Ok,
I baked and decorated 2 dolphin cakes and a seashell cake for a twin 9 year olds birthday party. well, the mom knew how much I was going to charge which was $20 per dolphin, and I threw in the seashell for $10 even though that one took more time. Now, the aunt came to pick the cakes up, and i assumed she knew the pricing (had an invoice on the box and all)...she tries to hand me a $20 and that was it. I nicely told her that it was as I stated above, and she looked at me like I was crazy. Anyway, I guess she figured that the mother would be paying her back for the cakes so that was ok. Anyway, to summarize.....3 cakes nicely decorated (not tooting my own horn) for $50.00 is that too much?

I think it was fairly priced ... the aunt is the crazy one!

Not in my book! The cakes are beautiful and definately worth the money!

No way! Actually you are probably going to be told that you undercharged! I don't know how big each cake is, but you could have been charging at the least $25 per cake. She actually thought you were going to charge less then $7 per cake? Who was she kidding!

Thank you, that makes me feel better. I mean if you go to walmart, let alone a bakery, you will pay far more than that for 3 small cakes, and usually they aren't that good looking. And yes, I think the aunt is pretty mental myself (and not just about the cakes..lol..shame on me...).

Those cakes are beautiful. I don't think you charged to much. I think that was a good deal, I do not think people realize not only how much time goes into making a cake like that, and they have no idea how much ingredients cost. I think that was a great price, you pay $30.00 for a small (ugly) sheet cake at the supermarket.


Vicky

I don't think so. I think people sometimes don't realize how much time goes into a cake and if they did know they wouldn't complain about costs.

I think these people need to be referred to this forum when they give us "cake artisans" a hard time . thank you guys you are making me feel much better. That was my first "business" transaction so I was a little leary of whether I marked it up or down wrong.

The aunt is definitely a little crazy...even an untrained eye can see that your cakes were gorgeous and must've taken a good deal of time to decorate that well! Some people! I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe there was a misunderstanding and she heard the wrong price from the mom. Who knows?! Oh, well. Don't fret too much! Your price is just fine and your cakes were well worth the money!

Steph

I think you undercharged them. $50 for 3 cakes That was a steal of a price.


Beautiful cakes.

arianne,

Beautiful job on those cakes! I was curious as to how big each cake is???? It looks like a lot of work went into these so I am thinking 50.00 sounds about right.

The dolphins were about 9 long and 5-6 wide, and the seashell would have been and easy 12 by 13 maybe a little bit smaller..keeping in mind that these aren't cakes that come with the wilton instructions..the dolphins weren't too bad as far as picking colors etc., but I didn't want the seashell to look cheesey so that one I took alot more time with as far as making a pattern on paper, and mapping out what i was going to do. My mom always said that she didn't sell her cakes because you never really get paid for your time, and i'm quickly learning that, but I also like doing it, and if you get enough advertisement then that's really the plus, but one bad apple saying you charge too much does not help that issue. I did my research, and looked at the groceries etc., and they wanted the same amount for something my son could probably do (at least the groceries around here).

Here's another kicker, i've got to do a wedding shower cake that will serve 50-60 people and the lady tells me that they've never paid over $30.00 for a shower cake so what am I supposed to do with that, I need that business because it's through the church, and they always have functions, but I don't want to get "skewerd..lol" when it comes to pricing them.

arianne,

I think it is ok for you to give the church lady a discount. I would tell her that your normal price would be much higher than 30.00. I would also ask her to have some of your business cards or at least pass your name and number around to some of the members of the church.

I donated 2 cakes last weekend to my church...but the lady to a whole stack of my business cards and said she gave out every one.

Good luck and I hope you have some business from this.

i think u UNDERCHARGED!!!!! i'm glad u got ur $50 but this woman must be crazy....$20...i wouldn't even give her one of those cakes for $20...

Why is it that we hardly ever post the question - did I undercharge?

I think that she got the deal of the week - 3 cakes for $50, really take a look at what you get at the local grocery store or mash merchant for $15 certainly not all that detail.

The cakes look great by the way.

Thank you traci for the advice i donated 2 last week myself to their cake walk, and that's how i got the shower cake job..lol. I will definitely gove her a fistful of business cards also.

Cake fairy you are the best, thanks for the vote of support.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR INPUT.

thank you JaxD that was my thinking I just really didn't like the "snotty look" I got...I figured I would have a dessert of cake for dinner..lol.

Good point balloon.

