A lady is picking this up soon. It will be sitting on top of a 9x13 ice cream cake covered in Pastry Pride. The car is covered in buttercream and handmade mmf. I spent almost $30 in ingredients and two days of labor to bake and decorate. I live in California, Central Coast.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Did she ask any ballpark price? I guess I would charge at least $100, maybe $125. That would be 4x your cost into it.

Wow! I will see what she says. I know my DH would be happy if I can make that much. I don't know anyone around here who makes cakes like this. Almost everyone orders from the supermarket.

Hmm, you made this cake without having a price set for her? I would also say around $100 or so, especially because you live in CA.

Cute cake
I'd charge $85-$100-it's worth every penny of that-you spent two days on it, how much is that an hour?!? Don't sell yourself short. Grocery stores' cakes arrive at the stores pre-made and frozen, and usually taste like it

Somebody on CC always says "good cakes aren't cheap, and cheap cakes aren't good!".

HTH

and patton78 is right-the time to talk about $$ is BEFORE you bake

The cake came out great! I agree, I wouldn't have a problem paying $125.00. It is a custom cake, a sheet cake costs $30 to $40 to start. Keep up the good work.

scrapbookermon, let us know what you decided about the price-I know your customer must have been pleased, it's a great cake!

I'd charge $50 to $60 just for the car alone! Cute cake!

Just a question but did you give them a ballpark figure when you took the order?

(LONG!)
Thank you guys for your help. We'll just say I've learned my lesson. Here's what happened. It was a friend of an acquaintance, neither of whom have actually seen any of my cakes. We live in sortof a rural area and no one around here makes custom cakes like this, and she wanted one. I'm a home baker and told her that I would not feel comfortable giving her a price because of it. (I usually just do cakes for free for family and friends) But I told her I spent $30 on ingredients and that she could give me a monetary "thank you" gift. Bad idea. I thought she would come and look at it and then fork out what it was worth. She came to my door with check in hand (already written out for $50) and took the cake. I was a little disappointed but decided to just get over it and state a price next time. She ended up calling me a short time after and said that after she got home and looked at it she really really loved it and thought it was adorable and thanked me again. I was hoping for a different kind of thank you (like another check!) but I guess I'll chalk it up to experience gained. I really miss my little car though! I didn't want to let him go!

FYI - I called the local Baskin Robbins just to see what a 9x13 ice cream cake goes for and they said $41.99 plain and $7 more for decorations placed on top! She got a smokin' deal!

wow, she sure did get a great deal!!!

ScrapbookerMom: WOW! Your cake was adorable! Loved that car, and great, great (did I say 'great?') job!

She stole it. Plain and simple. Next time, Girl--$100 big ones.


--Knox--

Take pride in the fact that the cake was great and learn from the experience. I have been there and done that and I'm sure there are plenty of other people that have. There are people out there who are the opposite and you will find them. I had a person give me more than I asked because she loved the cake and felt I was under pricing myself so it can balance out. Keep up the good work!