HAPPY NATIONAL COOKIE DAY Y’ALL!

After a heartfelt ceremony, a custom picked buffet & hours of dancing, everyone is looking forward to one thing:

THE DESSERTS!

Our featured vendor of the week is a Cleveland based cookie connoisseur. Katie Spanier-Zegarac creates custom cakes, cake pops, cupcakes and cookies. When the city of Cleveland needs treats, Katie Cakes is called upon – she was even nominated for 3 separate categories on Cleveland’s Hot List. Whatever your preferred theme or palette, Katie is your go-to gal. Read on for her background and tips for brides getting ready for their first cake tasting!

MMW: Nice to meet you, Katie! Tell us about how you got into baking cakes professionally.

KC: My very first cake was actually a Bubble Guppies cake for my boyfriend’s daughter’s 5^th birthday. I’ve always been super artsy/crafty/DIY kinda girl so I did tons of research and made it myself (she’s my whole world and if that’s what she wanted I was determined to make it happen for her!) It turned out adorable and next thing I know I was being asked to make graduation cakes and birthday cakes for other people so I decided to go for it. Two months later I received my LLC in July 2015 and Katie Cakes was born! We moved to Strongsville in October 2015 and had my home inspected by the Ohio Department of Agriculture – Food and Safety (being licensed was extremely important to me so all my customers rest assured that their cakes, cookies, etc. were produced in a clean and safe environment!) I’ve been a fully licensed home-bakery ever since which also gives me license to ship my goodies nationwide. I design all my cakes through my love of unique art which helps me specialize in unique sculpted, hand painted, 3D cakes, etc. and my best work always comes from the “here’s what I like, come up with what you think looks best” kind of customers.

A profession built on passion. I love it! So how many months before the big day do brides usually start cake browsing? Any advice before the cake tastings are scheduled?

Ok so some of you are going to riot when I say this… My #1 suggestion when you get engaged is to delete your wedding boards. Wait! Hear me out! The majority of us have wedding boards that are 10 years and however many ex boyfriends old. Your tastes change so much in that time! You pinned things that you felt represented a relationship you were in previously, and lets not forget to mention its impossible to find anything. This relates to all aspects of your wedding planning (not just cake!) so I suggest going through your board and creating individual boards to organize for your wedding. Re-pin any old pins you still love to a board/category it fits with and once you’ve gone through them all DELETE YOUR OLD BOARD. This will not only help you stay organized bit its ridiculously easy to send inspiration photos on your board to your photographer, bridal boutique, wedding planner, cake decorator or any other vendor you have consultations with that don’t require them to scroll through 50 photos of dresses to find one photo of a cake.

Once that is done here are the basics for scheduling cake planning:

• You should have your cake booked 6 months to a year before your wedding.
• When contacting cake decorators you can keep quote inquiries short and sweet by providing your wedding date, photo(s) that best represent the style you’re looking for, how many people you need it to feed and your budget
• Have a realistic budget in mind. The average price per serving in our area is $4-5 per serving (that will vary based on buttercream vs fondant and the design intricacy as well as how much experience the decorator has). Multiply the average by the number of guest you plan on having (Ex: 100 guests = $400-500 and up) if your budget is lower than that average you may want to consider a chain store (Costco, Walmart, Giant Eagle, etc) rather than a custom cake decorator to stay within your budget.
• *ALWAYS* look for photos of cakes a decorator has made themselves that show the style you are looking for – if you can’t find them then chances are the decorator hasn’t done them and is not a good fit for you. Your wedding is not the time to let someone experiment with a new cake style they aren’t familiar with. 
• The majority of decorators charge a fee for cake tastings (this covers the cost of their time and ingredients used as well as ensures you are a serious inquiry) FUN FACT: Within the last year or so a trend surfaced where people began pretending they were getting married to get together with girlfriends and sample free cake- this is why a tasting fee has become common practice. Most bakers will apply all or part of that fee as a credit if you book your cake with them so if you do your research and find a decorator that seems to fit your style before having tastings you shouldn’t be concerned with that fee.
• Each decorator does their tastings differently – check with them on their policy of how many people they can bring.

What are some of your favorite 2017/2018 cake trends?

Let’s chat about the cookies! It seems like they’ve suddenly surged in popularity from dessert tables to favors?

Let’s get personal – what was your favorite cake you’ve ever designed? How bout your favorite cookie design?

Let’s say a bride really loves a classic cake with watercolor accents, but the groom isn’t going for it – what should they do?

I see you have a rewards plan on your site! Can you explain how a bride could use that?

One last bit(e) of advice: What are the most common mistakes you see when brides (or people in general) order cakes?