Here is a picture of the cake the bride wants except she wants square cakes with edible lilies. She also want 2 sattelite cake like the tiered one pictured.

I can't seem to find any square plate and pillar sets. Can you get this anywhere?

What size cakes do these need to be?

In my area cakes range from $2.75 - $3.50 per serving. Do I add the costs of the plates, fountain to that?

Any advice is welcomes and appreciated. I've got to give this girl a price and don't know where to start.

TIA.

I would definitely add the cost of the fountain to the price of the cake and if the plates are going to cost you much more than what you would use for just a regular tiered cake, I'd add that on as well. Don't forget that if you're making the lilies from gumpaste or something you should charge a bit more for those too. They take a lot of time!

you can't charge the total cost of the plates and pillars for the cake!! That would be like me charging every customer for the cost of my cake pan......I'll be using it over and over again as you will with the pillars. Your deposit should be exactlly how much all the plates, pillars, fountain, etc. cost so if it's not returned in good working order then you have the money to replace it........but you can't charge that to EVERY customer. I would charge a deposit of however much it costs you to buy all the items and then maybe you can charge a portion of that as a "rental fee" say $50.00 or whatever you choose. Hope that makes sense.

I do not think you can charge the customer for pillars and fountains unless you are going to let them keep them. I do think you can take a deposit that equals what those items cost...which would then be returned to the customer when the items are returned with no damage. Beyond that, you need to decide on a price per serving that either does or doesn't include the cost of the flowers. If it doesn't include the flowers, you need to add the cost of those to the cost of the entire cake. For example you could charge $2.75 per serving+$3 per flower (or whatever they'd cost...I don't make them) or just price it at like $5 per serving which includes all of the edible flowers.

The pillars and plates don't come together as a set (at least I have never seen them sold that way). You have to buy the individual plates and then the pillars , which come in a set of 4 per package.

Ok, I just checked the Wilton website and you can buy the pillars and the plates together in a set (oops). Or you can buy the seperatly. I only see the round plates in a set though, not square.

Here is a link to Wilton. You can probably find them cheaper if you do a search on google though.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/department.cfm?id=3E30519E-475A-BAC0-59EAA7FA2BBC5ABF&fid=76ABA813-475A-BAC0-525EFB63FEEDE35E

I get square, plastic support plates from oasissupply.com.

They are Bakery Craft plates that fit together for a "single plate system" and cost about $3 per plate.

I found out the bride is expecting 150 -175 guests so I was thinking of a 16 " square, a 12" square and an 8" square for the main cake and for the 2 sattelite cakes an 8" and 6" each.

Do you thing those proportions will work?

TIA

You can also buy the square ones at countrykitchensa. com. I ordered a set a month ago. Had to buy plates seperate then pillars.