here is another one for the books. I invited a friend to my husbands birthday party. She email me and said she knew someone close that did cakes if I needed one. I posted her back and said I was going to make it myself and was starting to do cakes for others. She emailed me back on Thursday and said she wanted a birthday cake for a co-worker. I offered to do it free! Made the cake for Monday. She picked it up. Paid me $10.00 and said she never uses the lady she was telling me about because she was to high. They just normally get the cakes from Walmart. grrrrrrrrrr. I know it was a mistake to do it free, but thought it would be good PR. Haven't we all started by doing free cakes for friends and family? I really love doing cakes but people just do not understand the expenses involved.

ACKK!!!!! $10 doesnt even cover supplies! Buttercream, cake ingrediants, fondant (if using it), cake board... That's like $20 my cost, minimum for an 8" cake. Ive done it before though. Guilty. I bet it was a gorgeous cake, too.

how do you all go from charging "at cost"..and everyone thinking you are high..to actually earning some money.. I have been doing 1 to 2 cakes a week and am only really covering cost.. not even my time! arghh... I am currently doing the disney deluxe castle cake.. and am only charging$65..

JCE .... rant away.

Kannie - in the beginning I did that too until people really started to compliment me, etc. I then did some research on prices in my area and came up with one. I have had a few orders turn me down, because they didn't want to pay and went with Krogers, etc. However, I have had more actually order the cake even though in my mind I'm thinking "they're not going to pay that much". You will be surprised that people will pay that price to get a really good cake. There will always be people that wont. I have had to learn to not let that bother me anymore.

Let the people know that you are currently doing cakes at costs for them that your business is growing, and you no longer can charge them that price but offer them a family-friend discount.

Oh yeah, she never did send a response.

My cousin taught me to not do freebie cakes any more. She wanted a sheet cake for a cancer benefit, I caved. A sheet cake turned into two sheet cakes, both with edible images. (Still free of course) Then after the event she informed me that the lady would not ALLOW them to be cut. She liked the edible images on them so she took them home with her. WHAT?!?!?! Wow, thank you for the pant's down spanking that you just gave me. I spent a fortune getting absolutely NOTHING out of it. Not even a good name. I figured people would at least eat some and the next time they needed a cake for something they'd come to me. That would justify my expense. Seriously, it's not like I won't donate something for a good cause, but if I wasn't going to get ANYTHING out of it, it certainly would've been donated to someone I AM FRIENDS WITH, or have even MET once in my life.

Some days I hate people.

I did a free cake for a baby shower event here at work. Yes I volunteered so my mistake for being so nice! It is proabably the second best cake I have done ( decoration wise), I replicated a design she picked out from Pink Cake Box, anyway I made the cake with a fondant baby, pacifier, keys, and pacifier ( all firsts for me!) and when I followed up to asked how she like the cake she said she didn't eat any because she was full.

Her boss, who gave the shower, not even a thank you in passing of the hallway.

I just want all of you to know that you all do amazing work. It is horrible that no one appreciates it. People see these shows on tv where they make it look so easy. They do not understand that producers edit out 90% of the hard work everyone does. Cake decorating is not as easy as it looks on tv, and you should all be appreciated for everything you do.

mcalk - I agree with you. As much as I love watching the challenges both for entertainment purposes and learning experience, I think it does not give a realistic view on what it really takes to create an edible work of art. And folks figure, hey if it can be done in such a short time what's the big deal - they don't understand that many, many times pieces for a cake take days and even weeks to create.

I made my sister's wedding cake a few weeks ago. It was a destination wedding in a gorgeous beach house in the Outer Banks. I was also the maid-of-honor - so I was crazy busy all week. I still felt obligated (even after buying a bridesmaid dress, throwing her shower, buying a shower gift, making the cake, etc.) to buy her an actual wedding gift. So I bought her a $150 flip HD video camera. My mom thought I was nuts for spending soo much. I told my sister that my thought I shouldn't have bought it and she said, "well, Mom and Dad bought all the cake ingredients." WHAT? First of all, that's not true, though they did help. But I bought the pans, boards, decor, you know, the expensive stuff. And did she not notice that I barely got any time at the beach because I was making her cakes ALL THE TIME? Some people just aren't grateful.

Yes I think the cake shows are part to blame. In my case, I see my own wrongdoings, I should have charged for ingredients in this situation and will not make the same mistake.

Lesson learned!

I made a cake once, not for free mind you they paid the full price, with a wedding ring on top, not large 2 tier 9 and 6, icy blue with pearls. Not an overly complicated design, but it turned out pretty.

The guest of honor (aka the bride) refused to let anyone cut the cake, she thought it was too pretty and she took the cake home with her. I heard from the gal that planned the shower (a bridesmaid) that even though it was too pretty to eat at the shower, apparently it wasnt too pretty to eat at home with her future husband.

I agree that the cake shows, although awesome, and have furthered the cake world, can sometimes harbor false belief in how 'easy' it is to get a custom cake. I mean, just slap some fondant on there, throw on some flowers, easy-peasy, right? I think the thing that customers are not taking into account is that a staff of 15 people can churn out a wedding cake in 6 hours, but a crew of one (me) will take two days dawn til dusk. I know that is not the show's fault, it's just perception. People see it all happen so quickly and effortlessly. Thats one reason I REALLY appreciate it when they show mistakes, flops, damage in delivery, etc. And I like seeing that they occasionally have a wrinkle in their fondant and they cover with another element and it looks flawless. I like knowing that they get elephant skin sometimes too!!

You are so right. I had a fellow decorator actually had a person tell her that it shouldn't have to take that much time to decorate a cake after all they do it on TV in a half an hour.

I had a consultation for a wedding cake a few months ago and the bride actually had the nerve to ask why my prices were so high. I told her that all my cakes are custom made with handmade decorations. Her response: Well how hard can it be to make a flower. Duff does it in like 5 minutes and his look great. Thank God I had my computer with me. I got the Charm City website and showed her the MINIMUM order price from Duff and what that would get her (nowhere near enough for her 300+ person wedding). After that, she thought my prices were more than fair...hmm, I wonder why?