I was asked to make a wedding cake today. I've never done a wedding cake but have done grooms cakes and birthday cakes. I'm not a pro but I've been fairly happy with my work. This is the pic she sent me but I have no clue what to charge. she said she wants a 3 tier cake enough for 100 guests. She wants it to be square and relatively simple. With Buttercream white icing and raspberry filling in between the layers. Probably all white icing with different textures on each tier. Any clue how much to charge?[/img]

I would say $350 to $400
Edna

That's exciting that you're making your first wedding cake! I'm sure that you will do a great job!

Edna -- I just wanted to say Congrats for being in ACD this month!

WOW! THat is a VERY pretty cake!!!! Thanks for sharing the photo!

I always start my pricing at $2.00 a serving and go up with detail.

I have a questions also. I was told to charge 2.50, and in a large city charge 5.00 and if you have flowers, molded work, charge more. I live outside of a large city. What should one charge for the cake above and what do you charge for cup cakes and mini cakes?

Edna's right. I always underpriced before, I think it was because I was just starting and I had to. But let our price show your confidence! I attached a photo of my first wedding cake and first cake using SPS. Also 55 of Edna's technique callas I made that week. ( it was for a friend and I still charged her $380 w/ a 12 in chocolate grooms cake,) not sure what Id charge normally.. what do you guys think?

I live in a big city
Cupcakes start at $1.50 each and go up depending on decoration.
Mini cakes $20.. those suckers have a lot of work no matter how you put it. So the price detracts the bride from doing them.
Edna

I'm in a small town I start at $3.50 per slice for buttercream and $4.50 per slice for fondant.

I say start because there are other elements that could make the cake more expensive i.e. gourmet flavors, gumpaste/fondant flowers, topper, overall difficulty of design etc.

$175 is way too cheap for that cake, that's only $1.75 a serving.

Soooooo underpriced!!!!!!!!..Just the amount in cake there should have gone for the least $450.. The amount of work you put on the callas, if you sit down and look on how many hours you put on working on them that would tell you $380 was not enough. That cake should be not least than $700...I would do it for around $800[/quote]

I told her & the party guests ( I attended because like I said it was a friend's ) I told them $680... so I think thats not too terribly far off for a 1st timer Your my hero Edna, I cant wait for you to make a DVD ! Im 1st in line to buy!

yes!
i will would buy edna videos - cake AND dancing

I wanted to start working on some this week. But I lost my voice

As far as for pricing, always figure out how many hours you are going to spend on that cake and see if paying yourself by the hour will cover your time..Is a good way to encourage yourself that your time is important..
Edna

Congratulations to tonedna!!!!! I just seen your cake in American Cake Decorating.... ACD mag! I looked at your icon ( your pic beside your name) and I just knew I had seen that picture in my magazine I just got in the mail. You go girl!!!

Ditto. I was excited for you! I my husband, there's Edna's cake !! I make him watch your videos with me, he's so impressed. Though I think he likes your accent too, he never argues about watching

Let me start by saying I am a cake decorator/baker myself and I really do not understand how you can justify or even rationalize charging $350-$400 for a cake that feeds 100 people unless its carved out of gold. The skill needed to complete that cake is not worth $3.50 to $4.00 a serving and if you need to charge that much because of how long it takes to finish it then you might want to rethink your career. The saying "it's a piece of cake" didn't just come out of nowhere. Let's be honest with ourselves, decorating and baking are easy. Following a recipe is easy as long as you are literate. I can't wait to read a "good" justification for robbing people.

cakeandbakehelper that's your opinion and if you want to work for pennies then that's your right.

In my area $3.50 to $4.00 a serving is the "low" average and I live in a small town.

I don't open a cake mix and throw it in a bowl and mix it up. I ONLY bake from scratch with premium ingredients and my clients all know this.

Have you looked at any bridal magazines lately? You'd be really shocked at what some of the cakes in there are selling for......$15 to $25 a serving, so that cake would cost $1500 to $2500 for 100 servings.

If someone can get that price I say good for them. This is business, not charity.

Just curious, (though not sure why since you just joined and you're already trying to flame the thread,) but, I'll humor you........What would you charge for that cake? (if you sell cakes)

they don't charge-they give it away for free!

Listen, before I got serious about designing cakes, I thought it was a little pricey for wedding cakes to cost as much as they did. But then i realized how much work I had to put into one of those suckers and I STILL feel like I undercharge sometimes.

Do you EVER question your doctor when he charges you $35 for a band-aid? (and yes, i have the emergency room bill that details $35 for a band-aid and also $50 for "medication handout"-a fee for the nurse to do her job and give me my medicine)

Im a bit insulted that you, as a cake decorator, would ever think something like that.

To each his own (i guess.....)

I think he/she is what you call a "troll".........remember a little while back when we were noticing that people were signing up and posting controversial posts in threads to try to get everyone fired up?

I say we don't give him/her the time of day........I don't have the patience to play games with people like that.

I wouldn't take it personally edna, you of all people don't have to justify your prices..........you could get $25 a serving, no problem. Your work is exquisite and pure perfection!

I really do sell cakes lol. I would charge about $150 for that cake in the photo. I did not intend for the comment to be rude. However, I think it is rude to over charge a customer for cake. Cake is cake whether you measured it out or a machine did for a cake mix company, and your customers that expect fine quality cakes would not notice a difference in taste between scratch baking and cake from a mix, although I'm sure they'd argue all day that their palet is sophisticated and they only prefer cakes from scratch.

Everything you listed, edna, would not take more than 3 hours, so by charging (let's figure it takes you $50 in ingredients) that other $350 for your time, you really think your time is worth more than $100 an hour for doing something simple like the things you listed? Try a job with actual PHYSICAL LABOR or work that takes brain power beyond that of a middle schooler. (no offense middle schoolers)

dkelly, I love John Lennon too. Glad to see we have other Beatles fans on here. "Imagine no over priced cakes" lol

lol @ troll...


Well..if you spend 2 days between baking doing your icing , torte and filling, doing your cake, etc, etc,..thats 16 hours of work..Paying myself $20 an hour is already $320..And thats not counting materials.. I guess she like to get paid the minimum..
Edna