TieredCaker App and Giveaway

Full Disclosure Time: This post includes a giveaway sponsored by Calculated Cakes.  They are providing the prizes, but the opinions are mine alone.  I will not receive any compensation for this post.

I love my gadgets - I'm usually not very far way from my iPad or iPhone; I just like the way programs seem to work!  There's always some little something going on with my desktop computer, but my tablet is rock-solid!

I have found myself using my iPad a lot during consultations.  I can pull up images, look through a bride's Pinterest board, etc.  A few months ago I found out about the TieredCaker app by Calculated Cakes and agreed to help beta test the product.  Now I've been at this cake game a while and I know most of the standard cake tiers and how many they feed.  But this app makes it really easy, and they offer lots of customization options!

Just start out by entering how many servings you need and instantly it will pop up a multitude of configurations.  So if you want a cake to feed 120 the app will return that a 14" and an 11" cake will do the trick perfectly.  And then the client says "But I want something that really makes an impact - can't we make it taller?  Like 4 tiers?"  Well, just scroll on down and the app will tell you that a 13 / 10 / 7 / 6" will do the job.  But you don't keep odd size pans... then the 12 / 10 / 8 / 6 will be the way to go.  You can even tell the app which pans you own, so it won't suggest combinations you can't deliver.  And since you enter your price per serving in the app ($3.75 in my case), you already know you're talking about a base price of $476.25.

Once you have chosen your configuration you are presented with a visual representation of your cake.  This is where things get neat!  Let's say that we want that 2 tier to be a squatty tier.  We'll just drag the size down to a 2 inch tier.  And they want some color on that squatty tier?  Just click it with your finger and you can change the color to light pink.  If you want a double-barrel design, you can extend the tier and make it twice the size.  Note that at the current time changing the tier height in the app will not alter the number of servings.  It is my understanding that this feature is being worked on for a future update.  It's easy enough to account for though.   I can also use a 2-finger swipe to rotate and tilt the cake.  If my design will have lots of things on the top tier it's nice so I can print it out with a good view of the top.

Once I get the cake looking like I want it, I can then print that out and get all artsy on it.  Before this app I used Microsoft Powerpoint's drawing tools to make my standard cake tier sizes and I drew on them.  This is better because I get any custom design on the fly, with the base colors, and it's shaded so that it has a dimensional 3D look to it. Not to mention that tilt / rotate feature.  And it's SO much easier.

And this app will even take the cake you have just created in literally minutes and it also offers you a cutting guide - for that exact cake!  It even allows you to choose between straight and classic cutting guides.  Once the cake has been settled on I just print out that cutting guide and add it to the client's folder.  One less thing I have to worry about!

This app has seriously changed the way I do my consultations.  It saves me from remembering wrong and from fussing about with a lot of paper during the consultation.  And the client gets to get a pretty close representation of their cake on the spot.  It has saved me from stacking pans so the client would know how certain sizes look together.  The product has been developed by fellow baker Jennifer Flesner and her husband Chris.  They are very open to suggestions and have made many great enhancements to the product since I began beta testing way back when!

Now for the best part!  Are you ready to try out the TieredCaker app?  Well the good folks at Calculated Cakes are offering not one but TWO free copies of the TierCaker app to the winners of this giveaway.  Just leave a comment here on the blog and just for fun why not tell me who your favorite cake artist is right now.  Any comments left between now and Sunday June 22nd will be included in a random drawing..  Winners will be announced next Tuesday!  Good Luck!