I have my first client and I need to know how much to charge for this cake. Pardon the extremely rough sketch.

There are 60 servings which I charge a "starting at" rate of 2.50 per serving. Also the client said there should be no more than 50 people. The design I came up with is 60 servings. Do I charge for the 60 servings or just the 50?

There is quite a bit of fondant details so I dont know what to charge. Just an idea of what you would charge is helpful.

Incase pic doesn't load, its a 10in, 8in, 6in tiered buttercream cake with fondant flowers, borders and a fondant covered rice crispy treat shaped tiki hut on top...

you charge for the full amount of servings the cake is.

so for the full 60 servings.


after all, when I order french fries at MickyDs, they don't charge me 1/2 price if I only eat half the the fries.

I pay full price and then my choice to eat or toss.

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you charge for how many servings you provide, not how many servings they want. you tell them the closest they can get.

As for your servings, are you using the industry standard 1"x2"x4" serving? i get 74 servings with a 10-8-6 round stacked cake.

For the fondant work.... What did you include in your starting price of $2.50 when you came up with that? I am assuming that you figured somem decorations would be included in that. So the additional fondant work, how much estimated time will it take you? Then use that number to add to your total.

ok, I have different charts that tell different amounts but not my much...http://www.countrykitchensa.com/wedding/cakechart.aspx tells us that the 6 inch gives you 12 servings, the 8 inch gives you 20 servings and the 10 inch gives you 36 servings..a serving being 1x2x4 high. So that cake makes a total of 58 servings...charge for 58 servings. As for the 2.50 a slice charge...that is for starting buttercream pricing, right? What I mean by that is a simple buttercream iced cake with a simple trim and maybe a flower or two? Then you have to add from there. What you sound like you are making would add about $1 a slice in my book...but then I start at $3 a slice and because I'm in a city this is a reasonable amount. So...long story short...if I were you I'd charge 3.50 a slice...but I don't know what the cake looks like so that really is a bare bones ball park figure without knowing the details or if it's at a skill level you can pull off. I looked at your photos and your simple buttercream looks very nice, very smooth so going on that I'd say you'd be in the right ball park. Now if you are in the right ball park for your client is another matter.

Cat

Debi, I do use your cutting method...do you think you can make up your own cake serving chart for us who do use it??? It would be SOOOO helpful (BTW...thanx for the correction, math was never my strong point! LOL!)

Cat