man o man. yea. this lady at my kids school wants a fondant cake for 40pp, so i quoted $160 for a 2 tier. my sizes are very generous. so she wants samples of 4 different cakes, goes on and on about the fact that she is going to spend $160, but that she HATES fondant and is leaning towards my less exp $1.67per slice whippd cream cakes. that means shes gonna spend maybe $60 plus a consultation, plus enough samples of 4 cakes for her family to try.

BTW---my cousin works at target and i think she has to decorate 50 or so cakes per day.

I don't even know if $20.00 would pay for the ingredients for enough cake for 40 people. Good grief. People NEVER cease to amaze me. I had a girl call me about a wedding cake. She needs to feed 65 people. I told her I'd do it for $165.00, (she's a friend of my daughters) Her mom said that she was only willing to pay $65.00 for cake. Guess they will be going to Wal-Mart or the grocery store.

The teacher my ds had last year e-mailed me a few weeks ago. She wanted to know if I can do a themed cake for the drama club. She would pay for the ingradients. She was thinking tiered (I don't do sheet cakes) with scenes from the play. I was more than willing to do it because she is AWESOME and it was for the kids.

I thought of a few simple designs and told her I would need $50.00 to $60.00 for the supplies. She almost had a heart attack. She was thinking around $20.00!!! For a tiered, fondant, Aristocats cake ... for 100... needed in 1 week!!

That didn't happen!! My son isn't even in the darn drama club... I'm not paying for the supplies AND donating the work!!

HAHA I'm just starting out and making cakes for fun... so not selling yet. But everyone who sees my cakes gets a subtle "Yeah, I love making them, but it's so expensive... this cost me $XX for the ingredients and took me X hours. That's why I can't make cakes all the time." They're usually pretty amazed that I spend that much on the ingredients- but at least they're well aware so if they ever want a cake, they know exactly how much the ingredients cost.

I agree, if these cake shows like Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss would quote a few prices during the show maybe it would help to educate these people. Maybe I'll send in that suggestion to TLC.. Can you imagine the reaction you'd get from some of these people if you told them that, like Duff, your minimum is $1,000.00

I don't make cakes to sell but when I have friends sort of talking like they want me to make them one I always say "it's a good thing I don't sell cakes because I'd be so expensive no one could afford me"..It's work but honestly folks people really don't understand. It is annoying though when you tell them and they get an attitude. Usually when I am inquiring about something that I don't have a clue about I start the convo with "I'm calling regarding pricing for XYZ and I have no idea what this costs" (and it's true) and so when/if it's more than my budget I say "Oh I had no idea that's a bit more than I can spend but thank you for your time". I think people understand that not everyone is rolling in dough...or cake...lol

Side note-There is a girl in my Wilton 2 class who is truly a beginner (I do better) and she has already taken a order for a WEDDING CAKE! I mean really? A WEDDING CAKE?

I do cakes only as a hobby for friends and family. I have made several cakes for people at work as gifts. I make sure that everyone knows exactly what is involved in doing a cake like I do. I let them know how much time it takes, the cost of the ingredients and the kind of time and work that is involved to make the fondant decorations and gum paste flowers.

People all know that "if" I sold my cakes they would not be cheap and would cost them a few bucks. When I am "educating" them I do it for all of us CC'ers and when I am done with my 20 minute speech - they say WOW, I didn't know that it was that involved - no wonder wedding cakes cost so much! And I say, "Amen!!!

I nominate peridot for Queen of Cake World!!!!

THANK YOU Indydebi - you just made my day!

Oh for the love of God...
"I only have $200 to get married." "My parents only gave me $150 to get married." Well, how much does a marriage license and the courthouse ceremony cost? Nobody HAS to have a big ceremony and a party. They don't want to get married, they want a party. Laughing was the best reaction to that stupid request.

