I've been baking for my Family for years..I'm self thought i've watch may videos lol..My family is been trying for me to start making cakes for sale..But I'm not good giving people prizes..One thing I've read the most on here is under pricing your work..But it just really intimidates me..I know people like to compare prices to local supermarkets and this cake take a lot of work.. A friend wants me to make her Daughters Sweet 16 cake is a 3 tier 10'8'6' inches..How much would a cake like this be?...I also put 

some pictures of the cakes I've made..I just don't know if I'm cut out for this...This is the cake she wants ..but butter cream with the fondant accents

AHi Sonia, that is a really pretty cake. If you're unsure about how to do the cake, do you have time to practice? The price of the cake has so many different factors and it's difficult to advise what you should personally charge, but Jason Kraft, a CC member, has a great pricing formula that you should take a look at. I think this is the link:

http://jasonkraftblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/the-magic-pricing-formula/

On another note, if this is a close friend maybe you can do the cake for free....especially if you're not feeling confident.

Is there any way that you can convince her to choose a cake you feel more confident doing? A sweet 16 is a very special occasion and the cake is often the center of attraction along with the birthday girl! I hope you can nail the cake! :)

Thank You!!!! therealmrsriley...and I will definitely check out Jasons Chart..I'm new and still trying navigate around here..lol As for making the cake I'm a little nervous and I have been practicing.. She's not really a close friend..I told her I would get it as close as possible to the one in the picture especially  since she want butter cream with the fondant accents..like I said I'm just not good at pricing,I'm always questioning my self..

Looking at your pictures, I'd say ability to do this cake is not a problem!  Have you worked with buttercream (looks like all of the pictures show fondant.)  A good crusting recipe and practice smoothing, and you'll be set.

APricing can be difficult especially when you are just starting.

I had a good deal of experience before I started. I am also fortunate to be in a good market. I started at $3.75 per serving. I am now $4.50 per serving.

You are Not comparable to a grocery store. It's hard to over come that pull both from lack of confidence and from customers. Remind yourself that even grocery stores don't make any money on their cakes.

APricing for friends is always tricky because there's no set formula - you have to decide what you are comfortable asking for, assuming its even legal for you to charge at all in your area, and then your friend has to decide whether she's willing to pay what you're asking. A lot of the time people ask for cakes from friends because they think it will be free or extremely cheap.

You could charge for your ingredients, you could charge for ingredients plus a little extra for your time, or you could charge market rate assuming your skills are in line with your local market. Bear in mind that your friend might have no clue about how much ingredients for a cake like this will cost. They may also be fully prepared to pay full market value, but only the two of you know that.

Delicious Desserts and the realmrsriley have given you some really good advice.  Reading Jason's pricing formula along with his other business perspectives will help understanding more of the business side.  This pricing calculator was also created by cakecakc.   http://bakecalc.com/

• Thank You lcubed83 you give me a more cofindence...My last cake The Princess one was my first butter cream with the fondant dots on it..I'm definitely going to be practicing some more..
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• DeliciousDesserts thank you for the info..I'm just never been the one to charge people..I've always been a stay at home mom..and everyone tells me I should do this for extra income is just intimidating to me...the cakes I've made has been for Family and close friends so all they've had to buy is been the things and I just made it for them..hmm I have a lot of learning to do... thank you again

thanks everyone for taking the time to answer so many question i have going thru my head...I'm definitely following every sing link suggested on here..thank you again.. I will keep coming back and reading some more

AYour work looks very good. What did you use for the ice on the Corona beer cake?

AThank You ReneeFLL this was back in March and can't remember excactly the amounts I use but I know it was sugar with some corn syrup.. I let it get to the soft crack stage.. And it only turn a hint of yellow not much..

AHi everyone ! Love everyone's talent on here ! I charged $60 for this cake ? Is that under priced or do you think right on ? [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3094819/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Greetings Fatty Cakes and welcome to CC! Lovely cake!! Just an FYI, when you have something to post you only need to put it one forum. 

AThanks!! I got confused I wanted to post it on a different thread ! First time poster here if you couldn't tell ;)