I completed my first wedding cake yesterday - and I learned a lot. I learned to turn on the AC in the house if it is too humid and hot for chocolate to set instead of putting the cake in the fridge! I also learned to fix a small amount of chocolate bloom with vegetable oil. I learned that I need two sets of pans if I want to make another wedding cake, because one set takes way tooooooo long.

The cake came out pretty well for my first one. Hopefully my next one will be a little easier for me.

I know I undercharged for this cake - it is 50 servings, so it's pretty small. frosted in buttercream and decorated with modelling chocolate, piped chocolate monogram, and gumpaste flowers made my yours truly. I charged $2.00 per serving, so the total was $100.00 for the cake. Any ideas hoe much I should have charged for this? I am still working out a pricing matrix. I feel like it was OK that I charged so little this time around because it was my first cake.

What do you think?

Attachment didn't go through... if you want to see the picture, you can see it in my photos.

Firstly let me say - what a beautiful and elegant cake! Definitely fits a fall wedding theme .

What I usually do is that I have a price per serving (which for tiered cakes is higher than a single tier cake because of the extra materials I use for dowels, cake boards etc.). So maybe you can have a price per serving "range". That way for cakes that are more complex, you can charge more per serving.

Also, I usually charge extra for details (like the gumpaste flowers, I would have charged for the flowers - not included them in the price. I also would have charged for the modelling chocolate ribbon and the monogram).

Finally, I charge per actual cake servings, not for the number of people. The cake looked like it serve more than 50 people (for wedding cake slices), so I would factor that in as well.

Great job again! And I hope this advice is helpful!

Great Cake - You learn as you go along. I am undercharging for a cake I am doing soon. 4 tiers - someone I know and besides I have never done a tierd cake. May I please have your modeling choc receipe and instructions/directions. I have the most terrible time with it. Thanks in advance.

Thank you for the advice, caymancake! It is very helpful.

BoLeggs, I made the modeling chocolate with 10 oz semi sweet chocolate chips, and 1/3 c of corn syrup. I melted the chocolate slowly in the microwave at 50% power in 30 second increments, stirring in between until it was melted and smooth. Then I added the corn syrup and folded it in. It became a sticky ball and almost looked a bit grainy. I then let it sit for a couple of hours until it was set. I ended up storing it ina ziploc bag in the fridge overnight. When it came out it was hard as a rock. I broke it up into small peices and then kneaded them until it became smooth and soft. I rolled it out on my fondant mat which I had smeared a little bit of shortening on and used a fondant roll cutter to cut the ribbons. I then put a peice of waxed paper the same size as the ribbon over the chocolate and rolled it up really carefully. i attached it to the cake with a little bit of buttercream. It worked great.

Good luck!

Thank you so very much.....

That sounds like a much more reasonable amount of money for the time and effort involved. Thanks, CWR41. Now I have a better idea for my next order.

The next wedding cake I am scheduled to do is a freebie for my Dad's wedding in December. Can't wait - I will have a lot more creative freedom with this cake than the last one.