#14 Fancy Fake Cake

You are going to LOVE cake celebrity Lauren Kitchens! If you heard our Pilot episode and the mention of "fake" wedding cakes, you're going to want to listen to this one. Lauren is the owner of Fancy Cakes by Lauren, in Dallas Texas. Lauren has been featured on the Food Network several times and happens to be a dear friend of Christy's. In this episode, Lauren and Christy talk about the ins and outs of wedding cakes, how to find the baker you want to work with, how much you can expect to spend, logistics of cutting the cake and why cakes remain an important part of the wedding day. Big Takeaways Listen in as Christy & Lauren sit down in the 'recording studio' (aka Christy's Master Bedroom closet) and talk about the world of wedding cakes. Lauren has been baking cakes professionally for over 10 years. Being on TV isn’t necessarily the height of your career. Building a business that prioritizes the client experience and values quality over quantity is far more successful in the long run. Lauren Kitchens proves that every day with Fancy Cakes. Grooms Cakes! Dude, where’s my cake? Grooms Cakes in the South -- a tradition that is not going anywhere. From simple chocolate cakes with chocolate covered strawberries (how retro!) to cake sculptures of bass fish and college football stadiums...the Grooms Cakes are here to stay and in Lauren’s world, they are getting more and more over the top - even costing more than the extravagant wedding cake in many instances. Check out her Instagram page to see these works of art! Fake Cakes. Or fake tiers. It’s a thing, deal with it. Sometimes a fake cake is necessary when the design of the cake can’t be supported by good old fashioned flour and water. Sometimes a fake tier is necessary to support the weight of 200 orchids stabbed into it by a florist. Sometimes Lauren makes wedding cakes that are 6’ tall and all fake. She’s an artist, I tell you! An artist! Links we referenced Fancy Cakes Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fancycakesbylauren/ Lauren’s website http://fancycakesbylauren.com Lauren’s TV appearance (muppet) http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Food_Network_Challenge Quotes "You're going to spend (thousands of dollars) on a cake! Put a pin-spot on it. Otherwise the cake is in the corner on time-out...like it's being punished and no one's ever gonna' see it" - Lauren Kitchens “I ended up doing great work. It was huge...I was able to build up a name and it helped with building my craft. The shows like Food Network Challenge, it created a demand with the client to want sculpted cakes. I’m like, I can do it!” - Lauren Kitchens, on her career, between TV competitions and her work “What’s important to me is human connection and that is what is important to the brides because this is a very emotional buy for them! They’re buying their wedding cake!” - Lauren “Average wedding, 175-200 guests, Texas average, y’all…average cake price is about $1200 dollars, and that would include a modest Grooms Cake. If it’s a sculpted grooms cake, you’ll spend double or triple the wedding cake.” - Lauren “Narrow it down to two or three bakeries, don’t go to more than that (cause you’ll forget), go in and get a general idea of pricing. They really need to ask you, does this fit into your budget? And tell them! Don’t just scratch it. This could be the right cake for you and they might be able to make it work.” - Lauren, on how you can find the right cake and the right baker Get In Touch Let us know if you have any questions you need answered on the show or if you want to share your own wedding planning experiences! TWITTER: @TBWPpodcast EMAIL: [email protected] Special Guest: Lauren Kitchens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices