I have just received a request to quote a lady on an 8 teir wedding cake all made out of styrofoam. Now even though 3 is the biggest teirs I have made I am not really worried about it as at least I have time to play with.
She also wants 300 individual fondant mini cakes that she will be serving!
Now this really scares me. I have made large quantities of cupcakes but not individual cakes.
Has anyone got any tips can it be done by one person alone???? I bake from home.
I am really hesitant about even quoting. Please help. Any advice would be appreciated eg time frames etc. TIA

i wouldnt worry too much about the fake cake, they dont need stacking in the same way as real cake, so that makes life easier. and you can do it ages in advance, since it doesnt need to be edible. you still need to charge a fair whack though - that is boat loads of decorating time, probably fairly expensive to ship that size of item, and you have to store and deliver.

mini cakes - very time consuming, and so very expensive. it will be very hard for one person to do it all them selves. you will need so much space, both on your counter - and i would say you will need to be freezing too, so freezer space. doable if you have the space, and nothing else on that week, probably fairly stressful.

i suppose you could do them unfrozen, but you would be booking a solid few days before delivery towards that. at least if you freeze, you can do all that baking well in advance, then take a batch out at a time to decorate. (thats a lot of cake boxes as well).

i would strongly encourage the woman towards a real 8 tierd cake. mini cakes are pretty, but more awkward than the full size ones. probably the cost will help her to scale down her expectaions - be sure to include the cost of some cheaper alternatives - that still have the wow factor i assume she is after.
xx

She's gonna pay a freakin' fortune for her wedding cake, does she realize that? I would price the styrofoam at 80% of a real cake, so running the numbers real quick, a 6/8/10/12/14/16/18/20 will serve 12/24/38/56/78/98/120/approx160 = 428 servings x $3/serving = $1284 x 80% =$1027. (And I'm using $3 for easy math .... my normal rate is $3.50).

300 individual cakes. Those are such a pain, I wouldn't do them for less than $10 each = $3000 + the $1027 = over $4000 for a wedding cake.

OR ......

She could order a big 6 tier cake that serves 300 at $3/serving = $900.

Be sure she understands this!

I did a wedding with 36 mini- 3 tier cakes plus a five tier main cake I think. I'm pretty used to bustin' out some cake and have produced over a thousand servings in one weekend by myself frequently. But 300 mini cakes is a ton of work - unless what you're calling a mini cake is one of the following: 1) cupcake upside down with a fondant "skirt". You know, the look that's not smooth, but more like a , well, skirt. or 2) a 3" or 4" circle cut from a sheet, then covered with fondant. Stick a small (purchased) gumpaste flower on top and you're good to go.

For option 1 or 2, I'd charge $10 each. For anything else, I'd start the bidding at $15 each and add extra of course for a flower deco. And jack up your delivery fee like there's no tomorrow. Have you thought about transporting 300 mini cakes? Also, is she requiring packaging? 'Cause that adds to the $ also.

I agree with Jeff & Indy, this will cost a fourtune & a good week of your time! I would quote 75% of my normal price for the styrofoam cake, that could be anywhere from $5-$8+ per serving depending on design! Let's assume a middle of the road design at $6.50 per serving. I would start with a 4in round and finish with an 16in (7 tiers) = 316 servings x 6.5 x 75% = $1540 for the fake cake.

Those mini cakes are an enormous amount of work, plus the boards & boxes. At least $10 per piece depending on design again = $3000 for the actual cakes.

Grand total = $4540.

Now, if she were to go for a real 7 tier cake serving 316 x $6.50 = $2054

Less than half the price. A no-brainer, at least if I were the bride!

cakelass,
I am a newbie in all this, but I have made minicakes for my portafolio and a bridal show.
I timed myself I can decorate 6 mini cakes in a hour, and that doesn't include the baking time and the accesories I have made weeks before.
I would not charge less than $15 per cake.
If you work 8 hours straight decorating you would have 48 made at the end of the day, so you would need 6.5 days to finish 300.
I would hire help, because you will definetly need it.

Minicakes = headaches = cost of at least $15 per cake. I've even seen them go up to $30 for a minicake. Definetly lay out all the cost for her.

And dont forget thats when the corpal tunnel comes out did 200 of the mini cakes took me 3 months to get my hands back to normal.

I made mini wedding cakes for my sisters wedding, and I will NEVER do it again. I did it because it was something different and this was 6 years ago so not many people had even seen them before.
It just took up too much time(and space)plus I was in the wedding party! .
I would charge her at least $15.00 per cake.

I took a designer cake decorating class last year and the instructor said that she would charge $60 per cake because that are such a pain in the a%^ to do! She also won't do a cake for less than $10 a serving, I wish I had her clients))

I saw this post earlier today and came across this thread and thought I'd post it here. I've never thought of freezing fondant covered cakes but it looks like Briarview had a successful go of freezing mini cakes. Thought maybe you might want to try this experiment as well:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-647142-.html

Although I still say your going to have to charge good $$ for the amount of time you'll have to put into this. Plus if the freezing works, do you have enough room to store them.