A New Home for Truly Custom Cakery,LLC

It's been a very busy time here at Truly Custom Cakery, LLC. So much so that we neglected to keep you up to date on the many exciting changes that are taking place.

In April, we announced that Truly Custom Cakery, LLC and Cakes by Suzy had decided to merge! This was a huge and very exciting step. A little scary for both Suzy and I, but we also both know, that once we transition and overcome the adjustments, we'll make a GREAT team! I'm so very excited to work with such a talented and capable decorator.

For our first collaboration, Suzy and I entered the 7th Annual "Let Them Eat Cake" competition at the Lowes, Philadelphia Hotel. We walked away with 3 of the 5 possible awards and were so happy to share with everyone what amazing possibilities are in store with this merger! We make a GREAT team! Just imagine what we'll be able to accomplish when we work together on a daily basis!

We won Most Artistic, Best Use of Theme, and People's Choice! 

The next change is much more involved and a lot more stressful. With the merger, we needed a common place to work and grow our business. That was NOT in our home kitchens. This is the BIG step. Going from two separate home based cake shops into one, retail, cake boutique. It was a little more challenging than we imagined it would be, but thankfully, we overcame many obstacles and we are in the home stretch!

315 E Street Road, Warminster, PA 18974
215-441-0111
info@trulycustomcakery.com
http://www.trulycustomcakery.com

We hope you enjoy these pictures of our progress so far and that you will make plans to come visit us in our new cake boutique soon. We are so thankful for our wonderful friends, customers, and fans for all of your encouragement, business, and support! Without you, we'd have never made it this far!

Before... We took this photo the day we signed the lease

During... It really does get WORSE before it gets better! It was a MESS!

These photos were taken on the day we passed our final inspections with the Township. We aren't "done" yet, but we are almost there! It's the home stretch and we'll be moving in, decorating, and working out of our new kitchen in the next couple of weeks! 

Stay tuned for some exciting Grand Opening Promotions from Truly Custom Cakery, LLC! We'll be announcing these in the very near future! 

-Stacey

How'd you arrive at that number?

Setting a Budget for your Custom Cake...

Sometimes I get a phone call or an e-mail from a potential client inquiring on a cake. They have very specific ideas about what they want and have the cake designed in their head from top to bottom. They know the colors, accent pieces, sculpted pieces, flavors, and they know what they want to pay.

So when my client calls I have some questions that need answered so we can get down to business.

- What is the date of your event?

- How many servings of cake will you need?

- Do you have a design in mind?

- Do you require delivery?

- What is your budget?
I want to elaborate on this one. Some people think it's a trick question. But it's not. There are many techniques and materials that can be used to get from raw cake and filling to finished piece of edible art. I need to know how much money you want to spend so I can choose which methods to use to get to your finished product. I need to know how much detail to include, if I can use fancier techniques like poured sugar, hand sculpted pieces, or possibly even purchasing special tools for your project. Do I need to employ a carpenter to build a frame for your cake? It's all going to play into your quote and that is why your answer is so important.

So, when you tell me you want a cake to serve 60 people and you want it to defy gravity, you want specific detail pieces (about 30 of them), you want sparkle, you want your guests to go "WOW", and you only want to spend $300.00. I need to know, HOW did you arrive at that number?

Let's get the facts.

Those shops you see on TV have a minimum order for custom cakes. One has a minimum of $1,000. And it doesn't matter if you only want to feed 25 guests. One charges $100.00 just to sit down, taste some cake, and talk to them about your design. No finished cake included in that price. And the per serving cost of a fondant decorated cake usually STARTS at about $8.00 a serving. But more likely will cost you about $12.00 - $14.00 per serving because we already know you want WOW factor.

So let's break it down. 60 servings of cake. WOW FACTOR. Budget of $300.00. That's $5.00 per serving. Which is the base price at my shop for a fondant cake. You know, where we start. (Remember those TV guys start at about $8.00) So HOW did you determine your budget of $300.00?

Did you research what custom cakes cost before you got that number? Or, is it how much you have to spend, it's a number that "sounds good", and really, it's just Cake and Icing! Right?! Let's nip this one in the bud. If it was JUST Cake and Icing, you'd have gone to the Warehouse store and picked up a sheet cake. You don't want cake and icing. You want mouthwatering edible art! There's a difference. And creating a custom sculpted/carved/designed piece of art work, requires talent, experience, time, materials, and skill. And that cost money.

So before you "decide" on your budget. Do a little research. Make sure that your budget makes sense. Make sure you account for what you are asking for. And be honest with your cake designer when they want to know your budget.

