I have a bride ordering a wedding cake in a month. The will be only about 50 people at the wedding but she wanted 3-tiered cake with fondant. The sizes are 12-9-6" which would feed about 100 and she wanted different flavor with each tier (mocha, chocolate/raspberry, vanilla/blueberry). I make my cakes from scratch, which uses tons of eggs and butter (10-16 egg yolks for one recipe). The buttercream is also made with 100% butter, and will involve meringue, souffle cake layer, and also espresso and rum for the mocha cream

I quote her for $300-$350 because we haven't decided on everything, but before we go any further, I just want this to be clear first. I don't want to have a lengthy discussion and then it's way out of her budget.

After I sent out email about the price, I haven't heard anything back. Do I charge too much for the cake? I'm not an expert at all still and I don't want to charge a lot, but I also want my time to be appreciated. I work full time and got home at around 8-8:30 everyday, so it's gonna be tough for me to find the time, but I should be able to manage.

Oh and btw, I live in San Jose, California. I'm totally ok if they cancel it because wedding cake is so much stress for me, but at least I want to know if they do so that I don't have to keep planning. Please help, needs your advice and opinions

Thank you so much,
Bertha
www.gourmetbaking.blogspot.com

update:
I just got a reply from the bride after I posted this topic.
She said that it seems like there's a family member helping her with the wedding cake, and she only ordered some plain chiffon cakes for snack between the ceremony and reception.

I feel a little relieved, but kinda hurt (that rejected feeling)
Good thing I'm not that close to the bride and groom, but still.

That was way too much. I just checked out your blog, and will probably be on it for awhile. You make some high end gourmet desserts there, lady! I say your quote was half as much as it should have been, maybe even more! And when you get the old "someone is helping out with the cake...." be thankful! And move on!

I don't think the issue is that you are priced too high, I think the issue is the bride is looking at it as $350 for a cake or 50 people. If she wants that much extra cake she has to pay for it. Next time give her pricing for a 3-6-9... she still gets 3 tiers, but less servings.

Oh geeeez...I didn't mean that was way too much, I meant way too LOW!! Dang!

I already told them that they will have plenty of leftovers and it will serve about 100 people. Maybe you're right, they're looking at $350 wedding cake for 50 people is kinda expensive. On the other hand, I have one coworker told me a few months ago that he got a really good price on his wedding cake, $500 to serve 50 people @_@.

I will try to cheer myself up, and be happy that I don't have to make the wedding cake (I do really, just can't get over the "rejected" part of it). I would rather make the chiffon cakes, which probably took me only 2 hours .

Thank you guys for the encouragement, I feel a lot better now

Bertha:

I don't know if you have your own commercial location or are working out of a commercial kitchen (the only 2 ways to sell cakes legally in san jose). I just want to give you a heads up since california is VERY strict. Thousand of dollars in fines if caught.

I live in San Jose too and have been looking into doing cakes for profit myself for a while now (I don't have the funds to open yet). But in doing my research the average starting price here per serving is around $5. So 100 servings for 350 is only about 3.50 a serving - a steal for that cake.

HTH

Judi

Hi Judi,

thanks for the info. I'm not in a cake business or anything (and not planning to). I'm working as an engineer right now and don't have much time to do other things. I make cakes as a hobby but my friends started to ask me to make cake for a friend's bday or something. So, I've never made cakes for strangers or people I don't know, it's always been for my close friends and they pay some amount for the ingredients and stuff (they don't want to ask me to make cakes for them all the time for free)

is $5/serving for buttercream cake or fondant cake?