A friend of mine asked me to do her son's cake. She is a photographer and does my daughter's pictures for very cheap so I'm not out to make a ton of money off of her, but I do need to cover costs and a little for my time. Anyhow, this is the cake she really likes:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.publix.com/managed_images/sif71621.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.publix.com/food/catalog/Bakery/DecoratedCakes/Superheroes/1269/DecoratedCakeDetail.do%3Fid%3D1269&usg=__4bP6pFVurSJGH0CxEjIoh99KCdI=&h=400&w=400&sz=74&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=Gxbx0itOhvVGfM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspiderman%2Bcake%2Bpublix%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
But if I replicate it, the topper alone is going to cost roughly $25 (anyone know anywhere cheap to get this topper?)...then the all of the standard costs of cake making...I don't think that I can do it cheaper (or even as cheap). Do you think that I should tell her to just get it from them or suck it up and do it basically for free (or at a loss)?

I would give her an invoice, showing her the approximate cost of the cake supplies (adding whatever percent you feel your time should be valued at for this client), then ask her if she still wants to go with it.

Hypothetically -

Cake - $25 ingredients
Fondant - $ 5.00 to make MMF and color it
Topper - $25.00
Board, etc - $10.00

Total Supplies $ 65.00
Time @ 25% $ 16.25

Grand Total $ 81.25

Theresa

I would do it..its cute. and if it would cost too much more, ask for some additional photos of your daughter (b/c you can never have enough) to compensate for the cake

If it were me, I would tell her that I would make the cake per cost of ingredients, cake board and box, if she goes out and buys the figures and gets them to you to put on the cake. Those figures are not cheap...

Hope this helps a little bit...

This site sells the topper kit for $13.99

http://kakes4kids.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=3955081

Yeah deco pac sells them. They are one of their sets for 9.95 plus easy exact directions on how to make the cake. They look hard but are really a snap to do. It should not cost you more than 20.00 to make.

Thanks guys! I could only find them for roughly $15 plus $9 in shipping...I can't use DecoPac (as far as I can tell) b/c I don't have a federal tax id