Two years ago a friend of mine wanted us to get into catering...which I reluctantly said I'd think about (this was before I even thought about doing cakes). Well, a mutual friend of ours decided to get married and was 'on a budget' but wanted to serve good food at her wedding and she hadn't been impressed with some of the larger caterers so my friend set up a tasting for her and her fiance. We fret 2 weeks over the menu, then the decor and how we would set up to impress her. Well, it was quite a 'tasting' to be sure. We had several types of appetizers, (because she just wanted finger food), sauces, cheeses, breads, meats, wines....you name it. And we had a beautiful presentation that included candles and fresh flowers. Well, they were wowed. LOVED the food. Told us which items they wanted. Wanted to use us to help plan the reception decor. Great! We'd send them an estimate. Long story short, we sent them an estimate of around $1500 (which included a rather large 'friend discount') and were told that 'gee we were thinking more in the range of $100. Then she said that she'd be OK with just cheese and crackers. Good Lord! $150 for cheese (even the canned variety) and saltine crackers would still not feed the 75 people she was inviting. Needless to say our catering days are behind us--but we have a couple of cute aprons that my friend went and had made with our 'logo' that I designed. I wear it whenever the urge to cater something comes over me!

Im thinking:

these ppl spend 125.00 on a xmas wreath, eat out everyday and cry about being broke. The girl only has 200.00 to get married, why not wait, why are you doing a bridal shower so big? AND YOU ORDERED FOOD OUT from a fancy place INSTEAD OF MAKING IT AND a few bottles of liquor and A "KEG"?!!!...I dont feel bad. She told another family member that I was over charging her and taking advantage of her![/quote]

I know what you mean, 2txmedics. My family is the same way. They rave about how good my cakes and cookies are and then go buy cakes from Sam's Club. All they want is freebies--discounts aren't even good enough for some of them-- as if I can get eggs, butter, flour, etc. some where for free.

It's almost as if people think because you are a one person show or a small operation that you should cost less than Sam's/Walmart/Costco. They don't consider that WE have to work much harder and are not assembly line bakers!

The first part is a quote from 2txmedics btw.

"I've had an offer for someone to pay for the cost of ingredients. I think I'll make a list and have them buy the ingredients. When you actually go through and pick out each item yourself and see the price attached to it, you see exactly WHY the cakes are so expensive (not to mention the work involved). I think people see a cake as a single item sometimes, without actually realizing that the whole is a sum of its parts... and that sum is a pretty penny![/quote]


What a good line of reasoning! You're right and if you ask people to pick up the items themselves you will be amazed at how quickly people stop asking for cake!

I had someone call and want a cake for the next day and didn't want to pay very much for it either, i can't recall the exact size or cost, but they didn't want a sheet cake, when i began to explain that i needed more notice, she got a little upset, so i sucked up all the air in the room and began:

1. you need this in less than 24 hours
2. you want to argue about the price
3. i am a full-time teacher - duhhhhh i teach your children art
4. i have 3 children ( UNDER THE AGE OF 16), 5 dogs, a husband, and sometimes
5. a LIFE!!!

What i really wanted to say, you go drive to the nearest wal-mart/bakery 35 miles away and shove it and it's not my fault you're an idiot and forgot/didn't plan ahead good luck and good bye.

OOOH YEAH, ABOUT THE EARLIER POST ABOUT $20, ASK THEM IF THEY WOULD WORK FOR 50 CENTS AN HOUR, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU WOULD MAKE AFTER THE SUPPLIES WERE PAID FOR. OFFER TO HIRE THEM FOR 50 CENTS AND HOUR AND SEE WHAT THEY WOULD SAY

Well really, she did offer to pay $20 after all consider yourself lucky. Here's a post from another thread:

cake_Newbie said:

So I think you should call this woman back, apologise sincerly, stating you acted in a truly unprofessional manner for failing to cater to her needs and offer her a picture And for all the business bakers/decorators out there I think you should all add to your consultations as standard practice the following question:


Now regarding your budget, would you like a real cake or a picture of a cake?

I have not laughed this hard for a long time