Would you buy a Base Celebration cake?

[Biz1010]

I am developing an idea to sell ‘base celebration cakes’ to customers who require celebration cakes but can not cope with the huge expense and/or don’t have the time or creative skill to bake and decorate their own. 

 

Base cake- store bought cakes torte, filled, layered, iced, simple decoration drip or piping. 

 

Novice cake decorators often find layering, torting and frosting the hardest parts of decorating. 

 

A Base Cake encourages the customer to add their own decoration eg. cake topper, flowers, childs toy, lollies etc.  while still achieving a professional looking cake. By giving the customer creative reign it results in a more personalised cake for their loved one at a fraction of the cost.

 

Would you buy a Base Cake? 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Thanks[base celebration cake ](https://imgur.com/gallery/6UZCS2s)

[heidih]

In the era of Costco I think not.   https://www.costco.com.au/cake-order-form

[pastrygirl]

A lot of people are into simple or rustic cakes so there’s a market. Not everything requires fondant or tortured piping and sugar flowers. Think of the farmhouse weddings with jelly jars and burlap - those brides will be happy with simple swipes of buttercream and their own fresh flowers.

 

My policy is that cake with one flavor each cake, filling, and frosting with simple buttercream is one price per person and it goes up from there.  Additional flavors, fondant, sculpting, or elaborate themes cost extra.  

 

Edited January 18, 2019 by pastrygirl (log)

[gfweb]

You need a better name.  "Base Cake" says nothing to me. Army base? Shaped like first base?

 

 

Edited January 18, 2019 by gfweb (log)

[lindag]

I think there's a market for it.  Costco cakes are just so freakin' big for many people.

[Tri2Cook]

I think there could be a market for it. How large that market is, I couldn't even guess. I'd be at the opposite end though. I enjoy baking, filling, etc. It's the decorating I'd rather have someone else do. I don't mess with rolled fondant enough to be skilled at it, I hate doing decorative piping, I can do it if I have to but I don't enjoy it, and I've never even attempted sugar flowers. If someone wants a cake from me, they get basic buttercream or poured glazes or they get it somewhere else. 

[blue_dolphin]

@Biz1010, where are you located? I'm thinking that if you were in a country were home ovens were less common, your idea might be quite appealing. 

 

Personally, I'd be unlikely to purchase a "blank canvas cake."  I'm happy to bake simple things for simple occasions and if it were a fancy, special occasion, I'd  probably want something both baked and decorated by a fancy, special bakery.

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

You need a better name.  "Base Cake" says nothing to me. Army base? Shaped like first base?

 

As an aside, but in support of a more descriptive name, there was a cafe near the high school that I went to called Cal's Home Plate. I never went there and assumed that by home plate he meant home-style cooking. Actually it was a baseball-themed cafe.

[JeanneCake]

On 1/18/2019 at 12:10 AM, Biz1010 said:

I am developing an idea to sell ‘base celebration cakes’ to customers who require celebration cakes but can not cope with the huge expense and/or don’t have the time or creative skill to bake and decorate their own. 

 

Base cake- store bought cakes torte, filled, layered, iced, simple decoration drip or piping. 

 

A Base Cake encourages the customer to add their own decoration eg. cake topper, flowers, childs toy, lollies etc.  while still achieving a professional looking cake. By giving the customer creative reign it results in a more personalised cake for their loved one at a fraction of the cost.

 

 

This base cake is already available from the local supermarket, in a specific size and flavor.  Most grocery stores are buying in frozen, pre-iced cakes that they put the finishing touches on in -store.  So they will just sell the customer one of those cakes and the customer does the finishing.  And personally, it's the finishing touches that separates the  amateurs from the professionals.

 

If you are going to provide a simple iced cake, you have to account for size and flavor and at that point, now you're into customization and that's what gets expensive - the substitutions and changes from the established menu.  In the last 15 years, I've been asked only a handful of times (less than 10) to provide a client with a plain buttercream cake that they can finish the decorations on themselves.

[jmacnaughtan]

 

On 1/18/2019 at 4:49 PM, Tri2Cook said:

I think there could be a market for it. How large that market is, I couldn't even guess. I'd be at the opposite end though. I enjoy baking, filling, etc. It's the decorating I'd rather have someone else do. I don't mess with rolled fondant enough to be skilled at it, I hate doing decorative piping, I can do it if I have to but I don't enjoy it, and I've never even attempted sugar flowers. If someone wants a cake from me, they get basic buttercream or poured glazes or they get it somewhere else. 

 

I'd probably go in the opposite direction, too - baking is fine, decorating is horrible.  There'd probably be more of a market for the finicky sugar flowers and butterflies that people can cram on top of their own cakes.  

 

In any case, there are plenty of cake mixes out there that are easy enough for even the most challenged baker.