I was asked a couple of weeks ago to make a cake for a co-worker's sons first birthday. She said she wanted it to be a cowboy theme. So I have been doing some research on CC to figure out what to do. At first she only wanted a 9x13 cake for 20 or so people. And I suggested that her 1 yr old should have his own smaller cake so he can make a mess of it. Well, I was advised this week that the cake needs to be for 35-40 people!!! I showed her some things I purchased to put on the cake (plastic horses, etc) and told her how much I paid for them. But she nor I have even addressed what the price for this 12x18 cake is going to be. This whole event just keeps getting bigger & bigger. I told her we should probably do two layers of the 12x18, because to feed that many people I will have to cut the pieces at 2"x2" squares. And if you calculate all of the ingredients for this cake....it's going to cost me a small fortune!! How do I bring up the price of the cake? I am thinking I could charge upto $60 for this cake because it is going have a pipping gel pond, a fire pit, and other detailed stuff. Of course, the detail items are things I have suggested, because she had no idea what she wants other than "cowboy theme". This is only my third cake that I have made & charged for. Any suggestions would be great. Oh...the cake is due this Saturday!!!

Oh Lordy - I have been there! The longer time that goes by the bigger that white elephant in the room gets! It always ends up that the friend just assumes that you will do it for free since you are 'friends' or they intended to pay all along and all the anxiety is for nothing.....

How close of friends are we talking? Are you will to do the cake for the cost only as a 'gift' to your friends son? Please don't think I am acting like that is expected - I was just wondering....

** edited because I can't spell **

My thinking is...I am making the 1 yr old's cake as a gift to him...it's a fondant cowboy hat. I was willing to do the extra work with fondant, so he could have a really neat looking cake. But the other cake for the guests....that is going to take a lot of work. I have known her about 2 years but just as co-workers. I only see her once a week. So we are friendly.....but not really really close friends.

If this person is a friend, and you have made cakes for them in the past for free, they may be expecting the same thing this time.

If you are going to be at the party also, they may think you will make the cake as a gift. This happens to me a lot. People just don't realise the amount of time and money that goes into making a special cake.

You are obviously uncomfortable asking this person for money, so you will need to either do the cake for free, hope that they offer to pay, or really take yourself out of your comfort zone and tell them how much you want to charge them for the cake.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but if you don't tell them how much they need to pay you, they most likely won't offer.

Oh, I also have this one friend who was very much a 'taker' but when it came time for me to buy something of hers (for my Mom for Mother's Day) she gave me the standard $5 off that she gives all new clients.... it ended up costing a lot of money, too...

So once I got really into cake decorating, I made a point of telling her about another friend (total fiction, btw) that expected me to do the cakes for free, yada yada yada, and how it still cost me so much in materials yada, yada yada and then brought up how I didn't expect a discount for what she sold me, etc.....

Basically, clearing the way of tons of future cake orders... let me re-phrase.... future FREE cake orders. And sure enough, she hasn't done anything...... this was at least a year ago...

Her daughter, just the other day, however, said something about how I was going to do her birthday cake and she wanted a princess castle ( she is 17 ) and fondant.... I feel WWIII coming on

I am simply going to tell them I will do it for "cost" and make sure I cover everything!

I have made two cakes for other co-workers. One was for the co-worker's b-day & the other I charged for the co-workers cake (her daughters b-day). I think the co-worker knows I charged for my other cake. The birthday invitation specifically says....no gifts. So that would be weird for me to make the cake as a gift when no gifts are requested!!

I know this is my own fault for not addressing it earlier. But I really had no idea who large this fuction was going to be.

i have just taken over my friends cake business , she always did her families cakes for there gifts , and they thought i should do the same !!!
i have known most of them for at least 8 years but it just amazed me that they would think that , my best friend is also my friends neice that i took over for , she ordered a cake for this weekend, i gave her 5 dollars off but only because she has 4 kids and about to have her 5 th , and i know she will order all of her cakes from me the way i see it you better let her and everyone else know your prices , print them out real cute tell its for her future purchases and ask her how she is going to pay for this one , you could even print out a coupon for her next order and tell her if anyone else orders a cake through her you will do some kindof reward thing , like a free cake for every ten that are ordered through her ... just some ideas .... hope i helped ..... Ang

What I do for my close friends is I give them a list of everything I need to make their "special cake", and that way they go buy it and they know exactly how much it costs so they don't think that I am screwing them over. If it requires a pan that I don't have they buy the pan and give it to me for making the cake. That way I get new pans and they get a cake for just a little bit of money. It is a win.. win.. for all of us.

