A local bakery owener asked me to make her some display cakes.

She gonna provide the dummies and the fondant and wants to pay me $60 for each display.

Do you guys think thats a reasonable price??

Hi Kayla...I'm sorry this has nothing to do with your question but it will at least bump you a bit.

I saw your line about belly dancing...I took some BD classes and loved them! At the first class, while we were stretching, the instructor told us about the benefits and such and said that she danced all through her pregnancies. I spoke up and said, "That's called big belly dancing!" I thought it was a hoot!...I was the only one... just thought I would share. There aren't enough of us belly dancers in the world

Anyways, $60 may be ok depending on design. I would imagine that you will want them to be fantastic so they will end up being very time consuming.... and in the end, $60 will likely feel like too little.

Its funny that you bring that up. Ive been dancing for more than 5 years and this week I've started selling all of my stuff. i have like 2 boxes of costumes. it breaks my heart to sell them but times are hard and i havent danced in like a year since my dad passed away.

Its addicting i hope you enjoy your classes.

on another note. i had originally told her $150 and i was gonna buy the supplies. I was gonna make something really nice and really take my time on them.

Since she said $60 guess I could still do the dummys but I'm gonna make them less complicated.

what do you think?

I'm kinda hesitant to get involed with her because she doesnt know how to use fondant so she doesnt know how time consuming it can be .

OH!! I thought that they would be representing your work, not hers! Yikes, I don't know that I would allow someone to claim my work as their own

I'm sorry that you aren't dancing. I wish you the very best though.

My approach to this scenario would be an hourly wage plus the cost of any additional supplies that I provide--royal icing, stamens, gum glue, tylose, etc.

If you can do the designs she wants in an amount of time that will provide you with an hourly wage that you can accept, then go for it. If you want/need more control, tell her they'll be priced individually based on the time that each will take you to complete and that your hourly wage will be $xx.00.

I'll be honest, but when you consider all that goes into decorating anything--prepping & coloring fondant, royal, gum paste, glue, rolling out fondant, clean-up, etc.--I don't get a whole lot done in a short time, so the longer it takes, the less I make.

HTH
Rae

I just reread your response and was thinking, that if she don't handle fondant well, she shouldn't have your beautiful dummies. I would be a mifted as a bride if I asked for display #1 and received something of a lesser perfection. Maybe you could suggest that she makes her own dummies with buttercream instead so that they reflect her talents.

Unless, of course, she is going to hire you to do all of the fondant cake orders that she gets, I would not do it. Respectfully. But like Rae said, the work does not reflect HER work, but YOUR work, and you should not let someone else claim that your work is theirs, and then make an abomination of it when the time comes, incase it comes back on you! quality and integrity and all that, you know?

the thing is that she almost know nothing about cake. she bought the bakery as an investment, and shes kinda learning at she goes along.

She had said that if someone orders a fondant cake she would call me.

My worry is that she in the low range. she charges $1 a serving so i dont think that if she ever got a fondant order she would really call me to come and make it

she told me the max she has charged for a wedding cake was $150

I say go with your gut feelings, If you think she is selling too low (which she is) then I would not get involved. She is undercutting everyone else price wise. If she did call you to do a cake and she doesn't price it high enough you will lose out on a profit and may not even break even. I'd think it over real good before giving her an answer.