Cakes and gateaux in your café: making the display sell

Bake yourself or buy in?

The first decision shapes your whole café: do the cakes come from your own kitchen, from a patisserie down the road or from a wholesaler with frozen goods? Homemade cakes are a strong selling point and often cheaper in ingredient cost, but they take working time, space, equipment and skill. Bought-in gateaux are predictable and consistently good, but the margin is lower and you become interchangeable if the café next door orders from the same supplier.

If you bake yourself, check the trade rules first. Austria and Germany have their own rules for bakers and pastry chefs, and not every cake from your own recipe turns your café into a craft business. What applies is explained in Opening a café in Austria and Opening a café in Germany. Binding answers come from the WKO (Austrian Chamber of Commerce) in Austria and the Handwerkskammer (chamber of crafts) or IHK in Germany.

The right range for your display

A good display has something for every taste without overwhelming anyone. For a small to medium café, six to ten varieties are usually enough. The mix matters more than the number: something fruity, something chocolatey, a classic, a cake without cream for warm days and at least one option for guests who avoid gluten, dairy or animal products.

• Classics: apple strudel, Sachertorte, cheesecake or Topfentorte, marble cake. They sell every day.
• Seasonal: rhubarb in spring, strawberries and apricots in summer, plums in autumn, gingerbread and nuts in winter.
• Dry cakes: pound cake, Gugelhupf, brownies. They keep longer and need less chilling.
• Cream and custard gateaux: high price per slice but short shelf life. Only as many as you are sure to sell.
• Vegan, gluten-free, less sugar: one or two well-made options rather than many half-hearted ones.

Don't change varieties at random. Regulars love their favourite cake, new guests enjoy a seasonal slice. A fixed core plus one or two rotating varieties a week has proven itself in many cafés.

Presenting the display

Guests decide within seconds, and they decide with their eyes. A well-stocked, well-lit display sells cake even to guests who only wanted a coffee. A half-empty display with cut leftovers, on the other hand, looks like the end of the day, even at eleven in the morning.

The display doesn't end at the counter. Many guests check online first to see what's on today. An up-to-date photo of the display on your Google profile or Instagram and a “Cakes and gateaux” page on your website bring guests into the café. Take the photos in daylight, from slightly above and with clean glass, ideally right after restocking.

Chilling and hygiene

Not all cakes are the same. Dry pound cakes, strudel or brownies are far less sensitive than gateaux with cream, custard, quark, cream cheese or fresh fruit. These products need chilling, and the chilling has to work reliably, even on a hot summer day with the door open. Which temperatures apply to which product is set out in your suppliers' instructions, in the industry's hygiene guidelines and in your own food safety plan based on HACCP principles.

The legal basis in both countries is EU food hygiene law, above all Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. In Germany it is supplemented by the Lebensmittelhygiene-Verordnung (LMHV, food hygiene ordinance), in Austria by the Lebensmittelsicherheits- und Verbraucherschutzgesetz (LMSVG, food safety act). Practical help comes from the guidelines for good hygiene practice offered by the WKO and DEHOGA for hospitality, and from hygiene courses at WIFI or the IHK.

Allergens in cakes and gateaux

Cakes almost always contain several of the 14 major allergens: gluten, eggs, milk, often nuts such as hazelnuts or almonds, sometimes soy, sesame or lupin. Under the EU Food Information Regulation (FIC, in German LMIV), guests must be told about allergens for unpackaged food too. How exactly this works differs by country: read the details in Allergen labelling in Austria and Allergen labelling in Germany.

Create a consistent key for your menu, display labels and website with the Allergen legend. Watch out for cross-contact: one cake server for all varieties quickly turns a nut-free cake into one with traces of nuts.

Pricing per slice

Many cafés copy the cake price from a competitor and are surprised at the end of the month. Calculate per slice instead: the ingredient cost of the whole gateau divided by the number of slices you actually sell, not the number you could theoretically cut. Breakage, tastings and leftovers belong in the calculation.

If you bake yourself, add working time, energy and equipment, which are not part of the ingredient cost. If you buy in, the ingredient cost is higher but you save time. Note also that VAT can differ for eating in and taking away; check this with your tax adviser. The Price calculator works out the selling price from ingredient cost, target share and VAT.

Avoiding leftovers

Every cake thrown away at night eats into the margin of the slices you sold. The most important lever is a simple sales log: for each day and variety, note how many slices were sold and how many were left. After a few weeks you will see patterns by weekday, weather and season and can bake or order more precisely. Many till systems provide these figures automatically.

• Stagger instead of everything in the morning: two gateaux early, the third only when the first is almost gone.
• Dry cakes as a buffer: they keep longer and fill the display in the afternoon.
• Present smaller later in the day: move leftovers together and don't cut a new gateau.
• Sell day-old cakes openly: where hygiene allows, at a lower price and clearly labelled.
• Pass it on: apps against food waste or donations to charities.

More on production planning, day-old goods and key figures in the guide Reducing returns and food waste.

Whole cakes to order

Whole cakes for birthdays, christenings, company parties or weddings are a rewarding extra business: predictable, no leftovers and often at a higher price than selling by the slice. For it to work, guests need clear information: which cakes are available, in which sizes, with what lead time and how to order.

How to organise pre-orders and pickup, especially at Easter and Christmas, is covered in Pre-orders and click & collect. A dedicated “Order a cake” page on your website is found for searches like “order cake” plus your town and saves you many phone calls.