30.00 for cake to serve 60!!!! that's only 50cents per serving- has the lady thought of it that way? even at 1.00 a serving it would be cheap.

Honestly I don't even think you could make a cake that feeds that many people for $30, like ingredients wise. I seriously doubt that she could find a cake for $30 that would feed that many people. Another thing I don't quite understand, is that if she has never had to pay over that, why isn't she going to that person? I know its through the church, but it does sound a tad like being taken advantage of.
If you are donating it to the church, thats one thing.
I priced out (for someone that needs a cake next month) that even a 8 double layer yellow scratch cake, covered and filled with buttercream, would cost $17, and thats just raw materials, no tax(I live in canada, lol), no labour.

I know you want the business, but if you do this cake for basically nothing, and then this person tells everyone at the shower how much she paid, you will end up doing more cakes for nothing, or having to explain that you can't keep charging that.

ETA: I just sent the person who is ordering from me a list of prices of different cakes I could do, and at the end tacked on that a discount applies to all the prices. This way they could see how much it would normally cost to make it, but that they are getting a deal. This may be something you could think about doing.

I am wondering where she was getting afore mentioned $30 cakes? If at the local MART or grocery store...I would point out that homemade is naturally going to cost a little more. While I also agree with Jenn on the idea of marketing...if you donated cakes last week and are giving a special price on this one make it clear that you dont alway work for these prices. And that if they reccomend brides to you that wedding cakes are a lot more pricy.

As my dad used to say...I't takes money to make money"..I am sure someone else originally coined this phrase but it is true...it is a form of advertising. Advertising cost $. Plain and simple.

Those figures sound a little steep to me, but things cost differently in Canada than they do here, I guess. I could do the same cake (8'/2 layer) for around $10/US....but would probably charge $30, depending on decorations. Most of my cakes, however, are 4 layer...so an 8'/4 layer is normally $45 with basic or minimal decoration, plain BC filling; the same cake with specialty fillings and decorations start at $55.

To serve 50-60 ppl is a lot of cake...she must be used to getting sheet cakes at that price, so based on that: my 1/2 sheets serve 40-45 ppl, depending on how it's cut & I charge $45.00 for basic butter cake with white icing and basic decoration (borders and simple greeting)...no filling, etc. My 'specialty' 1/2 sheet, with filling and any decoration desired starts at $54.00. So, if it's sheet cakes she's used to getting for $30 with basic decoration/no filling, that's not too much of a discount to give her, IMO, if you're hoping it would bring you other business from some of the people attending the shower. If you charged $45 or so & gave her the discount, only charging her $30, you'd only be out about $15...cheaper than any advertising i can think of.

I would ask her just what kind of cake she got for that $30, then see if you can give her the equivilent with that $30 at least covering your costs and a little bit for your time. You should be able to get the ingredients for a basic cake for less than $30, even for one that feeds that many, as long as there's nothing super special going into it, IMO.

I appreciate the input on this, and I also want to let you in on the background with this church and my family. We are louisiana evacuees and the house we are living in is their church house, and they haven't asked us for a single thing so i'm being lenient on THIS cake, BUT I think I will write up a price sheet based on the serving on a flyer with business cards so that these people will know what the REAL prices are. What do you think of that idea?

So sorry to hear that you were victims of the hurricane, and it is great they are helping you out with the house, but they should not expect you to sell a a cheap price just because. They should recognize you need to make money for yourselves to get back on track. I think a price list would be an excellent idea, that way they can see how generous you are really being; and so no one will expect this discounted price for future orders.

Deb

Jenn, I also have to thank you for the calculations because i am still very new to this. I am going to some how make it clear that the CHURCH price is totally different from the REGULAR price. I'm not planning on doing any special fillings, I was going to do a simple white wedding cake recipe with either buttercream frosting and a few flowers and shells (they are getting married bermuda), or fondant icing (which i'm not sure i'm comfortable with quite yet so i'll probably steer clear of that) with the same afore mentioned shells and flowers. At this point i'm not even sure how i'm going to set this cake up as far as square, circle, i'm totally confused...I have ideas, but not all the pans to do the ideas with (trying to replenish from the storm, I had nothing coming up here). HELP....

Thank you momlittr for your kind words, and your input...

I wouldn't have given her the board for $20.00. It never stops amazing me how people will try to make you undercharge your worth if you don't have a big shop. I got my business license yesterday for this very reason. Great job on the cakes. I would give you $50.00 for them.