Happy 20th Anniversary to the Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau!

Recently we had a really big... no, make that giant cake that was ordered by the Tempe Convention & Visitors Bureau and Southwest Airlines to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tempe CVB. The event was held at the gorgeous Tempe Center for the Arts.  For the cake, they wanted BIG, they wanted Southwest Airlines involved and the rest was up to us.

So we went big, really really big!

The buildings you see around the bottom are the Tempe CVB Building, Tempe City Hall, The old Flour Mill, and The Tempe Center for the Arts.  The floating flower by the building in the front is the Tempe CVB logo. 

They threw an incredible party with hundreds in attendance and we even got to meet the CVB mascot, Tempe Teddy (don't stand behind him and kick him in the butt, he does not like that.) ;)

Cheers to 20 years Tempe CVB!!  

 

This was just too awesome not to blog

It's been way too long. We've been ridiculously busy at the shop but that is no excuse for 3+ months of blog neglect. I had some plans for my next entry but after today, that is going to have to wait until I tell this story (albeit an incomplete one).

We deliver the majority of our wedding cakes, but we usually have at least one each week that gets picked up for one reason or another. Today we had one pick up... we'll call that couple Mike & Angie (because those are actually their names). :)

Mike & Angie were having an initmate wedding with about 50 guests and had selected a 2 tier stacked cake, the bottom was square and the top was hexagon and each had a different design.

So Mike shows up this morning all alone, telling me how nervous Angie is about the fact that he is delivering their wedding cake. I go to the back and produce the 14"X14"X14" box that holds their cake inside and I open it so that he can check it out. He gives the thumbs up and says she is going to love it... but then he asks the question "Can I have an extra box?". Initially,I think that the box is so that they can save any leftover cake, but in the next minute Mike unveils his hilarious and evil plan to me.

Here's the plan:

• Get an extra box (a big one, just like the cake was in)
• Buy 2 grocery store cakes and place them on top of each other inside the extra box
• Leave the real cake in his car and carry the "fake" cake into the reception site
• Fall down
• Open the box to reveal a ruined "wedding cake" to his soon to be bride
• Watch her get mad/sad/irate/etc
• Reveal the prank and get the real cake out of his car
• Beg for forgivness
• Find a ride home

As of right now, I don't know how the prank went over or if they even got married, but we at POC have mad respect for our boy Mike for even attempting this stunt. I hope it all worked out man!

If she did marry you... your first anniversary cake is on us!

Flipped!

It's always fun when a couple lets us do funky stuff to their cake, so as you can imagine... we had some fun this week!

This cake was delivered to Villa Siena on Saturday and even though we create wedding cakes for 80% of the weddings that take place there, we got some funky looks while setting this one up. :)

The bride loved it and the caterers were freaked at the prospect of having to disassemble and cut it... to me that makes for a pretty sweet delivery!

Look for us on WeTV's Wedding Central on August 10th, 2008!

We just got word that the Wedding Central episode that was partially filmed at our shop will be appearing on WeTV on August 10th, 2008 (check your local listings for times, but in AZ on DirecTV it's on at 8PM). I must warn you though… they interviewed me 3 times and 2 of them were prior to any caffeine consumption whatsoever. In other words, I may actually embarrass my mother.

Aside from my sleepy eyed rambling it should be a great episode. Carol (our bride) was really a joy to work with and even though reality TV means repeating things over and over (I think she had to “enter” our shop 3 times for the camera) she kept smiling the whole time…well at least the time spent with us.

Here are a couple of shots of the cake we created for Carol & Mark on their big day:

You can see a preview of Carol & Mark's wedding in the "Little People, Big Day" segment of the WeTV Wedding Central video below.





Congratulations Carol & Mark!!

More information about this epsiode, including airtimes can be found here: http://www.wetv.com/wedding-central/episodes/little-people-big-day

Unfortunately COX doesn't carry WeTV, so if you can't watch it... you can take my word for it... we rocked. ;)

The Impromptu Cake Throwdown at The Castle at Ashley Manor!!!!

What a cool week this has been so far!

So we get a call from The Castle at Ashley Manor on Monday (5/12) and they invite us to attend their first ever "public" open house on Wednesday (5/15). If you have ever seen The Castle you know how awesome the place is...obviously we accepted. But there was a catch... and an awesome one at that.