You see, you might not be able to afford a Carved 3-D cake of your fiance's dog. BUT you could afford a smaller tiered cake with a sculpted topper that looks like his dog, Rusty. There's a difference of about $300.00 or more in those two cakes. So keep that in mind. If your budget isn't reasonable for what you requested, ask your designer HOW you can still match your theme but get closer to the budget. And don't be offended if they tell you that you can't afford a custom cake. It's okay. I know I can't afford a Mercedes. I just buy the car I can afford. I don't try to tell the Mercedes dealer that he HAS to change the price of the car because I only have $15,000 to spend. He'd laugh at me.

So when you figure out your budget, make sure it is backed by a little research. AND make sure that the shop you choose has a gallery of photos that show they can pull of what you are asking. Don't be disappointed in the end because you didn't research in the beginning.

And have fun with it! Custom Cakes can truly be the centerpiece of your event. And considering it's art that you are paying for, they should be!

Golf Anyone? A week of theme cakes dominated by golf fans!

It's very rare to have a week where the bulk of the themes are the same unless of course it's Holiday Season. However, this past week was filled with golf! In fact, out of 4 cakes, 3 of them included a golf theme. One was a wedding cake, one a grooms cake, and another a Birthday Cake. And they were all for different clients.

The first I'm going to show you is a grooms cake. I'm showing it first because it's a sports themed grooms cake that includes golf. And of course, with the Phillies doing so well this year, it was even sweeter. They won the night I worked on the cake (which must have been because of me. *wink*) No, I didn't watch the game. I am a rare breed. I live in a home that does not follow sports. My husband is into working with his hands, cars, motorcycles, fishing... but not sports. I consider myself a very lucky woman!


STATS: Pound Cake with Homemade Raspberry filling. Iced in Buttercream and covered in fondant. The ball cap is carved out of pound cake. The brim is cardboard covered in fondant. The details are gum paste, royal icing, and edible images.

This next cake is a wedding cake. The topper was purchased by the couple from a Polymer Clay Artist. This was the first time I put figures on a cake that were sculpted but NOT by me. It worked out well as this was a last minute order and the figures had already been made by the time I was brought into the picture.

The couple got married at Ringing Rocks Park in Upper Black Eddy. There is a field of rock as well as waterfalls which makes it a really fascinating destination. If you are local and haven't made a trip there, you should go! And don't forget to bring your hammers! The high iron content in some of the rocks actually makes them ring like bells when hit with a hammer. The kids have a blast. I recommend NOT getting hammers from the dollar store as we lost several hammer heads down in the rocks when they fell off.

They asked that the location of the wedding be tied in with the golf theme. Of course having the topper provided also added inspiration. I decided to use the color pallet of the topper to tie everything together and am really pleased with the outcome.


STATS: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganach for the bottom tier, Vanilla Cake and Raspberry Filling for middle tier, and Chocolate Chip Pound cake with Chocolate Ganache for the top tier. Iced in buttercream and covered in fondant. The waterfall is piping gel, the rocks are fondant, grass is royal icing, and roses are fondant.

This next cake is a Birthday Cake. My client wanted to get a cake for her golf fanatic husband. But instead of just putting him on the cake golfing, wanted to include their two boys. The oldest child enjoys golfing with Daddy and the baby will be out there with them shortly so he got to go along in the golf cart. This was my 2nd golf cart. I often don't like doing cakes a 2nd time because they never turn out the same, but you definitely get better at some things with repetition and this cart turned out so much cleaner and more streamlined than the first. Gotta love that!

STATS: Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mint Buttercream. Iced in Buttercream and covered with fondant. The figures are a mix of fondant and gum paste. The golf cart is also a mix.

The final cake is a Laptop Birthday Cake. The Birthday girl is a fan of iCarly so her mom provided a picture of her wearing an iCarly shirt to be the screen of the laptop. Isn't it such a pretty and very girlie laptop!?

STATS: Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache filling. Iced in Buttercream and covered in fondant. The screen of the laptop is non-edible. The decor on the laptop is piped buttercream.

Happy Caking!

A 5 Cake Weekend! From Sesame Street to the Daytona 500.

This week almost did me in! I bought all my supplies on Monday. Then started making icing, fondant, fillings, and baking on Tuesday. On Wednesday more baking and more fondant making. By Thursday night (or rather Friday morning at 3am) I was almost done with 3 cakes. Friday was the last day of caking and the finishing work went on one cake and the two stacked girlie cakes and the smash cake were finished. We even had time to go out and have dinner and fellowship with some good friends on Friday night. I think I'll need a nap today but all 5 cakes were either delivered or picked up by 11am this morning.

I would call that a very busy but very successful caking week! Enjoy the photos! And yes, there is a repeat cake in this bunch. It's been snowing a lot in Southeastern, PA and too much snow can really put a damper on a little girl's Birthday Party!