I have a request for cake to feed only 5ppl but told client it has to be minimum 12 ppl for 6" pan, only 1 tiered. What's the easiest way or best method to make this work and easiest to use for the cones  off to side and on cake? I want to make this very simple but look nice! This is soo small as I tried to get her to do bigger, but not happening, yet want to do this for her! PLease help on ideas ..want this to look nice!  Thanks so much!

I would do the 6"...I would insist that it can't be done another way.  Or a 4"?  If the 4" was 5" tall, you could get 5 servings out of it.

But to make the towers, I would bake a sheet and charge appropriately for that, and cut out circles that would get stacked on top of each other with a center skinny dowel, wrap with fondant or modeling chocolate.    The towers themselves would be tall enough for a serving each if your cake is 5" tall.  You could use a round cutter slightly larger than your circles for the tower pieces to cut out notches in the cake where you want them to fit it, like a puzzle.  For the cones, maybe some shaped cake ball stuff into a cone and dip in chocolate?  Sucker stick or a few toothpicks or spaghetti noodles to poke into top of tower?

Take charge...tell her what you can do for the price.  She can take it or leave it.  And if she takes it, there's always that PITA fee!  Your the pro and know what will work and what won't...not her.

ASince you've told her 6" and 12 minimum stick with that, like BeesKnnes says; don't budge!

What kinda castle are you wanting to make? a fairy castle like this maybe: (bottom of her page) http://**********-india.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/three-tier-birthday-cakeroses.html (replce the stars with one word that starts with sugar and ends in craft)

or a 'boys' castle like this: http://www.efairies.com/store/pc/The-Stone-Color-Fairy-Castle-Storybook-Series-p1357.htm

AI charge extra for working in miniature. It's more time consuming than it's worth.

Stick to your guns. They pay for no less than 12 servings. 5 servings is a half dozen cupcakes.......

AMinimum order applies, I would hope. I made a castle cake (well, my version) for a little girl that served about 1, maybe two. It was more for pictures than anything, but heck yeah that still cost the minimum. Silly looking thing, so small.

Thank you everyone for your advices! Crazy-gray, I can't open link for the fairy castle :(

AZCouture: do you have a pic of the silly looking small castle at all ?

Thanks again and I'd like to make the towers on side maybe with ice-cream cones so I don't invest too much money into this and make it easiest? Is that possible yet still look nice?

 

AProbably on my page, probably in Album 1 or 2, it was awhile ago now. Or on Flickr. Oh heck, I googled real quick before posting. Here...awful photography. Just a castle turret.[URL=http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/6231449900/]http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/6231449900/[/URL]

Here are a few castle cakes I've made that start with a round layer cake. The towers are paper towel (or wrapping paper) rolls covered in fondant, topped with ice cream cones. I'm sure you could easily adapt this using a 6" round layer cake. I think the smallest cake I've ever used to make one is a 7" round and it worked fine. Here are some examples:

Hope that helps!!