About Me

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Durham, NC, United States
My name is Veronica and I own Southern Gold Leaf Cakes. I opened my home-based business in 2008. I am a licensed and inspected home bakery specializing in custom cakes. Since all cakes are made to order there are no frozen cakes here, only fresh and only home made. I am a self-taught baker but I have a strong art background with years of baking experience. It is the most rewarding feeling in the world when you can apply your skills to do something you love. To see my cake creations and view our yummy menu visit us at www.southerngoldleafcakes.com!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Grocery store cakes are a great bargain!

Really?  I recently saw a segment (via Yahoo.com news feed and now I cannot find it anywhere) but the essence was that you can get a wedding cake just as good as a professional bakery for 10x less cost.  The cake they showed was three tiers, possibly 100 servings, white cake, strawberry "filling" and buttercream frosting, simple piping and details for only $316.  The quoted that a professional bakery would charge$3,300 for the same cake.  Really?

I did some quick math based on my own prices, and since we're guessing how big the cake is, I found that very realistically it can be done for that price (more or less depending on the unknown variables).  How many times have you met a client that talked about a wedding cake that tasted okay or just not good?  It looked great but the quality of the cake versus the beauty of a cake was no where near equal.  Why?  Because that grocery store cake was not made fresh, not even in the last 72 hours in most cases, and mass produced frosting was used; and it wasn't made from scratch.  The designs the bride and groom can choose from are usually very limited as are the flavors of cake and filling they can select.  

One broadcaster said, "How much cake does the bride and groom get to eat anyway?"  Okay, I'll grant you most of the time there isn't much cake eaten by the bride and groom but you'd be surprised how many couples carve out a little time to eat cake while sitting and visiting with their guests.  Now, the flip side of the coin, "How many guests are eating cake?"  Almost all of them!  And while the bride and groom are visiting with these cherished friends and relatives who have come to help them celebrate their special day one thing they might hear about is the wonderful cake, not just how pretty it is but how delicious it is.  You want to see extra glow on the bride's face tell her how awesome her cake tastes.  Most of my clients take extra care to choose flavors that are not just delicious to them but that will also be loved by their guests.  This leads them to choosing multiple flavors but in the end they are thinking as much about their guests as themselves.

So before you rush out to the grocery store to buy your budget cake shop around.  Pick at least three bakery professionals to interview.  Talk about pricing, what's included and do a tasting to see the difference in their product and the local grocer.  

You know one thing they didn't say the grocery store did was the delivery?  Now that's a whole new topic.