Thanks DD and Smitty. I really felt the need to make this one special for personal reasons too. I am located in Ocala, in North Central Florida- close to the University of Florida- Yeah Go Gators!
In my area I'd charge $535.00. Maybe I'm way off though.
That is a really beautiful cake by the way Sonya!
DD That is Awesome that you are a survivor! I unfortunately lost a very good friend to cancer, so when someone survives it makes me so happy. Such a horrible horrible disease and the cure is even worse.
I was VERY lucky. Many women in my family have battled breast cancer so I started getting mammograms at 25. Yes, 25! They found mine on a sonogram when I was 28. Yes, 28! My sister suffered several lumpectomies before finally having mastectomies. I decided to just go for it and had both removed with reconstruction. Because it was so early, I didn't have to do chemo or any of the terrible things many women endure. I was very lucky. It kinda even feels like cheating to say that I survived cancer. Well...I did loose my breasts!
Ok here is a cake I made for my cousins daughter's. I did not charge anything for it I always do the kids in the family cakes for their gift. White cake with Swiss meringue buttercream, and fresh strawberries and glaze between each tier. 12" square, 10" round, 8" round, half ball pan for the hat, 6" smash cake, and mini ball pan for hat on the smash cake. Ears, bows, small flowers on the top tier, name banner, and letters of the name was made out of gumpaste. The zebra stripes, white polka dots, minnie faces on the top tier was all fondant. Both hats are covered with fondant. It is sitting on a homemade cake board made out of foamcore wrapped with a pink plastic tablecloth, then wrapped with food safe clear plastic, ribbon added to the edge, and left over "rings" from sps plates glued on the bottom as feet. I live in a small town in NC and if I was charging for it next time it would have been $250.00. What would you charge?
Uhhhh...like 2x that! If I were to sell a copyrighted cake...It is beautiful! How many people were at the kids party???
DD I think you are awesome for taking the proactive approach to your health and being diagnosed early. That is what more women need to do. God bless you,
Sonya I'm sorry, I for some reason missed the buttercream description. I'd charge $486.00 or there abouts.
DD my friend had a very rare type of cancer and it was in her cervix's and had punctured the urethra wall. Unfortunately it was a slow and horrible way to go. The worst for her was just being stuck in bed not able to do anything day in and day out. At that point when it just wasn't going to get any better and she was biding time we all just wished it would end. So sad. I'm so glad for your family you were able to beat it.
12 inch round base with lemon cake and blueberry filling
9 inch round tier with chocolate cake and raspberry filling
This was done for a friend's baby shower, she was having twins (boy and girl).
How much?
You are supposed to post how much YOU charged.....those are my 2 fav flavor combos. Yum
Cool cakes Sonya and Littlecakery! LC what did you charge? Sonya, I would have charged 2x more because of the detail. Also, those are my two most popular flavors!
AI didn't charge anything only because it was done for a friend as a gift. I would've charged her about $140.00, please forgive me, I've been a little off lately. And this is one of my first "serious cakes."
$140 is what I would charge. that's the going rate around here for 2 tier special occasion cakes.
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Original message sent by Rosie93095
$140 is what I would charge. that's the going rate around here for 2 tier special occasion cakes.
From there, it just went all crazy.
I think Howsweet may have come across a bit aggressive (some others stroked the fire) and Smitty may have been a bit defensive & sensitive to the antagonistic questioning that ensued.
As I re-read it, it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. There were a few discussions going during all this that kind of fuel the fire of the "room."
Howsweet, please remember that Smitty may be in an area where the market bares a lower rate than you. People North of Charleston tap out at about $3.00 per serving while it can go as high as $12 here. Smitty, if you haven't already, go back and reread what all S/He wrote. Try to see that it was written through the eyes of someone frustrated with people in her area undercutting.
Everyone: really this thread is about trying to help each other. I am more concerned with those who are truly naive in pricing but don't care. They won't listen to reason and truly think they are making a profit. Those are the ones making it hard for the industry not someone who is willing to learn.
