8. Ask how long before wedding date cakes will be prepared and how they will be kept until time for delivery. If you think time or method of storage will result in bridal cake not being as fresh as you want, express your feeling to person you are talking with.

He or she either will explain or demonstrate that this will not be a problem or will negotiate a shorter length of storage. She may let you sample some cake kept for that length of time. Some cakes keep well when frozen, and others do not.

Pound cakes and some carrot cakes seem to improve with freezing. If you are not satisfied and cannot reach some agreement, you must use another bakery.

9. To find how much time and attention will be spent on your cake, ask how many orders bakery typically has for weekend of your order and how many of those your pastry chef might be producing.

A large volume can be an indication that not a lot of time and attention can be devoted to your cake. But a very busy bakery also indicates that many people like its products and trusts its work. Wedding cake bakery that no one likes will have plenty of time to dedicate to your cake, but that alone will not guarantee good results.

Neither will a very busy bakery guarantee good results all time. For one, you may need to check with them during week of production to make sure that things are going well.

For other, you may want to check to make sure that your order has not somehow been overlooked among so many orders. In either case verify that your cake is in process of being prepared.

10. Ask if decorator is experienced and good and if he or she decorated cakes pictured in bakery's gallery.

The point of such a question is to find out whether you will be getting best bakery has to offer and whether you will be served by same personnel that did work seen in bakery's photo album and for references you will contact.

You may be satisfied that all decoration is supervised by a master decorator with long experience and excellent references, even though actual work may be done by one of several less experienced decorators.

11. Ask to be introduced to each of people who will bake, decorate, and deliver cake. You may have questions you want to ask. If you do, ask them.

For example, you might be concerned with experience each one has. If so, you might ask how many cakes they have baked or decorated. I might be more concerned to simply ask whether they did cakes in bakery's album of cakes.

If you have no questions, ask to meet them anyway. Introduce yourself and try to make it easy for them to remember your name and your face. Show a great pleasure at meeting people who have created wonderful masterpieces that have come from this bakery and tell them that you look forward to having them create your wedding cake.

What you are creating is a personal relationship with these artists at wedding cake bakery. Like all workers and artists, these people like being appreciated and will do their best work for someone who has praised them and treats them as a master of their craft.

This goes as well for person taking your order, whether it is owner, manager, or just order taker. I suggest that you work to make as good an impression on them as you expect them to try to make on you. Dress well when you are shopping for a bakery.

You don't have to dress like you're meeting Queen or First Lady, but don't be dressing like you're about to be hitting bars with your friends on your bachelorette party--not unless you dress a lot better for that than most of young women in my neighborhood.

Please try to time your visits so that bakery is not crowded with customers. This is particularly important in smaller bakeries.

12.If you are concerned, ask whether cake be made from scratch or from packaged mixes. Packaged mixes are so much more expensive that few busy bakeries would use them. And if they produce wedding cake you want and it tastes good, do you care whether it's from a mix or from scratch?

13. Ask what price will be. If baker can give you an estimate but not final cost, ask how much final cost might vary from estimate.

If baker says that they will charge by how long it takes because they charge by hour, ask how many hours it will take and do calculation yourself.

Again, if it's an estimate of hours, ask how far hours might vary from that estimate. If you feel uncomfortable with bakery's commitment to giving you a number, maybe you should find another bakery.

14. Ask for customer references so that you can talk to with them. Then actually contact them and ask about their experience with bakery.

While they were probably very pleased with bakery (otherwise you'd think bakery would not be giving them as a reference), they may give you some pointers about how best to deal with bakery.

15. Request a written proposal that includes size of cake, flavor, icing type and flavor, description of cake: Number of tiers or number of cupcakes or miniature cakes, decorations, date and time cake would be ready, whether it would be delivered and where and when, and price.

Some bakeries will put all of this in a proposal and some will commit to just basic items. Press for commitment to everything that is important to you.

I hope this article helped you, so go ahead print it and save for "bakery day"!

All best!