than 11am Sat), and her cakes were AMAZING!
Bottom line? I think that you've done well not booking this person; any decent baker should be able to let you try their cakes first, and if they don't want you to, alarm bells would ring for me personally.
CommentAuthorKatieH
Met in 2007
Started dating in 2009
Got engaged in 2014
Became Mrs Holme 11.06.16
CommentAuthorCatherineR
You are saying exactly what we were thinking Barbie - why wouldn't you let a prospective couple try your cakes? Why so protective and unwilling? I'm glad it's not just us that was thinking about alarm bells ringing! We've booked a lot of appointments today so when we are down in 2 weeks, we'll go and 'gorge' with cake!
Married my wife on 15.08.15
Honeymooned on the Isles of Scilly :)
CommentAuthorDonnaH39
I wonder if she see's the tasting more as you trying lots of flavours to decide what you want rather then as testing out her cake to see if it tastes nice or not :/
But it is important that you at least know the texture is nice and the moistness is right.... my sister has ordered cakes for her little one's before which have looked stunning but that are dry as anything. Maybe speak to her and say you don't want a tasting as such but just to try a little piece for those reasons, you would if you saw someone at a wedding fayre.
CommentAuthorFlossie
It's a bit odd that the deposit is refundable as well.. it basically just makes a mockery of the whole thing and is a waste of time and effort for all parties involved..!? xx
Happily married
18th June 2016
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CommentAuthorElizabethF49
Who does a refundable deposit? I've never heard of that lol.
Our cake lady we met at 2 wedding fayres her cakes are expensive but exquisite. we tried at the first fayre and they were out of this world I feel in love with 'our cake' but couldn't justify the £700 price tag. At the following wedding fayre we tried more of their cakes and she was given better offers out that day. She remembered us from the week before (which speaks volumes to me) me and my sister are getting married 9 months apart and we bargained with her as it happens my sister loves her cakes too and had her eye on one too. So we both booked her and I got our cake for £500 delivered (still huge amount for a cake but IMO it's worth it). We will finalise the flavours nearer the time.
Another lady we went to a cake session with does it by appt and has so many couples over on that day (she has now started charging £5 for her tasting sessions but takes that off the price of the cake if you book with her)
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CommentAuthorWelshBrideBethan2015
We will be paying deposit but we will have chosen the style so the taste is just deciding what layers we want , I have always known which shop we will use as the cakes are amazing :) However if it was at the stage of no style or not sure if using I have never heard of the deposit before tasting .
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CommentAuthorMrsLJDeaton
She got it the wrong way around you taste the cake or cakes first then do the design and pay the deposit cheeky mare Xxx
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The lady we are booking a tasting with has about 8- 10 different flavour sponges and fillings. I couldn't believe there were so many. I can not wait to taste some of them 
