I got this email today.

"Do you have any cake photos that I can email to a friend? She wants a monster truck theme cake for a three year old b-day. The cake will mostly be for chase adults and centerpiece. She's just going to buy little cupcakes for the kids.

She also wants to know about pricing."

Here's my cynical translation of what the friend has in mind: "I want a fancy carved cake to show off to my guests for my kid's birthday party, but I don't want to spend $$$ a serving on cake for toddlers. So make me an amazing tiny cake for cheap (the smaller, the cheaper right!?!?) and I'll just go get some crappy cupcakes at Walmart for the rug rats."

Ugghh...how much time do I invest in pursuing this?

Well, that may very well be her intentions but most people just don't understand the time involved in a carved cake and how expensive they are. Send her the quote and make sure she knows she pays for size of cake you start with not the amount of servings she ends up with. You might not hear back from her but can't hurt.

What is wrong with someone wanting a nice cake in a size that they can afford? She's not asking for you to make a big fancy carved cake for cheap (yet) so I guess I don't see what the problem is.

I would contact her and ask for how many people and what her budget is. She may surprise you and after talking with her and maybe getting a theme she may be able to purchase from you after all. However, if she starts to get yu to reduce your price them you may be better off telling her that you can not doing her cake or just telling her to go to Wal Mart.
evelyn

I translated the email the same way but I'll admit I'm generally a little on the cynical side.

I would also contact her. First questions out of your mouth need to be:
How many servings do you need?
What is your budget?

Make sure she knows carved cakes are very tIme consuming and there is a cost with that.
If her budget works for you, then great. If it's what you suspect I'd have no problems telling her that you cannot provide her a carved cake for her budget and either suggest something in her budget or refer her elsewhere.

On a side note, I personally do not accept orders where outside cake or cupcakes will also be brought in (and that particular topic has been hashed' out to death but it's something to consider for this order).

I recently had a mother contact me about doing a carved truck cake for her sons' birthday. It was too short notice, but I told her to buy a small truck and we would place it on the cake. She bought a fire engine and I decorated with "flames". Everyone was happy!

A lot of people are not used to ordering custom cakes so they don't know what to say, how to word things, what you need to know, how much they cost, or even what they want.
I, too, think you should call and talk to the person who will be ordering and paying for the cake. That's your chance to make them feel comfortable with the process, educate them, and find out exactly what their needs are expectations are.

I'd just send her the pricing for a carved 3-D cake vs a sheet cake, and tell her to look on my website for photos. Nothing too tricky about that particular email IMO.