I am still doing this as a hobby (The lenght of time I spent making my cakes to the point Im even satisfied with them is too much to ever turn a profit...does this ever change?) and usually when someone requests a cake from me I figure the cost of ingredients and add 5-10 bucks for it. This pays maybe for half an hour of my work. I guess it brings two problems for me, how do I make a living when Im paying myself near to nothing? Well I digress. I have person request a cake, 1/2 chocolate, for xmas but he said he can provide me with the ingredients. So now Im in a bind. Do I charge him 5-10 bucks? hehehe thanks. I just always feel awful about charging more than 40 bucks for a cake (and this was for a cake feeding about 30 people that I dared charge 40)

Thanks!

Do you do anything to YOUR cakes to make them special....... added ingredients, etc., or do you just use a simple box mix and let it go ? I said "YOUR" cakes, because that is the reason people come to you.... YOUR cake..... Please do not sell yourself short and let the customer dictate what you do with YOUR recipe...... or YOUR prices..... if you want this to become a business, treat it like a business....... set a price and stick to it.... that price INCLUDES the ingredients.... You work hard to give them something that they want, and it worth more than a $1.00 an hour !!

Maybe by telling you they would "supply the ingredients" means they will give you the $$ for the ingredients thinking that is all they need to pay for?? Uhm...just say no!
About supplying actual ingredients - I've been burned once....and it will NEVER happen again...by someone supplying the ingredients for a dummie cake! I had to scrap everything she brought me and buy new because is was awkward amounts of this and that and simply not usable!
I told her she would have to pay for the new ingredients and she did, but was not happy until she got the actual cake which she loved! But anyway, I screwed myself because the price of the cake was VERY inexpensive because I didn't factor in time to order ingredients and last minute changes ect.