You see, they were looking for another cake vendor to add into their all inclusive packages but they weren't actually selecting us (here's where the awesome part comes in), they were inviting us and the other top cake companies in the valley (6 in all) to compete against each other for a shot at the title. Awesome right??? A freaking cake throwdown!!! It gets better... Instead of just selecting who they wanted as their cake vendor... they gave the power to the people! All of the attendees were given ballots and were able to cast votes using 5 different criteria (cake appearance, flavor, etc) to evaluate the cake companies. Basically, the couples looked, they tasted, they chatted, and they voted.

If I am being honest, I'm not even sure I would have voted for us if I had been an impartial attendee. There were so many great cake vendors with amazing displays and delicious cakes to taste, I imagine that the voting was extremely close.

In the end... I am happy to say that the majority of couples in attendance voted Piece Of Cake (hey, that's us!!) as the winner and we are extremely excited to begin our relationship with The Castle at Ashley Manor.

Whether we had won or not, I would have to give mad props to their staff for coming up with an amazing idea and really getting their brides involved in the process! We had a blast and it looked like all of the attendees did too!

Wedding cake sizes... what gives???

I recently added a bit about this on our FAQ page, but since it comes up quite a bit, I figured I would blog it too.

Wedding cake sizing can be a real point of confusion for couples when meeting with different cake companies. I mean, if you order a cake that "serves 100" from one company, it's going to be the same size as a cake that "serves 100" from another company.... right?

Umm... no. Unfortunately, this is where some couples can end up paying more for less if they don't do some research. To some cake shops, a 3 tier cake that consists of a 12" round, 9" round, and a 6" round, feeds 100 guests. Based on the serving chart that we use, those same cakes feed just 84 guests. Yep, you read that right. You can order the exact same size cake from 2 different companies and one will charge you for 84 servings and the other will charge you for 100 servings.

If the 100 serving place is $3.50 a serving and the 84 serving place charges $4.00 serving... then the $3.50 per serving place is cheaper....right? Not so much. (84 servings x $4 = $336, 100 servings x$3.50 = $350). And now you know how a $4.00 per serving cake can be less expensive than a $3.50 per serving cake... even for the exact same size cake.

Don't get me wrong, the bakers that say that say a 12-9-6 configuration feeds 100 guests aren't trying to screw anyone, they are just using the industry standard Wilton serving chart to calculate their servings... most bakers use it... but not everyone.

My tip: Always ask what sizes your cake layers will be so that you can accurately compare 2 or more companies wedding cake pricing, you may be surprised.

Charm City Cakes invaded by droids...

For a while now, our friends over at Charm City Cakes have been referring couples to us that contact them requesting cakes in AZ (it's a bit outside of their delivery range). It took us long enough but we decided that it was time to throw a little love their way.
Typically, as a cake shop, if we want to say "thanks"... we send a cake (duh)... but what does cake shop send to thank another cake shop?

A trash can, obviously :)

If you have been into our shop, you have definitely noticed the coolest trash can in the world sitting next to our water cooler and since the Charm City staff are a bunch of Star Wars freaks, we knew getting them one of their own was the perfect gift:

As you might expect, they love it (seriously, who wouldn't)! Duff told me that they have a pile of lightsabers in the bakery and that R2 found a home next to them. (yeah, it probably looks cooler than ours just sitting next to a water cooler, but you have to admit... that's a pretty sweet water cooler... I'm just sayin').

I should mention, they just started shooting season 5 of Ace of Cakes http://www.aceofcakestv.com/, If you don't already watch it, you should. Seriously. It's a lot of fun and they are really a great group. .. and at the very least, if you watch it you may see a sweet trash can.

Back at the Show!!!!

After a 2 year hiatus from the Bridal Fashion Debut, we have signed up for the upcoming June show. We've always had fun at the shows (well, sans the whole setup and cleanup part) so we figured attending the smaller June show would be a fun way to get back into it. (plus we are always fully booked for January, so there's no way we can make time for that one)

We picked a booth along the "Fashion Show wall" next to our friends from Villa Siena (http://www.villasiena.cc/), so make sure you stop by to say hi and eat some cake!

New to the Blogisphere

Every blog needs a first post... and this is it.

I'm not sure why we need a blog and I am pretty sure that having one is going to get me in more trouble than not having one, but here it is anyway.

If you got here from our web site, then you know who we are & what we do. We make cakes! Usually wedding cakes... sometimes other stuff.

So I guess that was that, first blog entry outta the way. Phew

Kevin