Thanks for trying to be so fair, I really appreciate that.
To me, the crux of the matter may be right here: Regardless of where a person lives, enough must be charged to live on in that area. To pay rent, utilities, self employment tax and health insurance. So if there are places where high end cake goes for $3 a serving, instead of, say, $5, then doesn't the price of living also need to be 40% lower? If I lived in New York City or Chicago I would expect prices everywhere to be lower. But I'm in a city famous for having a low cost of living. I used to own a RE/MAX office here and we'd have people coming in from places like that buying twice the house for a third of the price.
If cake doesn't go for enough to live on in an area, then it's not a viable business and you are subsidizing the portion people can't afford. The only way I know of to do that is with your own or your spouse's income. People still make a little money doing this, so it seems like good business. But if that same person lost the other income, they would soon realize they were undercharging.
It's possible to support oneself on $14.25* an hour in certain areas. But is that enough to make as a business owner when you consider all the responsibilities and different "hats"? And it leaves out profit. A business isn't very viable if you can't pay an employee a wage and also yield some profit after you've paid your rent and other business expenses. If home bakers don't charge what they would have to as if they had all the expenses of a storefront, they lower the market price of cake. So if lowered prices is the prevailing trend, eventually, how is ANYONE ever going to have a store front cakery?
$14.25 an hour is very attractive to a stay at home mom who wants to earn some extra money for ballet lessons or whatever. I get that. It sounds a lot better than working part time with fixed hours at whatever the alternative would be. It's quite normal that people are going to do what they believe to be in their best interest. Understanding or caring how this effects me or others may barely register as a concern - I get that too. And hardly anyone can ever see that he/she is wrong about anything - just look how hard people on this board defend charging $1.50 per serving. But if a person hopes to have a storefront one day, it might be a good idea to consider how their prices may effect their chances.
And just one more thing. Fancy cake is not a self evident right had by all people. Most people can't afford it. Don't let someone balking at your prices make you doubt them.
*(I chose $14.25 an hour because it was the number that came to me as that was the price mentioned on this thread and since it's higher than what some other posts claim as an hourly wage, I thought it sounded like a good amount rather than trying to boost my argument by using a lower number).
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Original message sent by Rosie93095
howsweet, do you have cake to post?
howsweet we'd love to see some of your cakes
BEAUTIFUL WORK HOWSWEET...Anyone else have pics and prices to post?
Rosie...you can see everyone's albums by clicking their profile and going to the bottom of their page...
I'll play. :)
Serves 80....So this was a 4" top tier with a carved angle. Then a 7", 8", and finally a 10". The silver leaf is pricy, but not too bad. The tier below the carved one too some time to cut all the squares, apply them sometimes in strips if I was lucky, sometimes individually. Then I peeled some back out for a dimensional look. Brushed over areas with black airbrush color, and wiped it back off in some areas with a paper towel and vodka. It was roughly $600, without looking back in my files.
I would love to try it! I haven't had anyone who wanted it, though. I had someone that wanted a cake with gold leaf, but didn't want to pay for it. I airbrushed it gold, and they hated it. Tough! I was mad they were mad! I told her it would not be the same. Stupid cow!
I've done a lot of baby shower cakes, here is another one. This is a three layer 9 inch round, I also made 36 cupcakes.
The cake is vanilla with strawberries and cream filling.
One dozen cupcakes were red velvet with cream cheese filling.
One dozen were chocolate with raspberry filling.
One dozen were yellow cake with strawberry filling.
**I cannot charge for these because I am not licensed**
I WOULD have charged $33.00 per dozen and $77.00 for the cake.
AZ, OMG. Seriously. OMG. Love that cake.
LittleCakery, those ducks are precious. I charge $2.50 ea for cupcakes. I would have charged an additional $3.00 per cupcake for the toppers. For the cake, I would have charged $65.
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