I am fairly new to decorating cakes and have only been doing this for about a year. A friend of mine asked me if I would make her mom's wedding cake and I said sure. She wanted a fake 4-tier multi shaped cake covered in fondant and then wanted 3 12x18 sheet cakes to feed her guests. For the sheet cakes, she wanted the cake scored for 54 slices with a black swirl on each piece.
For the tiered cake, she wanted black scrolls on the bottom and third tiers. For the second, a pink ribbon around the tier with white icing dots. The top tier she wanted rhinestones randomly put on around the tier. This was a simple cake but still took quite a bit of time to make. She provided the tiers, ribbon, and rhinestones. I bought the fondant.
I gave her a price of $70 each for the sheet cakes and $150 for the tiered cake. The $150 for the tiered cake comes from $75 for supplies (fondant and food coloring) and another $75 for labor. It took me 13 hours to make the cake. The total was $360.
She felt this pricing was too high and asked if I would reconsider the pricing. I explained how I came up with the price and told her I still felt that it was fair but would be willing to take 10% off of the price of the sheet cakes for a grand total of $340.
This all happened yesterday and her wedding is tomorrow. I have not heard from her at all and she has not confirmed a pick up time for the cakes in the morning. She had told me in her email that she was going to have a friend make the cakes originally but due to work hours was not sure if she would be able to, so she came to me. I am afraid since I have not heard from her that she has decided to have her friend make the cakes for her but decided not to tell me.
What I am asking is: Was my price too high? I did quite a bit of research before giving her a price and I was never trying to con her. What do I do now? I have three large sheet cakes in my frig that I doubt will be picked up. I am not sure how to handle this situation. AND dummy me, (I will never do this again!!!) I made the tiered cake last month and went ahead and gave it to her without payment. She was/is my friend's mom and I trusted her!!!! Not only am I out all the time I have spent making the cakes but I am out all the cost that I put into it! How do I handle this??????
No, your price was too low. Friend or not, $150 for a 4-tier cake is way too low to charge, especially if she wants scrolls on it.
Theresa 
Wow, talk about ignorant and rude people. With friends like that you don't need enemies. Your price was really low, and I would be on the phone already and ask when they want the cakes or if they were picking them up or what.....and that was not good giving them the tiered cake ahead of time....I am so sorry this happened to you....I hope they honor the agreement........its an expensive lesson.....file it away and learn from it.
Furthermore, I would get in the car right now and pick up the tiered cake.
Theresa
Furthermore, I would get in the car right now and pick up the tiered cake.
Theresa
yes yes yes
Furthermore, I would get in the car right now and pick up the tiered cake.
Theresa
yes yes yes
Cake Repo!!!!
Always, always, always get a deposit up front. Friend or no, you still had to put out the money for the ingredients.
Money can break a friendship like that! {snaps fingers} If she calls and asks you to deliver the cakes tomorrow, you tell her in no uncertain terms that she MUST have the CASH (not a cheque, CASH) in hand before you unload anything, or you'll walk into the reception and remove the display cake infront of everyone. And stick to your guns!!
Good luck.
Always, always, always get a deposit up front. Friend or no, you still had to put out the money for the ingredients.
Money can break a friendship like that! {snaps fingers} If she calls and asks you to deliver the cakes tomorrow, you tell her in no uncertain terms that she MUST have the CASH (not a cheque, CASH) in hand before you unload anything, or you'll walk into the reception and remove the display cake infront of everyone. And stick to your guns!!
Good luck.
Lesson learned the hard way. Never ever again.
Thanks for all of your replies!
Just curious, what would you all have charged? I have a hard time with pricing, obviously.
your sheet cakes at $70 is in line with what I charge ($75).
Dummy cakes are not cheaper. I do them for 80% of the real-cake price and many charge 100% .... so same price for fake as for real. see my blog where I run the numbers: http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/search/label/fake%20cake And I think that's what she thought .... that she'd get a fake cake to save money. ("Oh? You have to PAY for those?" 
)
So without knowing the sizes of your cakes, if I did a dummy cake of 6/8/10/12 which has a serving count of 12/24/38/56 = 130 x $4.50/serving (fondant rate) = $585 x 80% = $468 JUST for the dummy. Plus $225 for the sheets, my total would have been $693.
Since you were kind enough to explain to her HOW you came up with that pricing, she was more than rude, crude and inconsiderate to ask for a price discount. Feel free to tell her what a great deal she got because you "....know someone who would have charged 3 times that much."
Was the price discussed before you baked and decorated the cakes??
Go get that cake back prior to the wedding................no pay..........like someone else said .......REPO...................and you were doing her a big favor.......what an ignorant rip
No it wasn't. I know, my fault. She also told me price didn't matter. Pretty ironic, huh?
I have called her and emailed her this evening and have not received a reply so I am guessing she is not picking up the cakes. AND believe me, if I knew where she was getting married, I would be there in a heart beat to grab that cake. This has been a tough lesson learned. I hope in the end this doesn't affect the friendship I have with her daughter but right now I really don't care. Situations like this show a person's true character!
Was the price discussed before you baked and decorated the cakes??
I'm glad it worked out, but for future reference, when someone says "Price doesn't matter", you should IMMEDIATELY tell them, "Oh good! I've been wanting to do a thousand dollar cake for a LONG time!"
Price may not matter, but rest assured they have a number in mind and it's usually WAY lower than the actual price.
Hubby says he watches People's Court during his lunch hour all the time. He says that judge is constantly asking "Did you agree to a price ahead of time? Did you get it in writing? There's a word for people who don't do this ... they're called 'litigants'!" There's our lesson learned, people.
Indy, Please ask Mr. Indy (since he's an unoffical expert with that kind of experience : ) Like does he think the judge would award some but not all in the case of the cake being served but not as designed.
Do judges award the money by degrees?
Do they place value on some aspect and award the difference.
Perfect example--Like if chick paid for the sheets and our op had to sue for the cost of the dummy. Because the cake serves two purposes. But does Mr. Indy think in his proffered opinion that if it was all cake could a judge split the award along those lines--it was ugly (as so often happens) but it was servable.
Customer service might say refund 100% but my question what do small claims court judges do.
He says:
Judge Marilyn (People's Court) will NOT award 100% of the money if they got value or benefit from it, then she says they have to pay for it. She asks, "Why do think you should get that for free?" He says she applies "rough justice" ... she just decides. A bride wants full refund because the cake was dry. But ".....you had a cake for the ceremony, you had a cake for the picture, you don't get that for free."
There are different circumstances, of course, but someone who tries to get it all for nothing? She ain't going for it.
I LOVE Judge Milian. She is my faovrite judge. Nobody gets nothing for free in her court.
He says:
Judge Marilyn (People's Court) will NOT award 100% of the money if they got value or benefit from it, then she says they have to pay for it. She asks, "Why do think you should get that for free?" He says she applies "rough justice" ... she just decides. A bride wants full refund because the cake was dry. But ".....you had a cake for the ceremony, you had a cake for the picture, you don't get that for free."
There are different circumstances, of course, but someone who tries to get it all for nothing? She ain't going for it.
That's what I thought--that's where I've been coming from in some of our threads about refunding people when there's just a booboo (not scrambled cake on the highway).
Add in a bridezilla and a twitchy caker who needs to get talked off the ledge type of scenario. Like the last one I remember barely got paid for ingredients & had nothing to refund.
Please thank Mr. IndyD for me. Great minds & all that. 
Did I miss an episode???? Did she get paid for the sheet cake? Did she get paid for dummy? I am too tired to read the wholte thing ......glad you are happy barbarino...love the name by the way....how is mr kotter hehe
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