Where I'm from alot of people don't actually serve their cakeat the wedding. They cut it for pictures and thats about it. So I have alot of people asking me to do fake cake layers sine they dont "need" all that cake. I've done usually just the bottom tier, but charged them around the same price as I would for the whole cake being real. Is this right, would you still charge the same? They cost almost just as much as making the cakes, but I just don't have to take all the extra time to actually bake the cake.
Thanx
There's as much time involved in decorating styrofoam as there is in decorating cake, so yes - my price for faux tiers is nearly the same as cake tiers. I charge 80% of the cake price for a dummy. For instance, if the customer wants a 10" round fake tier, that's 36 standard servings. If I would normally charge $3.50 per serving for cake, I take that times 80% and end up with $2.80. $2.80 times 36 servings is $100.80. I always use the 80% guideline when calculating the cost for faux tiers.
Hope that helps!
I charge 50% less for fake layers (design permitting) because baking the cakes, cooling, torting, leveling, filling, crumbcoating, etc. is a time consuming process that I do not have to do with a styro cake. Most people disagree and that's ok too - I do think that it takes as much time to decorate the cake but far, far less in assembly (which I HATE!!) so I have no problem discounting.
Like I said, design & size permitting because if they want a basketweave or some other intricate design, my ratio would go up.
And it is pathetic that people think that if its a dummy it should only cost $50 - madness!!
What has happened to me in the past is I don't get the fake tier(s) back, so if they want a fake tier they either pay a deposit or if they don't want to bother with getting it back to me they pay the same as they would if it were real cake. And then they also pay for the kitchen cakes. What usually happens is they decide to go with a whole cake, unless they are wanting the effect of a larger design but don't have the guest count to support all that extra cake, then they tend to just pay as if it were a real cake instead of a dummy, because they don't want to have to deal with bringing back the fake part.
There's as much time involved in decorating styrofoam as there is in decorating cake, so yes - my price for faux tiers is nearly the same as cake tiers. I charge 80% of the cake price for a dummy. For instance, if the customer wants a 10" round fake tier, that's 36 standard servings. If I would normally charge $3.50 per serving for cake, I take that times 80% and end up with $2.80. $2.80 times 36 servings is $100.80. I always use the 80% guideline when calculating the cost for faux tiers.
Hope that helps!
Me, too. Exactly like this.
I will be doing my first fake-cake next month, so this is great information to have! I ALMOST wish people here didn't need the cake, so I could focus all my time on decorating...that's the fun part for me 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%