Hi, I have been asked to ice a wedding cake next month. The brides mother is making a traditional fruit cake and wants to have it iced before cutting it up and putting it in boxed for the guests. She is looking for marzipan and royal icing and I have no idea how to price it so any help or advice would be great. She is making an 18, 16, and 14 inch cake.

Thanks!!!

Are you sure you want to ice a cake made by someone else? 'Cause I wouldn't touch that proposition with the proverbial ten foot pole.

I'm with leah_s. Maybe you could offer a few lessons for a fee so she can do it herself.

Have you done the marzipan and RI thing to fruit cakes before? From seeing them in some cake decorating books it is different from what I am used to, for sure. The marzipan has to be put on in little pieces to fill in each of the holes so it is smooth and then an apricot sauce brushed on and then a layer of marzipan and then the RI. Or something like that anyway. Lots of steps if it isn't something you are used to. On top of the whole thing of are you going to decorate someone elses cake. If you do decide to do it, I think making the cake takes much less time than all the decorating steps, transporting, setup, etc so price would be close to if you made a usual cake and decorated it.

oh my..... your insurance company would have a hay day with that one.....

Firstly I agree with Lea, you could run into all sorts of problems

also doing RI is a PAIN!!! like a pp said it takes loads of steps (you actually need about 3-4 coats of RI and it needs a day or two to dry between each coat) and if your cake is not absolutly level and straight sided it almost impossible to get it looking good.
If you really really want to/have to do it then why not do marzipan and fondant?

As for charging, the icing and decorating is the hardest part of the job, so I wont charge much less than if I had to bake the cake myself

no way I would ice a cake that someone else baked.

How about just providing the boxes and some sugar flowers? Since you write that it is just to go home with guests?

I personally wouldn't do it.

wow, i havent done that cake yet. i have a fruit cake sitting waiting to be worked on. but the process intimidates me. it cant have too much alcohol or it will seep out.

a local company i asked charges $4 per slice to ice an unfinished cake supplied by customer. i guess they want to discourage this sort of thing

I am with everyone else here on this one.
Aside from the liability and hassle, I would not put my name on something that someone else created. Nothing personal towards her, but IF her cake tasted awful or made someone sick, your name would be all over it.
Not something I would want to be associated with.

forgot to mention. the $4 per slice quoted by the local baker was buttercream. thats cost only for deco

I would quote her the same price you'd quote her if YOU had baked the cake! It will discourage her from wanting to try it........as a second option, I'd offer to provide her with the sugar flowers, but that's only if you WANT this order.

There are a lot of things that could go wrong.......what if the cake is lousy and she says it came from YOU

What if someone gets sick and she says that it came from YOU

What if she cuts the slices 3 days before the wedding and the cake is horrendous and DRY and she says it came from YOU

I would run from this order.................FAST!

9 bazillion dollars. seriously - If and that is a big IF I was going to do it I would charge the same as I normally would. The baking is the least of my worries! I would probably charge more and make them sign a release that no matter HOW it turned out that there would be NO refund, no credits, no nothing....second though...I wouldn't do it. It is not worth the potential PITA

From what I understand this is a common practice in the UK (the family makes the cake and then has someone else ice and decorate), interesting that it's done in Canada too, eh? It would be interesting to hear how the liability issue is dealt with in the UK or other places where this is common practice.

I mean fruitcake/marzipan/royal is a whole different animal - fruitcake should be baked 9 months to a year before the wedding and soaked in alcohol.

I certainly wouldn't do it since I don't have any experience with it.