Hi all,
Now, I fully respect that alot of time and effort goes into making and decorating cakes, but Im just a little confused.
I asked a decorater today for a quote on a 2 inch(high) torted choc cake with truffle filling, cornflower blue fondant and some white roses, roughly 6 inches. I was quoted $137.00. Does this sound like alot?
I would make it myself, except its for someone in a different state.
I just made a 6 inch cake that was roughly 4-5inches before the filling and it only cost me about $30 in supplies...
I would charge roughly $15 for a cake that size!
You're talking 1-2" layer of a cake split in half w/ truffle filling and covered in blue fondant?? Are the roses fondant??
I could easily do that cake for less than $20 for sure.
That seems awefully high of a price for a cake that probably won't serve even 8 people!
Wow, that's expensive! I can make that cake for roughly $30.
I went through every detail I could think of with her. This is the email
I'm looking for a rather simple cake. Not sure how many servings, but probably about 6 inch round, powder blue with white roses and some text on it. Probably only a 2 inch (high) chocolate cake, torted with either truffle filling if thats available, or some other choc or caramel filling. For around the 20th of August. Are you available for this type of cake? And what are your deposit terms etc.
Would you be able to supply me with a quote?
Thanks,
I then told her in the next email that I would like buttercream roses, and plain "than you" text. And that was the quote. I thought it was a bit high, but the smallest quote Ive gotten has been $95.00!
I have a feeling that you're running up against people who "don't turn on the oven for less than $100.........."
I don't know the exchange rate right now, but..............those prices are outrageous..........at ANY RATE!
I use the Wilton party chart. A 6x2 inch cake serves 6. Unless that thing is covered in gold leaf--TWICE--it's not worth $15-20/serving.
Best of luck finding someone reasonable for the task....
Rae
Kermit, as a fellow Aus decorator, I would charge you a minimum of $135 for a 6". My serving price starts aat $4 per serve, and a 6" cake will serve 20 - so your base price is already on $80. Add your roses, and your piping, and yes, the price she has quoted you is correct.
However, that is for my standard 4-1/2" high, 4 layer cake.
I don't work to any other ratio other than a 5/4 for a single layer - I would not take your order for a 2/4 cake; the finished proportions would not be satisfactory for a bespoke celebration cake.
Thats what I thought too! I might just wait until I get there and make it myself! She'll have to wait a couple more weeks, but it shouldnt worry her considering she doesnt know about it
I dont think thats high at all. I'm one of those people who wont turn the oven on for less than $200 a day. Once I turn my oven on, factor in that gas and electricity, buy my supplies, do the ACTUAL work I also then like to PAY MYSELF. Because, you know, its a business not a charity.
To you it might sound like alot but to the decorator thats what it costs so she can make a profit. If you want a cheap cake, you go to the bakery. If you want something special, you have to be prepared to pay for it.
(FYI Put thru my pricing system a 6inch cake, filled, ganached, fondanted with 5 small roses, a board covered with fondant and a box comes to $171.)
I would rather a simple "sorry, we dont deal with cakes under xxx servings than a quote like that!
Hi all,
Now, I fully respect that alot of time and effort goes into making and decorating cakes, but Im just a little confused.
I asked a decorater today for a quote on a 2 inch(high) torted choc cake with truffle filling, cornflower blue fondant and some white roses, roughly 6 inches. I was quoted $137.00. Does this sound like alot?
I would make it myself, except its for someone in a different state.
I just made a 6 inch cake that was roughly 4-5inches before the filling and it only cost me about $30 in supplies...
Are you talking about US $ or Australian $?
I would rather a simple "sorry, we dont deal with cakes under xxx servings than a quote like that!
SO you would rather the decorator lie to you than give you the price for the cake you asked for? As a decorator I dont know why you think this is a bad price...
I know you think you can do it for alot cheaper but something tells me you havent even thought about how much it actually costs to make a cake.
Ingreds
Utensils
Training
Electricity
Gas
Website/marketing/admin
Fondant
Cake board
Cake box
Ribbon
Second most important - Labour
Most important- Profit.
Her price is fair.
No, I didnt say id rather her lie, it was in response to the " proffessionals dont want to deal with a cake that small." Id rather her tell me she didnt want to deal with it than tell me a quote too high just to scare me off if that was the case..
Ive made cakes 3 times that size and theyve not even cost me a third of that price in supplies. But ive never charged for my cakes, so Im not sure about the pricing, hence coming here. If id put this up and everyone had said "yeh, thats about right." then I'd have gone with it. I was just checking
No, I didnt say id rather her lie, it was in response to the " proffessionals dont want to deal with a cake that small." Id rather her tell me she didnt want to deal with it than tell me a quote too high just to scare me off if that was the case..