Tanalyn - what happended with the cake and your friend?

I have a friend who asked me to do her dad's cake. We never discussed it further... no flavor, no size, NOTHING... (I was gunna do it for free cuz she has helped me SO much). Well i assumed that she didnt want it since we didnt discuss details. Well, the day of the party, she comes over and says - do u have the cake? I was like OMG! NO I didnt think u still wanted it cuz u never told me what u wanted! ( I felt like a big old piece of dog poop!!!!!
So I learned you gotta be up front and discuss EVERYTHING up front and honestly!
Hope everything went ok!

Laura

Wow, this really seems to be a sticky subject !!! I'm really intersted to know how alot of you handle this.

I'm starting to get the impression, from the sound of posts so far, that it is VERY important to talk money right up front, so there are no assumptions. I did a cake this past weekend for my best friend's son's 9th birthday and it turned out really cute (a pirate ship which I haven't posted yet). We didn't talk money because I wanted to do it for him as a gift......but my friend is so great, she offered right up front to pay whatever I wanted for it because she KNOWS I put alot of time into it. We all need friends like this one, huh? LOL

I do like the idea of the friend buying the cake pan in exchange for the cost of the cake, provided the cake isn't overly time consuming and extravagant.

Ask your friend how much is her budget? That lets her know
a)you expect to get paid
b)she won't be suprised to see the bill
c)means you won't make a $60 cake for a $20 budget.

Ask me how I know this? I learned the hard way. I made a chocolate forest cake with ganache the whole bit and charged her $40 and that wasn't what she wanted to spend on her friends cake. She was thinking $20. If I had known that she would have got vanilla cake with a border and that's it, LOL. She paid but then proceeded to tell me she needed to teach me how to bake from scratch so that my pricing was better.

This from a friend who stopped doing wedding cakes years ago because she never made any money at it. Well duh! Love her but really....

edited to add her family owned a bakery/hotel but I have never actually seen a pic of a cake she did so have no idea what we are talking about. She is my biggest supporter though but she is very opinionated.

This is where a price list comes in handy. A price list would show options and prices. You could just casually hand it to her and tell her these are the options and prices you offer.

I agree with other's - don't let this linger on too long.

From the sounds of it, it seems like we have all been in this boat at one time or another. It's tough when you are starting out to actually be forward enough to talk about money. I am as guilty as they come! I still get "antsy" when talking to good friends about a price.

The next time I would talk to my "friend" I would make some off the cuff comment like, "Wow! Isn't it amazing how much we spend on our kids' first birthday parties? If you keep adding on people the price of this cake is going to be through the roof"! Maybe that would be a way to break the ice about $$. I would hate to see you stuck footing the bill, but I would talk about it now so that she knows it isn't free. If she doesn't want to pay then she has the option (and time) to find an alternative.

For the life of me, I just don't get how some people have these expectations that they are entitled to free stuff from someone who is trying to RUN A BUSINESS!!!

When a friend asks me to make a cake for them, I usually ask them to let me know what they want (design etc) how many to serve, colours, flavours etc, then I tell them I will put it down in writing so they know what they have asked for.

I then give them a copy detailing what they asked for and on there it says ' price for cake as detailed £x'.

I then tell them to check the details are correct and to let me know of any changes asap.

If you make cakes and friends know you do (thats why they asked you) I would assume they know you have to charge (at least somethng) for doing it.
cheers Jan

From now on when someone asks me to make a cake for them the FIRST thing I always ask is "what is your budget for the cake?"

Never again will I go through that again, LOL.

That's a great idea... mind if I use it too?

I have some friends who are always doing stuff for me so when she said that they were buying her SIL's wedding cake as a gift, I stupidly said ( before I even heard how big, etc...) I would do it for supplies only.

Long story short, the SIL wants that 3 tiered fondant hex cake on the cover of one of the popular book with about 30 red fondant roses, etc... OY! They argued but I already said I would do it for cost so now what?

She knows she will have to buy the fondant, etc... as well as the pans since I don't have that set. And I think they need to feed 100 people and those friggin' roses are gonna take me forever. I am tempted to tell her to use fresh roses because HOLY CRAP! Enough fondant red roses to cover 3 tiers - I'm sure I will need MORE than 30...

If only I had said "What's your budget for the cake?"