Hi guys, I am totally new at posting here but I really love this site, you have so much info and friendly people! Now I really need some help... I was asked for a cake with several figures on it and I am having trouble figuring out how much to charge...

Basically it is a 50 year birthday cake for a mom and her son wants to do some steps symbolizing decades: each decade containing a small item referring to it. So we will do some baby things for the first decade, a notebook for the next one, an engagement and marriage rings for the next one and the last one will have the 6 family members.

I can easily charge for the cake as I do this by the ingredients and a % of time and energy; but I always have trouble calculating how much it would be fair to charge due to the time and details that go into fondant or gum paste figures.

Any help you guys can get me I would really appreciate

Oh I forgot to add, he wants 45 cupcakes each one will have a letter forming a b-day message. So that would be 45 letters in total that I also have to add and charge him for.

Baby items, rings, and notebook should not take a hugh amount of time to make, however 6 family members could be very, very labor intensive depending on the amount of detail you plan to put in to them. Have you done figure modeling in the past? If so how long does it take you to make a person? Figure the cost of your fondant, colors, etc. and be sure to add what you would expect to receive as an hourly wage.

Thanks for the tips! I actually have done figure modeling before, but I have never checked how much time it takes to make a person. I do more "cartoonish" people, so I guess they are not so detailed. But I think 6 will still be very labor intensive as you say. I will definitely calculate the cost of the materials and add an hourly wage. Would you say it is safe to calculate 1 hour per person?

I honestly don't feel just because there is figure modeling that it should be an extra charge. If it goes above and beyond then I can see it, but if it is just the decorations on the cake, then to me that just part of it.

If you were to remove the gumpaste/fondant decorations and you would have a very plain cake, then to me the decorations factor in to your decorating time that you have already figured into your price.

If you remove gumpaste/fondant decorations and you still have a heavily decorated cake, then I can see doing a up charge for the extra time it takes to make them.

Thanks for the input TexasSugar! I agree with you in that point. Normally my cakes are simple in the way they are decorated, but the price reflects that. Due to that, when I get asked for special decorations with fondant and gum paste I am always hesitant as to how much to add.

In the end, I factored the ingredients and the extra time for making him the costum decorations. And since he is doing a big order of cupcakes as well, I offered a 10% discount so the price does not get to high for him. I thought that was a fair deal...