Corporate Cakes

As a cake decorator incorporating an edible image corporate logo can make the decoration simple and resulting in a clean looking product. Having dabbled into different facets of the cake decorating industry there are a number of pros and cons to consider in the various markets of cake:

Wedding Cakes

Pros 

1. Glamorous - Love the idea of making the beautiful wedding centerpiece for a magical wedding
2. Simplicity - Typically wedding cakes are elegant and simple in terms of design and styling.
3. Financial Return - At about $4 a slice this can make for a decent return on your delivered product

Cons

1. The Stress - It seems the hefty price tag might be more related to the stress induced by preparing someones dream wedding cake.  Where if anything happened to it between the time you start baking, decorating, and delivering... it could mean your business!
2. The Expectation - Brides have big dreams... and with that come BIG expectations with their cake.  You might find yourself trying to make cake decorating miracles happen!
3. Your Weekends are taken - Weddings typically occur on the weekends.  If this is your side job prepare to have your Friday's and Saturday's booked!

Birthday Cakes

Pros

1. Fun - Birthdays are fun and everyone is happy to share a fun party together while eating your marvelously decorated cake!
2. Common Themes - With common themes you have a good idea what would be a nice cake design for the birthday boy or girl.

Cons

1. Sizing - Birthday cake portions are typically larger than (say) wedding cake portions.  Expect to make larger cakes than expected for a birthday party.
2. Financial Return - Birthday cakes budgets are a lot smaller than wedding budgets (yes there is a LESSER willingness to pay), however, design can be more intricate and more involved (mostly due to color changes).  This is also the market where your decorated marval competes with that yummy sticky chocolate cake from Costco for less than $20.

Corporate Cakes

Pros

1. Consistent - If you succeed in getting a corporate cake account you can expect consistent business as long as you keep your client happy.  A win win!
2. Standardized - Your products can be standardized to your client saving you time and money when it comes to planning the decorating.
3. Financial Return - A company who is using your product for their customers or staff members are willing to pay a good price for your good product.  They are also giving you financial stability as you are their only go to person for your product.
4. Dates & Times - Corporations tend to be fairly flexible when it comes to dates and times.  Unless it is a special event, most thank you or customer cakes have flexibility in the delivered dates and times.

Cons

1. Repetitiveness - Creativity might be suppressed as you repetitively produce your clients product.  
2. Booked - A pro or a con?!  With consistent standardized cake orders you may not be able to take on that fun birthday party cake without upsetting your routine schedule.

Thanks for reading and Happy Decorating!

Christie