One of the teachers at my kids' school asked me to come in and teach a mini cake decorating class to her students. I agreed, and she paid the price of $5 per student (32 kids = $160). Now, I wanted to give the teacher a real break and make it reasonably priced, as it's almost the end of the school year. But I just finished icing 32 individual 4" cakes, and I still have to make and color the icing for the decorating, bring everything in, set up, and spend 2 hours (4 half hour sessions with 8 kids in each) teaching a few basics like the star, the drop flower, the shell border, etc. and monitor them as they decorate. I'm also providing them with individual boxes so they can take their cakes home. I know I didn't quote nearly enough for all this work!!! My expenses alone have eaten up almost half of the quoted amout!

I know $5 per child is CRAZY, especially since I have hand cramps from icing so many cakes tonight. Does anyone do this as a business? If so, how much do you charge per child? What do you include?

TIA!!

<S>

i don't have an answer for you but i have been thinking about doing the same thing. here is a bump for you.

I did it - once.

For that much work, it is not worth my time and energy for less than $20 bucks per kid (that was for a 2 hour class).

Yes ,I do that for piñatas. I take the cupcakes without decoration, I give to each kid one or two small disposable containers with frosting, depending the colors, and a small wood palette so they can spread the icing over the cupcakes. then by different decorations. so they can use to decorate the cakes. And one or two disposable bags with brown or black to make eyes , nose, etc.
and disposable plates in which they can decorate and take home. You can take some samples they can copy.

I have been thinking about doing this for parties and fun not for a "class" but I thought no one would pay $5-$9 a kid for a cupcake. But for a nimi cake and class it may work. Maybe next time dont pre-ice them and let them learn to basic crumb coat then cover in stars??

But for my effort to bake and clean at home then make each kid a station, and set up and decorate there.... then clean up and go home??? Is it worth it? I was thinking of promoting it as cake & activity for the party, then may sound like a better "investment" and adding a free 6 in for the BDay kid. Have to have a min of 15-20 cakes I think.
No idea if it would be worth it, guess I just gotta try it out once.

Let me know how it all goes for you!

This is what I have done for my son's 1st grade class. I had them decorate mini cakes that looked like burgers & fries. You don't have to pre-ice anything. Bake sheet cakes in chocolate & yellow. Use circle cutters to make the chocolate "burgers" & yellow "buns"...give them some light brown frosting to cover the bottom, place the "naked" chocolate layer on that,...have them roll out some fondant in green for lettuce, red for tomatoes......a drop more icing, slap on the top bun and have them ice that in the light brown...throw a few white sprinkles (or real sesame seeds) on top!
for french fries, take the yellow sheet cake, cut into strips & drizzle with red colored piping gel.
It's really not a lot of work.
You can have them put it in a clear corsage box that has a piece of waxed paper on the bottom to look really authentic.
The parents went wild for this.

Good luck!

I do kid's classes regularly at my cake shop (retail supply shop) and love them! They are a huge part of my business. I also have gone to schools to teach. I have lots of ideas...I do cookie decorating (MMF and NFSC), these are a HUGE hit! Cookies are relatively cheap and quick to bake. MMF is also easy. I am a control freak so I tend to make it all ahead of time, and then also divide out the MMF colors. Each kid gets a basket (dollar tree, and the basket is not to keep) full of MMF (in correct colors) a cornstarch bag (knee high pantihose with cornstarch), a 6" roller, a few small squares of texture mats, paintbrush, small container of corn syrup. Confettis if I feel generous. They share the cutters. For cakes I have done an uniced oval for easter...they gave it a light coat of buttercream and covered it in fondant, then decorated (to look like an easter egg). On this one I did roll out the fondant and slather it in crisco, then stacked the rolled out fondants, just for ease. Then I simply peeled off each sheet of fondant and gave it to the kids.

