Ok, friend wants a similar cake, except she has just a few requests...I will copy and paste because its way to much to remember off the top of my head...

"the cake as shown only...
*the writing in hot pink and to say Happy 2nd Birthday Bria
*in the lounge chair Spongebob, with patrick out to the side standing beside him under the umbrella
*Mickey, NOT donald in the boat... Minnie on the raft
*the raft to be Hot pink not blue
* Possibly another raft with squidword.. but TOTALLY not necessary!

I know this is weird but my child will NOT pick between bob bob and mouse! Her birthday is in february... probably will do it feb 13 or feb 6! Needs to feed 25-30 people... Buttercream/regular icing, not fondant for the base.... the characters and chair and stuff like that designs can be in fondant or gum paste or whatever you use...."


I would need to come up with a price for this cake, but I would like to try and find the figuringes pre-made thinking that will help her to save money on it. If not, I will be hand sculpting the items she wants which I am fine with! Not sure if her budget is not however...please help asap so I can get back to her!

Oh, and If I sculpt all the little characters for her, how much should I charge for each sculpted character? I don't anticipate the cake being very large, prob 8in center, then 2 4in on the side. Cake is simple and I could have that sucker decorated in way under an hour, its the figurines that will take a lot of time!

Those are all copyrighted and off limits unless you get permission.
Even if you buy them yourself you are in over your head to operate this way. It's your choice but it's a huge risk.

There's a thread going now about how people preceive the texture of cake--that's important and you can't educate someone into liking something they really don't like. For example a cake perceived as dry that is made from wholesome ingredients isn't gonna be perceived as good because it's being dry outweighs the 'organic' ingredients--can't teach people that dry cake is better for them.

On the other hand, you can educate people that you cannot do copyrighted products because it is stealing to put it truthfully.

You need to figure the servings involved and figure out your pricing structure. These are pretty much stock cakes--not sculpted--what's your base price?

Un-copyrighted hand-made figurines should start at $25 give or take.

You're not gonna make it if your mentality is to save people money.

Your mentality should be that clients help you make money.

First of all, it's illegal to "make" the characters without consent from the company that owns the copyrights (good luck getting THAT from Disney)

Aside from that, I would definitely tell HER to find the characters, and as for the cakes...if she's only feeding that many people you'll probably want to make them single layer cakes, or do the 2 small cakes around a 4" and the big one an 8" that would give you 40 servings right there (4" = 8 servings and 8"= 24 serv.)

If you plan to charge for the figurines (illegally) then you need to charge at VERY minimum $20 each.......those will be some seriously complicated characters to pull off (multiple colors too) and not have them look rediculous, I'm sure you can do it....but I would anticipate spending several hours on each character!

HTH

I like this site (shop bakers nook dot com)...

Sponge Bob ---- www dot shopbakersnook dot com/m5/1852--spongebob-and-patrick-cake-kit.html

For the Disney stuff, you might try the Disney Store or Amazon. Amazon might have the sponge bob stuff too.

Good luck!

Da

I hate the "blocked" garbage. SHOP then no spaces BAKERS then no spaces NOOK then a dot COM.

If you purchase the cake kit or the figures, that will avoid the legal issues. JMHO.

Thanks ya'll, I will tell HER to buy the licensed items to go on the cake! I really did not want to give her a price quote like that too on a cake so specific, im worried she will just go get quotes from other bakeries and try to make me charge under them to beable to get the order! Proud so say however, I am learning how to say no and stick to my price

Yep, she needs to buy the plastic characters (if she can find them) unless she's paying you to shop.

Good luck in the search. I own them and they've got to be 18+ years old. My kids won't get rid of anything Disney! I just dumped out our bucket of "D" peoplefrom what I can find, that playset came with Mickey wearing a teal green Hawaiian shirt & sunglasses, orange pants & he's licking an orange popsicle (along with Donald and the boat). I don't believe it came with a Minnie.

Oh, I just noticed, our boat is the opposite colorwhite with the blue "deck" and Donald isn't wearing his blue sailor suit--he's wearing a pink & white striped swimsuit and a pink inner tube plus has a toy sailboat in his hands. So, maybe there's a newer version that might still be available.

What if instead of doing the exact characters, I made "inspired" characters and gave them different names? That has prob been tried before lol! Just a thought! I told her to shop for the figures she wants on the cake and that I will for sure make the cake for her (she is SOMEWHAT family, married my cousin... so she told me not to worry about price, shes not going with anyone else )

If it looks anything close to the original you are still in violation of copywrite.

If you do send her shopping for the figures, be sure to tell her what size they need to be. She could end up with 8" tall figures that would never work, and she'd want you to make the cake to fit the figures. Um no. Just a thought.

I clearly explained all of this to her, the laws, her buying them, the size they need to be, and that the figures are being bought at HER COST that she is only buying the cake its self from me. She was very understanding about it, and I even recommended searching ebay and amazon, and I also told her because I am not sure what the laws are about posting the pictures of the cake, to please don't get offended when she doesnt see her cake on my wall!! I do not want to post them and someone think I sold her the cake toys and ME get into trouble! It all seems to be working out fine! Thank ya'll for your quick responses!