Ordering the cake is an important task for any planned event. Whether you're toasting your parents' 40th anniversary with a custom cake, planning for wedding cakes, bidding a co-worker farewell with a theme cake, or celebrating a birthday with awesome birthday cakes, the cake is often the centerpiece of the event and everyone's favorite part of the party. Of course, ordering the perfect cake for your celebration isn't as simple as picking up a sheet cake or speciality at the grocery store.
How do you decide all those delightful little details to make your cake the perfect centerpiece for your planned party or event? Don't worry, we're here to help you make all the important decisions for your cake order details.
1) Choose Your Cake Flavors
Start with your favorite cake and icing flavors. Everyone has a favorite combination. Your choice should depend on two things. First is the preferences of the guest(s)-of-honor. Second is a cake that can be eaten by everyone, or almost everyone. The perfect blend of these two priorities will make a tasty and rewarding cake for the whole party.
As for the icing, buttercream is a delicious default and you can absolutely requests flavored buttercream or a favorite alternative for almost every speciality cake, theme cake or sheet cake available.
2) The Style and Shape of the Cake
Pick your cake color palette and the style of decorations you want to see. Do you want a smooth or textured cake? Elegant or festive? Example cake designs are helpful if you have a vision in mind, or you can work with your baker to come together on a vision for the cake you'd like to order. The shape of your cake will influence both serving and the decoration appearance.
A sheet cake is the easiest to serve to a large group while celebration cakes typically favor multi-layered round cakes. Dome cakes, ring cakes, princess cakes, and stacked cakes are among the popular chosen shapes and styles. While there are so many festive cake and comprehensive cake options available, don't forget the new idea of the cake pop!
3) Set the Cake Budget
Make sure to establish your specialty cake budget up front. You can design a beautiful, affordable, and plentiful cake but an elaborate design can quickly stack on expenses for both materials and prep time. Let your baker know your price range, even for your dream wedding cake or preferred cake, and they will help you create your vision without going overboard into luxury event pricing with fun ideas.
4) Sizing the Cake
When choosing your cake size, there are three things you want to consider:
- Serving Size to Guest List
- Display Cake
- Delicious Cake Leftovers
First, how many people are sharing the cake and how will you divide the slices? Make sure there's enough cake for everyone to have at least one piece of cake and maybe seconds. Backup sheet-cakes or matching smooth-iced cakes can also be used to feed everyone with a modest cake centerpiece.
Second, how much cake do you need on display? Large events often can allot a larger budget and feed a larger number people, so a table-sized cake may be reasonable. For smaller gatherings, consider how you can build a centerpiece around a style of cake sized for your party. Stacked cakes with decorative inner-stacks, for example, are great for small weddings.
Third, ask yourself if you want cake leftovers from the party. Cake freezes and thaws very well and it never hurts to have enough cake that every guest is satisfied with a little left over.
5) Dietary Concerns
Is your party vegan? Does anyone in your party have a gluten allergy, nut allergy, is severely lactose intolerant, or has some other dietary restriction? The ingredients in cake, icing, and decorations could include potential allergens which can easily be excluded with fore-warning. Let your baker know if there are dietary restrictions in making your cake. You can also ask about your options for an extra treat that is safe for one or more dietary restricted guests. This could be colorful cupcakes held in a box for custom cupcake that only these special guests get. Just ad the question if they have custom cupcake requests when asking what they want for their dinner.
6) Timing Your Order
- Time to Event
- Time to Decorate
When should you order your cake? By what time should you ask for it to be ready? The best time to order your cake is one to two weeks ahead. For elaborate cakes and large orders, one to two months is a polite order time, especially for in-demand bakers who may need to plan ahead for your cake prep time and ingredient preferences.
How soon should you have the cake ready before your event? If you have room to store your cake, ask to pick up your cake one or two days before your event. Keep it covered and chilled in the refrigerator so it's fresh for the event. If you don't have safe cake storage, pick it up the day of your event or arrange for it to be delivered.
Ready to order your cake? Head over to our website and check out your online cake ordering options! Want to talk out your cake design first? Contact us and well work with you to create the perfect cake for your event.