Hi all! My husband are going round AND round about this purse cake I just did. I would like to get some input from some others as to how much they would have charged. I was asked to do a purse cake as well as a sheet cake and was left to my own devices as to the design of the cake. This lady is a friend from church and never asked me what the price would be. Since I could "do my own thing" I thought I would try something I had never done before. I used two normal size bread pans to bake the cake for this purse and then carved it a bit, used red fondant to cover and made all the normal purse stuff to make it look similar to one I found on your site. It tuned out pretty good and so when the customer came to pick up, I told her that it would be 65 for the 11x15 sheet and the purse as well. she never balked at all but I'm sure that had I told her that I went overboard on the purse because it was something I wanted to "try" and now the price for it would be 55 plus the price of the sheet cake, she would have laughed me out of the town. I live in a small town and people there are not willing to pay a lot for cakes. My DH is mad that I didn't charge more but I know I will find some understanding people on this site that feel as I do. it's kind of a catch 22 situation. If I never experiment when I have the chance, I'll never know what I can accomplish, but if I fully charge for the work that I can do, I probably would not have the business that I have! Please let me know what you think about how my DH and I can come to some agreement here and what you think this would have been worth. Thank you all so much! Love the site!! Darn, I can't attach the picture....it's on my other computer..... it's the red purse on my first page of pictures if anyone cares to look. Thanks again!

wow. you really did undercharge her. That cake is fabulous!

But I do understand the "prototype" pricing. Make it clear up front that "If you let me experiment on you with this new design I've been wanting to try, I'll give you my prototype price. I guarantee, NO ONE will ever get thsi cake at your price!"

And far as her laughing you out of town for a price of $55 ..... well, I can understand that if you're comparing sheet cakes to sheet cakes. But this purse isn't a sheet cake.

A car is a car ... if you're comparing one Saturn to another. But I can't look at a Cadillac and tell the salesman I should only have to pay $12K for a $50K car because "it's just a car".

Your purse is a Cadillac Cake.

I think $100.00 for both cakes would have been fair. Purse cake is awesome. That said, my hubby thinks I don't charge enough for my cakes either because he sees the ridiculous amount of work involved. But, I like you would be sitting home not doing a cake at all or "undercharging" and happily working on a new challenge. Good luck to you and the hubby.

Thank you to all who replied to me on this post!

Thank you to all who replied to me on this post!

The cake is beautiful!! I would have charge $125, but its hard to tell how big it is. As for the prototype price, I get that to and have done a few cakes the same way. I always let the customer know that they got a great deal!