Up to now I've only made cakes for family (I do them as gifts for the kids, so I don't charge). My sister-in-law asked me to give her pics of my cakes to take into work yesterday and now I've got an enquiry for a cake! The woman is looking for a 50th anniversary cake, for 100 people, to be served as dessert after dinner and she wants fresh cream, no buttercream!

I have a few ideas for design, but don't have a clue about sizes (I'm assuming it will be a tiered cake). I also don't have a clue how to work out a price to quote, once I know more about what she wants (I'm waiting for an email from her with the details, but want to be one step ahead!).

Can someone please give me some advice here - I've never done anything on this scale and I'm both excited and terrified by the prospect of this cake!

Kelly

Here is the coolest thing I have found on this site so far for pricing cakes. There is another one "Alices Pricing Matrix" that I like too, but when I downloaded it I did something wrong and it doesnt work for me.
HTH

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-5711.html

Anyone else? Please? My main issue is the cake sizes (I can't go by the Wilton measurements, as this will be a dessert, not just a little wedding size 'taste')

Kelly

I know a lot of people on here use Earlenese chart:

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

I use the Wilton party chart (not the wedding chart):

http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/party_2inch.cfm

HTH!

What about the wilton party serving size. I have also marked up the bottom of my pans to see a 1.5 X 2 inch peice and how many I'd get out of the pan. Just tell her you will figure up a price and get back with her, that way you won't feel rushed. Tell her what size pieces you are pricing, too. That's all I've got for you.

Check out earlenescakes.com. She has a really nice serving chart. What I do is offer my clients an option: wedding size servings (1x2in) or party size (2x2in). If they want bigger servings, I use the chart to pick the cake that has twice as many servings as the client wants.

so if they want 100 party size servings, I make a cake that will serve 200 by earlene's chart. Make sense?

www.earlenescakes.com

When you do this how do you charge? Do you have a flat rate for party cakes at each size? Or do you charge double? Or something else entirely?

At the most basic level, you need to decide if you want to work for cost or actually make some money. Assuming you want to make some money:

1. Figure out how much cake you'll need to make to serve 100 party sizes. (Wilton chart is a good place to start).

2. When you have that number...Figure out what ingredients you'll need to buy to make the cake. Figure in dowels for support, cake boards, boxes, etc etc, everything you can think of. Figure out how much the ingredients will cost. Not sure what "fresh cream, no buttercream" means, whipped cream icing? anyway...

3. Figure out how long you *think* it will take you to get the job done and how much you want to make per hour. Don't forget to pay yourself for some time you're going to spend shopping and working on the price quote (give yourself an hour of extra pay for that).

4. When you have all these numbers, figure your total cost. For example, if you'll need $85.00 worth of ingredients (without marking them up, which I actually do), and it will take you eight hours at $15.00 an hour. You need to get paid at least $205.00. Dont shortchange yourself on hourly wage, you'll probably find you spend more time than you thought, and your hourly wage will drop accordingly. Start high, then you won't be working for free.

5. You know you need (hypothetically) $205.00 for a cake for 100. You'd need to charge her $2.05 a serving (or $2.00, or $2.25...) to make enough for it to be worth it.

Do NOT do it for cheap, or you'll be sorry, because the next order will expect you to do it for cheap, too. Start high and stick to your guns. If she says "Oh for crying out loud--you're just getting started; I figured this would be like $50.00!" You can always just....laugh and hang up.

Go for it; it'll be fun!