Ive made cakes 3 times that size and theyve not even cost me a third of that price in supplies. But ive never charged for my cakes, so Im not sure about the pricing, hence coming here. If id put this up and everyone had said "yeh, thats about right." then I'd have gone with it. I was just checking
Again, I doubt she's giving you a high price just because she doesnt want to do it. Thats how much it costs. Just because its a little cake doesnt mean she can should only chare you for 1/3 of an egg. A 6 inch cake generally costs the same as an 8 inch cake because thats how much the ingredients cost. The bigger the cake the better the price/ingredients ratio gets.
You say you've never charged for your cakes and I've looked at your blog and you do have a very long way to go before you are a full professional and I think until you've spent 12 hours working on the one tier of cake will you only then realise how much it ACTUALLY costs to produce a good looking cake. My wage alone is $35 an hour and if you arent paying yourself that then you really shouldnt be in the business. Whats the point of going into business for yourself if you arent paying yourself properly? Do you think a bricklayer owning his own business makes minimum wage?
You are also asking on an american site where prices are so very different to australian prices. Try somewhere like Planet Cake's forum to get a genuine idea of what cakes cost here.
6X4 serves 12, so a 6X2 would serve 6 right, for $137 thats $22 (Australian ) and thats like $19 US dollars per piece..
I would luv to charge like that,, some day ,, 
Sorry petal but thats about the going price.
Considering that we don't make any colours here thus having to import them all - its pretty xxxy to buy.
The postage from either the States or the UK is always at least twice the price of any goods i buy.
Remembering that they are probably charging a min of $25.00 delivery.
Plus if you were paying by credit card over the phone they now add on a 10% surcharge to cover their banking costs - let alone turning on their oven and ingrediants used....plus time.
GST and everything else adds up - so i am not surprised at what you were quoted.
The going exchange rate at the mement is Australian $135.00 = $119.oo American dollars.
I just did a 5 inch cake for the weekend and it wasn't much cheaper than what you were quoted.
Bluehue.
Thats pretty much all I was wondering Bluehue. I havent gotten into the specialty brackets of things yet, so all my ingrdients pretty much come from grocery stores etc.. Just trying to put together what makes the prices.
Thats pretty much all I was wondering Bluehue. I havent gotten into the specialty brackets of things yet, so all my ingrdients pretty much come from grocery stores etc.. Just trying to put together what makes the prices.
Some charge by the slice - say $5.00 per slice whereas others charge by the degree of difficulty.
I prefer to charge by the slice - it makes it easier and quicker for me to calculate the cost to my customers...as 99% of my costs are included in that price.
Once i know where i am delivering too and roughly how long it will take me to *set up* then i quote my delivery charge.
I charge a flat rate for around the Metro area - but going Country it will be higher
Hope alot of what has been posted on this thread helps you..
Bluehue.
6X4 serves 12, so a 6X2 would serve 6 right, for $137 thats $22 (Australian ) and thats like $19 US dollars per piece..
I would luv to charge like that,, some day ,,
I dont' usually think cakers here charge nearly enough for cake. I would and have stated that I have a min. charge, but $19 a slice US, yeah, that's high. But hey I understand too that you have to do all the same baking, buttercream mixing, fondant coloring, decorations -same, same - for one small one layer 6" cake as you do for a reg. 8" layered cake, so maybe that's were she got her number. More of a "what is it worth it for me to do all this quote."
Probably a quality bakery that produces several cakes day would give you a lower quote since they would have most of the stuff made up already.
Oh man! There is also a difference in the size of the servings. I think a standard US serve is 2" x 1", yes? In Aus, a std serve is 1" x 1" (what we call a coffee portion)... so a lot of the difference is in the calculation from servings.
Karen421 - remember everything is relative... from our size of the Pacific, we don't "get" how your prices are so cheap, and we couldn't sell at those prices here either. Our wages are much higher than yours (our min wage is almost $A600 per week), ingredients costs are higher, dollar is worth less (or worthlesss, depending on who you ask!!) so imports are dearer etc - so it's not as simple as saying we are too expensive - it's just not an easy 1 for 1 replacement.
Wow...and I mean Wow. After reading all the responses I see that in Australia that is a normal price..here in the States that would be highway robbery. I do have a minimum price that I work from...it's $50 to start with for a basic cake. This would, indeed, be a basic cake for me. It would be baked and decorated in less than 2 hours so it would definitely cover my overhead. Now if I were busy and didn't have time for it then I would simply tell the client that I couldn't fit it into my schedule and if it wasn't enough of a job for me then I'd explain that it's below my minimum budget requirements. Sounds like, for that part of the world, this is the norm.
Cat
IMO we aren't comparing apples to apples here. I don't think it's fair to compare what this cake would cost in the US and what it would cost in Australia. Clearly there are significant cost/supply differences for a decorator living in America to one living in Australia.
IMO we aren't comparing apples to apples here. I don't think it's fair to compare what this cake would cost in the US and what it would cost in Australia. Clearly there are significant cost/supply differences for a decorator living in America to one living in Australia.
Yup..sounds like it would be living in Hawaii...everything has to be shipped in so it's twice the price...when you take that into account then the price makes sense.
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