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!

Better Cake Photos using the iPad

Screen shot from Shuttersnitch
(click picture to see details)

I have blogged before about how we are always striving to take better pictures of the cakes we make.  The problem a lot of times is the picture in the little mini viewer looks fine, but when you see it on the big screen something is off - too dark, too bright... too something!  This past weekend we found a really cool app for the iPad that allows us to see our pictures on the iPad as we take them on our camera.  The process is called camera tethering, and while it's not the most straightforward solution, it was neat enough that I thought it was worth sharing with you here.

Things you'll need to make this work:
Apple iPad (or iPhone if you don't mind a smaller screen)
Camera that accepts SD memory cards
A Wi-Fi network
Shuttersnitch App ($16)
Eye-Fi SD Memory card (about $40 at Walmart or Amazon)

Eye-Fi is like a regular SD memory card that contains a mini Wi-Fi adapter inside.  It's very cool in itself.  As you take pictures, the Eye-Fi can transmit your pictures to your computer or to sharing sites like Photobucket.  The Wi-Fi capabilities are what allow Shuttersnitch on your iPad to grab the photos.

Shuttersnitch is a an app you get from the Apple App Store.  Once you load it you will configure it with your Eye-Fi account settings so it can communicate with the Eye-Fi card in your camera.

As you take pictures, the app automatically downloads them to your iPad so you can see a large preview (or full size even).  And best of all it only takes about 15 seconds per photo.  Shuttersnitch even tells you all your camera settings (ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc.)   If you don't like the picture, just adjust your settings or your lighting and take again.

The biggest problem with this solution is taking pictures outside of your Wi-Fi zone.  If you want this to all work anywhere you go, you'll have to invest in a battery operated portable router.  That's just more than I need at this point.  I take most of my photos in the kitchen (or just outside).

It seemed pretty technical, but Chaddy set it up without any issues.  There are several places on the Internet that walk you through the setup, but Chad said that he used the directions at Rob Galbraith's site.

I realize that many of you might not have an iPad.  But if you do, pairing it with the Eye-Fi card and the ShutterSnitch app will definitely help you take better pictures by allowing you to see them on the fly.

Question for today...  Do you like reading articles about how technology can be used in the baking business?  Do you want to see more articles like this?   Tell us what you think in the Comments section!

UPDATE: May 2011 - Just a month or so after publishing this article, Eye-Fi has came out with a firmware upgrade to the Eye-Fi cards that will allow them to create their own wireless networks!  This means that we can now carry our iPad on deliveries and get real time pictures without any additional hardware (the battery operated router mentioned above).  We have been out several times now and it works like a charm!!