I am doing my first wedding cake this November. I'm excited but extremely nervous. The bride wants me to re-create a cake she saw in Wilton's Bridal Cake book, "Glorious Beginning". Only she doesn't want the royal icing flowers, she wants silk and she wants the icing in ivory buttercream. So the cake is an 8 inch top, 16 inch, 4 satellite cakes each 2-tier'd with an 8 inch square bottom and 6 inch round tops. The decorations consist of shell borders, sotas, and the pattern press set designs. So I guess my question is how much should I charge her? She says she wants chocolate and white cake. She hasn't suggested any fillings or anything. She has told me that she wants this cake and she is on a budget. When I asked her her budget she basically said she didn't care, she really wants this cake. The cake serves 284 guests, but her guest list is about 200 guests. Should I charge by the slice or by the whole cake. I am delivering and setting it up. She said she may even need me to stay and serve.

Help, what to do? I want to the cake and have my first wedding cake business, however I am a nervous wreck!

TIA,
DTMC

i would charge by the slice but I dont think i would use the size tiers in the book if she does not need that many servings. I would adjust the thiers to get as close to what she needs as possible and then charge her accordingly.

Thanks for the help.

The bride told me to make the cake to serve 284 guests because she doesn't know who will pop in on the reception. She says the guest list varies. Should I serve about $2.00 per slice?

Don't hesitate about "selling up". If she wants cake for that many, then price it accordingly. If it's more than she wants to spend, then tell her you can adjust the serving size to accomodate her guest count, or budget. Don't underbid, this is a large cake (what about the cost of the stands, etc)? I wouldn't take anything less than $2/slice. (Charge more if it's an "upgraded" flavor or if you have to do multiple flavors. You also need to charge her for delivery and set up, and if you stay to serve, charge her for your time (per hour).

In my area wedding cakes run $3 to $7 a slice. Since I'm a one man show from my home, anything over 50 people cake is $2.50 pp, under that is $2.25pp. I charge $20 to del. a wedding cake and $1.oo a slice to stay and serve and box up left overs. I read a neat way to get rid of left overs and promote business is to plate and wrap, or small box, servings for the bride and grooms guest to take home as they leave. They can put a Thank You tag on it and you could put a business card.
I agree w/ cakesbyallison, she wants more cake, more cake is what she gets along with an extra $160 for you
Price your area by phone. Thats how I came up with my price list. When I was at the Wilton school in IL they said to start from $6 to $12 pp. It wouldn't fly here! It's defers depending on where you are.
Good Luck

Well...........I sent the quote to the bride. She emailed me back stating that the cake is the biggest expense of the wedding. She said she has to think about it. She wants different flavors of cake and fillings for each cake. It is a total of 10 cakes. I quoted $2.00 per slice of 284 guests plus $20.00 delivery. I also charged an extra $90.00 on crystal 4 plates, 8 pillars, 4 stairs, and misc dowls, cardboards , boxes. So the total is $678.00 The crystal pillars and plates alone will cost me 90.00, so technically she will be getting all the boards, ruffles, set up fee, etc for FREE! But she didn't see it that way I guess.

I had to price accordingly.
I guess I will see if she hires me...

I agree with BalloonWhisk, deposit for the Pillars and plates, and you don't change for cardboard and wood dowels and boxes. Many places do charge a delivery and set up fee, I don't usually for wedding cake delivery because I enjoy being nosey and seeing what's going on! But if you are staying to cut, you can charge a little for that (but again, I probably wouldn't because I enjoy it!)

I agree with BalloonWhisk, You should just take a deposit on the pillars & accessories. Then when they are returned to you (and in good shape obviously) you refund the deposit. You can use them again, so you won't be out any money.

I agree with the others. take a deposit and then the cost of wedding cake is much less. This is what i do and it works.

$678 for a cake that serves almost 300 people is pretty reasonable.....

I charged 750.00 for the big wedding cake in my photos, it served around 250, so your price is not off my any means.

I agree with Jaxdesserts and gma1956...I think $678.00 for 284 guests is reasonable. It is surprising that some people don't charge for cardboards, cake boxes, dowels, utilities, rent/mortgage, etc.

Perhaps some believe the costs of goods sold should be included in the price per piece. In my opinion I would then need to charge a higher price per piece to cover my material expenses.

Normally I factor these costs into my cakes and have had no problems. For this particular case, however, these expenses are larger than normal. Thus requiring me to itemize the expenses separatly.

As for the deposit on the plates/pillars, yes I would normally rent out. But for this particular case, the bride is paying for all of it including the fountain. She is keeping these materials. This works well for me since these items are very cake specific and I probably will not use them again.

Most people will also charge for delivery and setup. To not charge for the cost of doing business seems to be a very good way to lose money.

Your quote is more than reasonable. If she thinks she is going to get that cake, for that many people, she is sadly mistaken. I charge at a minimum $25 for delivery (w/in 20 miles). Extra if beyond that or it's going to require more than just putting the cake on the table. I know you feel "bad" about maybe loosing an order, but believe me, you'll feel worse after putting so much effort and hard work into something, and not being compensated for it. You want to be a reputable cake designer, not a "cheap decorator". She isn't a friend, or a relative, she's a paying customer. If this goes above and beyond her budget, offer an alternative. Explain this is a very elaborate cake, maybe do something similar, but scale it down... Try and work w/ her, but again, if she feels she can get it elsewhere for less... let her. Good luck!!

I try to keep my prices cheap and so since I do that I guess I don't feel bad calculating what my actual costs are for the cake into the price. I don't have a charge per slice. I am still at the point where I am learning the pricing game since I am so new to all of it. But when I charge a cheap price and add in my costs, I have always come out cheaper than charging close to the going rate "per slice." So I can see what dtmc is saying by how she calculates her price. Even at the price set, it's still under $2.50 a slice which for as much detail as it sounds is a pretty fair price.

I hope no one takes my email personally, I post all in fun in helping!