Before you brief it
Cake Ideas & Inspiration
Four questions decide most of a cake: how much you need, what it should look like, when to book it and what goes in it. Answer them here and every quote you get back becomes easier to compare.
Guides
Three guides that make any brief better
Each one answers a question that comes up in almost every cake conversation, with the working shown instead of a rule of thumb.
Cake Styles
Eight styles named and explained, from pressed flower and textured buttercream through to sculptural and vintage piped, so you can describe the look before you brief it.
Read the guideCake Size & Serving Guide
How many people a tin, a tier and a whole cake actually serve, with the difference between dessert portions and wedding portions done for you.
Read the guideBooking Timeline & Flavours
When to book by cake type and season, six flavour combinations that consistently work, and how to raise dietary requirements so they are quoted properly.
Read the guideCake Price & Cost Guide
What actually drives the price of a custom cake: tiers, servings, covering, sugar work, florals, delivery and setup. Published once there is reliable Australian data behind every figure.
Next in the rolloutThe short version
Four steps to a brief worth quoting
If you read nothing else on this page, this is the order that makes the whole thing easier.
- Work out the servingsBefore anything else. It decides tin sizes, tiers and most of the price, and it is the number hardest to change late.
- Name a style, or send a photographEither works. Two references and a sentence about what you like in each beats a whole album.
- Describe the roomIndoors or out, seated or standing, and what time the cake is cut. It changes the covering and the delivery window.
- Say what is fixedA colour, a flower, a date, a dietary requirement. Makers can work around almost anything once they know which part cannot move.
From the blog
Three new articles worth a read
Longer reads for the questions that turn up once the basics are settled, written the same plain way as the guides above.
Smash Cakes for a First Birthday
What a smash cake actually is, how it is built to come apart, the ideas that photograph well, and how to order one alongside the main first birthday cake.
Read the article
Wedding Cake Styles Explained
Tiers, coverings, finishes and decoration set out in plain words, with the name for each look so you can ask for it without sending ten photographs.
Read the article
Ordering a Cake for Dietary Needs
How to brief gluten free, dairy free or low sugar requirements properly, and the questions worth asking a maker about their kitchen before you order.
Read the articleStart somewhere else
Four other ways into the same brief
Some people start from the celebration, some from the cake, some from the maker and some from where they live. All four lead to the same place.
Browse by celebration
Twelve moments, each leading to the cakes made for it.
ExploreBrowse by what gets made
Eleven cake types plus everything served beside them.
ExploreFind the right specialist
Makers, designers, wedding specialists and dessert artists.
ExploreFind makers near you
Four states, thirty markets and local ordering guidance.
ExploreAnswered
The questions people ask first
Name a style if you can, and send two or three reference images with a sentence about what you like in each. If you cannot name a style, describe the room instead: who is there, what time it is, whether it is indoors, and what the rest of the table looks like. A maker can work from that. The one thing worth avoiding is a long list of features, because a cake carrying five strong ideas usually reads as none of them.
Count the people who will genuinely eat cake, then decide whether you are cutting dessert portions or the smaller wedding portions, because the same cake honestly serves very different numbers depending on which you mean. A 25cm round gives roughly 24 to 28 dessert servings or 35 to 40 wedding portions. The serving guide has the full table by tin size and tier combination.
Six to twelve months for a wedding, four to eight weeks for a milestone celebration, two to four weeks for a birthday cake, and longer again once a theme or sugar florals are involved. The limit is almost always the maker's calendar rather than the build. If your date is closer than that, ask anyway and say where you can be flexible.
From idea to quote
You have the answers. Now send them once
One brief carries your servings, date, style direction and suburb to cake professionals who cover your area.