The fine art of cake baking... and analogies.

I was walking past a cafe that had closed for the day and through the window you could see the not insignificant quantity of unsold desserts in a cabinet.

My first thought was to avoid ever buying a piece of cake from there as who knows how old it would be before it landed on a customers plate? Even though the cabinet was likely refrigerated, you still have to wonder how long it would be from baking to consumption.

It got me thinking about the 'catering' problems that we all face. Do you risk disappointing an audience by being potentially 'out' of something when it's needed or - equally problematic - risk throwing out masses of 'food' for lack of a large enough audience?

So what do you do? Do you make smaller bite-sized, over-salted portions akin to canapes? Do you create 'on demand' rather than simply create? ... Or do you produce without inhibitions and hope it doesn't go 'off' before someone points at it and grunts?