a prospective bride sent me an e-mail to ask about a quotation about a cake design she found. I am not sure about what technique was used to create the pattern on the cake plus I don't know the names of the flowers that are on it, I only know how to make sugar roses. She also wants these mirror seperators which I have never seen before. I am unable to cut and paste her e-mail on this forum. (mod edited.)

..moving to Ideas forum.

Do you have a photo of the cake she wants?

Maybe you could paste just the pic?

http://herweddingdream.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/weddingcake.jpg

That is the style she wants but she wants it to be square, not round.

1)She likes the leaf design on the cake and I have no idea how to do it.
2) She also wants each tier to be seperated by a glass mirror cube/pillar which she also has sent a picture of in the e-mail but I can't attach to this message. If you like, I can e-mail it to you. It is the first time I have seen them. I have just been browsing through google and The Craftcampany.co.uk sell something like them but all are the same size. Would you use all pillars the same size under each tier?
3)Also, she wants 15 small flowers with a little greenery. I don't even know what the flowers in the picture are called! Are the little ones poenies? Is the one at the top a lilly? How much would you charge for this cake and should I tell her to supply the pillars herself?

I can help with a few of your questions. The flower on top is a lilly. The smaller flowers and the green flowers are orchids. It's a beautiful cake! For the design on the side....could you just cover in fondant and then pipe the design on with royal?

Looks like the small flowers are orchids and the big one a type of lilly, mabye tiger. The leaf design looks to be piped or done with a stencil..
As for the glass boxes..I don't know. Does she know where to get them? Maybe she can provide them for you to help defer the price of the cake. As for pricing I would charge a dollar amount per serving, then add extra for fillings, and type of icing used. But I tend to under charge. Maybe someone else can chime in on that one. By the looks of the picture one could easily charge $500 plus.
Hope that helps.
Julisa

Thanks you two for your replies. Thank god I learnt how to do orchids in my cake decorating class! ha ha.. It is a beautiful cake but what she wants will look very different as it will be seperated with glass mirror pillars. You may charge $500 for this but can anyone in the UK tell me how much they woud charge? I am guessing about £400. Will that be too much?

I thought the leaf design may be brush embrodiery but I am not sure. Can anyone tell me how I would do this and if there are stencils like that out there?

actually, I learnt how to do sweetpea's in class, not orchids. Does anyone know of a good instryctional video / site I can look at? she also wants gerberra's. are they easy to make?

Here's a great how-to video collection, one of which is on orchids (scroll down).

Hope that helps!!!

Jenny

where is the link?

Whoops! Silly me!!!

http://www.rolledfondant.com/how.htm

thanks

you can make a gerbera using a large pme cutter, I have one, Im not sure if it is a large daisy or sunflower cutter, but you can cut each petal with a craft knife, then vein each one with a cocktail stick. then make the centre. somehow. lol. flowers not my strong point!! Good luck!
OOh, also, could you use very thinly rolled paste to punch leaves using the pme rose leaf cutter and attatch to the cake, then pipe the stalks etc, in RI? Maybe quicker than brush embroidery?

I didn't quite understand when you said that you cut each petal of the gerbera, then vein each one with a cocktail stick?

Oh sorry, what I mean is, you could cut each petal in half lenthways from centre to tip. Then press each one lengthways in the middle with a cocktail stick. I usually do this if Im making large daisies with this cutter, but actually grebera flowers do have thicker petals so you probably would be fine to just use the cutter as it is. I would still vein the petals though with the cocktail stick. Does that make any more sense?! lol!

The flower on top is a stargazer lily. Tonedna has a DVD on how to make them:

http://designmeacake.com/catalog/i1.html

I don't know if there are any tutorials on how to do the orchids, but I have seen cutters... some come with instructions.

http://www.globalsugarart.com/search.php?search=orchid&searchimage.x=0&searchimage.y=0

HTH

- Leisel

Jojo, I think I know what you mean. I think I have seen this in a tutorial on CC. Also, the bride wants greenery / leaves. What leaves are suitable with a gerbera, I have never done a wired leaf before. Can I just cut out a leaf shape instead of buying a cutter? How do you thread the wire?

I think you can use a cutter, and then dry it in such a way that its not totally flat, so that it looks more natural. Ive just done a google search for them, looks like they have quite big fleshy leaves. Most of the flower arrangement pics with those flowers have no leaves, I wonder if you could do an arrangement of gerbera heads on the top, without leaves?

Difficult to price without an idea of size, you have not mentioned tier sizes in your original posting or how many she wants to feed.

6,8 and 10 inches. The Gerbera's I think she wants to use as a replacement for the small flowers so I don't think they would be too big.

With regards to pricing for flowers, whilst size may be an issue, really you need to know how long it is going to take you to make them, and then charge according to what you think your time is worth. So I would say you charge your price per serving e.g., £3.50 per serving plus the price of the flowers to give your total price for the cake. Plus of course any delivery charges.

I quoted the bride £400 (including 12 Gerbera's) and she got back to me saying that its over her budget! this is the 3rd time this has happened, they expect you to sell the cakes dead cheap. They don't understand the amount of work that is involved. Last night I e-mailed her saying that I try to accomadate every brides budget and if she wants, by making a few changes in the cake, we can reduce the price. I don't know if she'll get back to me. I don't think I'll ever get a customer. The first bride I quoted ended up finding a cake in a local bakery half the price. They quoted a 3 tier cake for £100 while I quoted £270. It was a compeletly different design by the way. (I think it looked quite horrible but the bride wasn't fussy) We don't stand a chance with these bakers.

Hey keep your chin up, you hit the nail on the head, the other cake was horrid. They will get what they pay for. At the moment people want a bargain but it's not gonna stay like that forever and there will still be people even now where money isn't an issue and they will pay for the quality of your cake. Don't do yourself out of money just to get custom, you have to pay the bills also.