I have a wedding cake that I was asked to give a quote on. The topper is made out of royal icing (or at least I think it is) or maybe gumpaste but I am not sure how the daises are attached to it. This cake would need a J. Does anyone know how to make this or even if I could buy one? Any advice would sure be appreciated!

I would do this in floral wire. I'd have some of the little flowers on wires themselves, and use floral tape to put the "stem" wires together into the shape of the letter you need. Then I'd add more little flowers glued on with royal icing if it looked like I had any spots that needed extra oomph. I'd also do the flowers in gumpaste instead of royal. From what I can tell in the picture, it looks like those are mostly just "pulled flowers" or "finger flowers."

HTH,
Deanna

My guess would be gumpaste with gumpaste flowers and glue the flowers on with royal icing.

I would make it well in advance so it can harden - possibly even make 2? At least have extra flowers and leaves.

On Martha Stewart it says this about the cake:

"It is finished with an initial made of hand-painted, sugar-paste flowers, a sweet topper for a garden wedding."

Thanks for the help. I have never done anything like that before and was not sure how to start. Making two would be a good idea. If making with floral wire would you use more than one strand and twist them together? I guess I would find this cake on Martha Stewart's website? Also how much would you charge for a cake like this? I live in Abilene, Texas and I don't think I can charge more than $2 - $2.50 a slice but would I add more on top of that for the J topper? She also wants me to travel 26 miles one way to deliver and set up. Would $40 be reasonable to charge for the travel?

call around to some bakeries in your area and get a price on this cake. Act like you need one so they don't know they are getting "shopped". $40 does not some like to much for delivery to me. How many people is this cake going to serve? Fondant or BC? Hand made topper....I would charge no less than $3 a serving and I live in the midwest also. Remember...it's not what you personally would pay for a cake, it's what they will because no one else can do it! Do not become a starving artist!

Here in New England I would charge $4 a slice then additional for the topper. So if you can charge $2.50 I'd say go for it then at least another $25 for the topper, if they were buying any other kind of topper it would cost at least that if not more.

Yes, with floral wire I would twist a few strands together, like vines, maybe then tape them up with floral wire as well. Make the flowers on wires ahead of time and twist them into the wire of the initial.

If you do gumpaste make sure you insert supports - toothpicks/skewers or something before it dries.

You can find it on the website under monogram cakes.

$40 seems fine for setup and delivery.

I was thinking I had seem a topper like this on cc. Haven't found it yet but I did find this one:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_87615.html

Thought it might give you some more ideas. I will look some more for the other one though.

I found it!!!!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_22851.html

I would use Sculpey clay. I use it for most of my toppers and it works great!

For the travel fee -- I charge $2 per mile.

You are all so helpful and I so appreciate it! I sent heavenlycakes a PM to see if she could explain how she made her topper.

The cake will be buttercream. I was thinking I should charge for the topper too. I am a little nervous about attempting it though!!!

She wants the cake to serve 200 -220. White buttercream for the icing. I have a hard time trying to figure out what to charge. I do not want to undercharge and don't want to over charge either. I do not want to do the cake if it is not worth my time as wedding cakes are so time consuming!

Looks to me for 200 people you would need 2 - 14", a 10" and 2 - 16" cakes. 202 servings times $2.50 = $505, plus extra for the topper.. VERY reasonable! Anyone else have any ideas what size cakes to use to get 200 servings?

Thank you all for the wonderful help. The lady never got back with me after giving her a quote on price..... but I do not want to do it if it is not worth my time!!!