You could also do cupcakes. Wilton has an awesome Icing Fun workshop...kits run about $5/each and are fabulous. Or you could do cupcakes from the Hello Cupcake book. Corn on the cob is fun, so is spaghetti and meatballs. You can buy plastic tips from CK products...they run 18 cents wholesale, and you don't have to worry about cleaning or getting them back. I usually prep the bags by putting the coupler and icing in, then closing it with a chip clip or something similar.

You can do fondant animals with MMF. They can make a zoo.

They can do sand or dirt cake, and do fondant seashells/starfish, etc.

There are tons of ideas, and tons of ways this could be fun with minimal expense! PM me if you need more ideas!

I do kids' classes at a cooking school near me, and they pay me $20 per kid, but they provide the cakes. They charge $45 per kid plus a materials fee. Theoretically, if they did all the work they'd be taking the entire amount, but they want to have a pro decorator as a teacher. I provide the icing and tips, etc, then they reimburse me for that.

To make a long story short, I get $20 a kid, and I have to make the icing.

Forgot to add...

$5/kid IS crazy, but giving the teacher a break is karma, and it will come back to you. Think of it as a time donation to kids (and increase your price in the future). To cut down on your time investment...DON'T ice the cakes. The kids can pretty much ice with a star and leaf tip. Or, for the future, make a spaghetti cake. Very little effort on their part. And very cool!

Also, consider getting containers from some place like Costco or Sam's. Cupcakes fit into the styrofoam containers, and they are alot less expensive than cake boxes.

I also bought tablecloths from Dollar Tree to make my cleanup easier.

My classes run from $10/kid (Mommy and Me) to $45/kid. They always leave with lots of yummy treats.

I've always been interested in doing this...great ideas everyone!

I thought about doing this but with cupcakes. I was thinking about 6 cupcakes and decorating them. Maybe $10 a kid for a 2 hr session. I might end up doing this for my youngest b-day.

I would really like to do this but am not sure if doing this at my home is the best bet...I could go to the person's house and have a minimum of 8-10 kids???

It might have been easier for you to have let the kids ice their own cake.

Okay, I'm finally finished! I went into the school this morning, and we started at 10 am. Instead of 4 half hour sessions of 8 students each, we had 5 sessions with 6 students each, with a few extra students at the end. I ended up spending about 4 1/2 hours total on the cakes, since I needed to replenish icing and such mid-way through. In total, with baking, cutting out individual 4" cakes, icing, and instruction time, I think I spent about 12 hours total on this project. Add to that the $60-$75 I spend on supplies, and I think I made minimum wage ~ minimum wage in the 1920s, that is!!!

Anyway, the kids were good, and really enjoyed decorating. I think if I did this in the future, it would definitely be in the $15-20 per child range, just so I can turn a profit. Of course, I am not taking into considering the amount of clean-up I have to do now, cleaning tips, containers, etc...

<S>

I'm glad you made it out alive! LOL

School is still in? My kids got out last week and the week before that!

I did it for my Girl Guide unit for FREE! The girls had a blast - they became my apprentices for the evening, and got to make cupcakes for our Christmas Tea. I brought them home and froze them for the next week's meeting. I also taught them about running a small business (it was for a badge), so we had a fun night.

Our school has after school clubs and my friend and I did a decorating class for third and fourth graders. We baked cupcakes and had the kids decorate them, got ideas from Hello Cupcake Book. Each class lasted an hour. The PTO paid for ingredients and gave us the regular $ for running a club. They made money because we took 25 kids, then turned the rest away with a promise they would be first on the list for the next class.
Used tips in disposable bags,
used the idea of frosting in "plugs" described here on CC.
For some of the kids, I used a food bag sealer to seal the end of the disposable bag because they couldn't get the hang of squeezing from the top. (I always do this with the 3 year olds I let decorate)
used clear plastic cups to take cupcake home in.
Usually each child made 2 cupcakes, each class

The kids and parents LOVED all they did. I know they would have paid a lot more if asked. The only negative thing that happened was one of the kids said they weren't allowed to eat the cupcake because everyone said it was "too cute to eat"

BTW we are both teachers at the school & know how to pace the lessons for the age of the child-others might want to start with fewer kids.