A custom cake order is really a form: flavour, size, the message on top, when it’s needed, and whether anyone at the party has an allergy. Take that form off Instagram DMs and put it on the product page — priced, validated and attached to the order.
The addon setup
- Flavour — Multiple Choice as image swatches. Chocolate, vanilla, red velvet — photos sell cake better than words, and premium flavours carry their own upcharge.
- Size — Multiple Choice as buttons: 6″, 8″, 10″, each with its price. Buttons keep the options visible side by side.
- Message on the cake — Short Text, priced per character. Piping takes time; $0.30 a letter prices it fairly, and the customer watches the total change as they type.
- Candles & extras — Multiple Choice as checkboxes with a “choose up to 2” limit.
- Collection date — Date Picker, required. The kitchen plans its week from this field.
- Does anyone have an allergy? — Single Checkbox, and a conditional Allergy details Long Text field that appears only when it’s ticked — required once visible, so the answer can’t be skipped half-way.
Why it works
- The DM back-and-forth disappears. Ten questions you used to ask one at a time arrive answered, paid for, in one order.
- Nothing is forgotten on a busy Saturday. The message, the flavour, the allergy note and the collection date are on the order line — printed on the docket, not remembered from a chat thread.
- The page stays friendly. Conditional logic hides the allergy details until they’re relevant, so a simple order sees a simple form.
- Pricing is consistent. Per-character piping and per-option upcharges mean two staff members never quote two different prices for the same cake.
Build it
The pattern is a bigger version of our gift wrapping guide — a checkbox revealing a conditional field — combined with per-character pricing for the message. Build it once as a Custom cakes group targeted at the cakes category, and use per-product addons for one-off showpiece listings.