AI am fairly new to this so bare with me..how much should I charge for the cake in my profile picture? I made it for fun because I was practicing a few months ago and I love snow white. A customer wants the same cake except Disney tinker bell and fairies. It is 3-8" rounds on bottom and 2-6" on top. The whole thing is covered in fondant. Thanks!

ATo set a price you need to add up your cost of ingredients, labor (the hourly wage you pay yourself * how many hours the order will require), and overhead (license fees, insurance, anything else needed to legally sell food in your area, all on a per-order basis). Then look at market prices in your area to figure out how much of a markup to apply for your profit. Generally market value for that cake would be in the $3-6/serving range.

FYI, if you reproduce a copyrighted character (like Tinkerbell) in fondant/gumpaste/etc. you need permission from the copyright owner, otherwise you are infringing and are risking a lawsuit. In this case, if you can't obtain permission from Disney, you can either purchase a licensed Tinkerbell topper or just use generic fairies as decoration.

I charge per servings and then I add on according to how much detail and time it's going to take to get it done.

AI'm confused..I can't make fondant figurines of whatever I want? I have seen plenty of disneys goofy or Mickey fondant cake toppers even on YouTube. How do they get by with it?

A

They just haven't been caught yet.

Generally you are pretty safe if you are making the cake for personal, non-commercial use and do not post pictures of the cake publicly, but any commercial use or pictures posted online will require permission.

There are several post about this topic in this forum and there is a class of craftsy about starting your own business.  As you go along with your new craft you will learn all these.  Don't look at what others are doing but keep yourself clean from trouble so that when you are ready for that business it will be easier on you.

Jason is right, whether it is for cake or any other type of product, reproductions of anykind of anybodies property can land any of us in hot water.