4 Tips For Ordering Bakery
Cookies, cupcakes, muffins and cake. At first thought, selecting bakery to bring to a work event, party, wedding etc seems like the obvious choice – Quick, and easy to think about. Like offering to bring drinks or cups – but there is much MUCH more into ordering a bakery item than you’d think! Here are the most important things to think about before ordering or placing an order.
1. What is the event/ theme?
It seems simple to think about but make sure you go in to your ordering-mode prepared. Of course no one would want to have jungle themed happy birthday cupcakes for a wedding or a classy party. A party around New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving or New Years is an easy enough thought in terms of theme. But whenever you’re planning on placing any order – make sure you have thoughts on colors or flavors when preparing your event. If your order is for a wedding an important thing to think about is making sure your color scheme matches and even that your flavors aren’t going to clash.
2. What kind of bakery are you looking for?
If you are planning any kind of event, are you planning on having a mixture of bakery or just 1 thing? Are you looking for standard cookies, fancy and classy macarons, cute mini cupcakes, standard sized cupcakes, or a large cake? Do you want something with really sweet frosting, or more of a silky light-sweet frosting? Making sure you know your audience and what is going to be easy for people to pick up, place on their plate and potentially walk around with over a fancy sit-down meal could be a large factor in what you are looking to have. Flavors and colors can come in many different sizes and vessels so don’t feel obligated that you have to stick with a single vessel for a flavor that you love. Lets take Red Velvet for example – this can be easily translated from a full sized, multi-tiered cake into mini cupcakes, into cookies and macarons. What also may be important is how much time/effort are you putting into people getting a piece of your desserts? Take into consideration that if you have a single cake, you have to be prepared to have way to cut the cake, cutlery to eat the cake, napkins, additional plates – and the time to cut the cake. Are people going to be waiting around for their single slice like that scene from Office Space? Make sure you have something to fill up that precious cake-cutting time!
3. How much dessert items do I need to order?
Multiple things go into this answer. The first thing to think about is will there be other food, and if so how long from eating until dessert? Many guests won’t be willing to eat a slice of cake at a party or have multiple pieces if they just finished a full 3-4 courses less than 15 minutes ago. Another item to think about is do you want to have multiple desserts or multiple flavors.
The general rule of thumb for portions to expect for a party is below:
Macarons – 2-3 per guest
Mini Cupcakes – 3-4 per guest
Standard Sized Cupcakes – 1.5 per guest
Mini Bundt Cakes – 1-2 per guest
Cake – If you are having a large party (lets say a wedding) and other desserts you can usually get away with ordering enough cake for approximately 85% of guests. See the diagram below for size of cake per guest count
4. Cost
I know we wouldn’t normally talk about cost or price-points in a simple blog, but I feel that it’s an important aspect in terms of making a decision. If someone is trying to weigh the price points for a wedding then cost is a huge factor in making a decision between what kind of desserts and how much they’re going to order. The average cost per slice of cake for a wedding is usually somewhere around $7.50-$12, whereas the average cost of a cupcake ranges from $2.50-$4.00 – this is a significant difference. So combining different desserts such as a small 2 tiered cake for the wedding party and cupcakes or a full dessert table for the rest of the guests would be a sure-fire way to have a full dessert where everyone’s sweet-tooth is satisfied while also not stretching your budget.
The main things to keep in mind when ordering or planning dessert for a party in a nutshell are: Have a theme in mind, know your price-range, and have an idea on what flavors/colors you’re going to want – because any bakery is going to ask. When in doubt, you can always set up a consultation and ask your bakery what they recommend and what would best fit your needs.
Happy Ordering!