My question is if they are going to pay you $1 a slice what is the bakery charging a slice? When I do wedding cakes I charge an extra fee for delivery and set up any where from $25. - $50 depending on the distance and how much time it takes to set up. Why cant the bakery charge for a delivery and set fee and pass that on to you.

I spoke with the owners of the bakery yesterday letting them know I charge for delivery and set up, $25. They said I can use their personal SUV instead of mine to deliver the cakes and split the delivery fee with them. I was also asked, to make 5 basic tiered wedding cake displays for a venue that they are working with. I feel I should get the same amount of pay for these displays that I would for a real wedding cake, it takes just as much time to ice and decorate displays as it does the real thing. Do you all agree on this??? I haven't told them whether I'd do the displays yet and what I'd charge, if I did them. I keep hearing "wholesale, wholesale, wholesale" from them, but I'm not wholesale! My next step is to let them know I'd be willing to train their employees how to decorate, assemble, deliver and set-up wedding cakes. This would certainly be at an hourly rate and not $1 per slice. What do you think???[/u]

Again, all is completely up to you. But, I'd be wondering....not paranoid about it, but just wondering about if you are setting yourself up to be used big time. AND on top of that, preparing your competition to possibly take orders away from you in the long run.

Five basic tiered cakes for a window..ummmm, that just sounds odd to me. Wouldn't you want 5 different cakes to appeal to a bigger group of possible clients? Whose decorating them?

I don't think that brides think of their special wedding cakes as wholesale. And, you just said you don't think of yourself that way. This caterer probably wants to be able to offer a "one stop" type set up for brides. But, my goodness...I'm not sure you should rush a wedding cake.

Not everyone is cut out to do everything. I realize speed is an issue for all bakeries. But, when you get into all the decorating trends, they take time. Shoot, even plain ole piping takes time. I'm not sure these people "get it". My concern is, that the fun you have with cake decorating will soon be tossed out the window.

I get the fact that this opportunity would sort of get you in the event "mix". You'd be making cakes on a consistant basis probably. But, how much of it would be advertised as YOUR name and YOUR art. Is this a concern of yours? If not, maybe you'd be happy with this arrangement. But, I know I would want a bit more control. I'm not "jabbing" at you, just trying to think out loud.

I hope it all works out for you. Bottom line, after my rambling, just seems like a lot of work for little money & little glory.....just my 25cents.

One more person on the NO WAY band wagon.
I would say Ither put me on as a part time or forget it. Remember IF people hate the cake then you are the one who decorated it.. (But it wasent you choice, it wasent your anything but labor) and if they LOVE it, they wont look to you they look to the company it came from. So there goes a future client.
Sorry NO !
AND NO NOT YOUR RIG! split the delivery? so you will get 12.50 for doing all the work on delivery??

Well IF you agree you are ( a push over(sorry to be so blunt)) opening a can of worms. (worms and cake just don't go well together)

I think you should get the whole $25 delivery fee. If you use their van then they get to take the van off their taxes as a business expense. plus they are going to keep half of the $25.00. It takes a while to set cakes up. You also need to find out how much of the $1.00 per slice you will have to pay in your personal taxes as income to the feds and state. As an independent contractor they will probably 1099 you and you will have to pay taxes on it. Did they have someone before that did this for them maybe you should find out who it was and talk to them.

They aren't in the wedding cake business yet, they are just starting off in that direction. At this time they do pastries and corporate party cakes. They have noone in the bakery that knows how to do wedding cakes. The owners have taken a couple Wilton courses. That's all they know about decorating cakes. I think one of the problems is they nagotiated with the venue a price too low for the wedding cakes. They feel that they can have 3 of us make money on the cakes, (me, the bakery and the venue). I might be in the dark but I don't understand why the venue should make a profit on a wedding cake they had nothing to do with making, decorating, transporting or setting up. I'm sorry I keep going on about this but I was really hoping it would work out for me. It would mean more business/money. I better stick to making my own, even though I don't make that many, at least I get the entire amount I feel is appropriate for my work. To answer one of your questions, my name would not be mentioned as the decorator, the bakery would be the only ones to get the advertising or recognition. I haven't yet addressed with them how many wedding cakes they expect me to make per week. I'm a perfectionist and take several hours sometimes days to make and decorate my cakes. That's right, , the cakes wouldn't be considerd my creations anymore, they would be the bakery's. I'm coming down to the decision this isn't a very good idea!

I think you should taste their cakes and see if its something that would be satisfactory to you to even want to do it. If it is a new ventrue for them they dont have a clue in what they are doing. Maybe you should inlighten them on how the business works. Sounds like they arent sure on how many cakes orders they will get. Are they going to require the people that rent the venue to use their cakes only like some venue do? I understand you wanting to try something. I would decide what you really want out of the deal and give them a take it or leave it. Nothing says after a month you tell them to shove it. Also if you deliver and set up word will get out on who is really behind the creation. I if I took the job I would tell them I want to meet with the clients on the cake designs. Good Luck

No way.

Their emergency is not my emergency.

I wouldn't even consider doing this myself.