I have had a few family members that I've made cakes for ask me to teach their children how to decorate cakes with fondant. So I thought it would be a great idea to have a "cake decorating party". Each child gets a personal 4" cake to decorate. For this particular party I'm doing the little girl wants butterflies and flowers so I am going to make gelatin butterflies and have the kids put them together and add glitter and then have them cut out simple fondant flowers and then of course decorate their cakes. This is for a family member so I just told my cousin to pay me for some of the supplies but if this "idea" were to take off...what or how do I go about charging for supplies and also for my time??

I would say a min of 20.00 per person if not more. Check out the classes that Country Kitchen Sweet Art has on their website for kids classes.

Even though you referenced your comment to fondant class, I have been approached regarding doing basic decorationg with bc with a group of kids. 1. How far or extensive should one go if they decided to go this route? 2. Would you set a limit on age/variance of ages (meaning first graders mixed in with eight graders)?

I charge $20 per child...minimum of $200. Each child gets a 6" cake to decorate and a box to take it home. (I buy the bucket of frosting from Sam's)...show them how to crumb coat and then frost a cake. In advance, I make up about 5 colors of frosting and have them in bags...3 of each color. Show them how to make a few different borders with #16 tip and then let them go. I decorate the 1/4 sheet for the party while they are doing this.

I can't help you with the charging part, but just thought I'd give you something else to consider. I was asked by a friend to do exactly what you describe for her daughter's birthday party. I suggested cupcakes instead and planned several different ones they could do. They loved the idea of the cupcakes, the kids each got to do several different designs and had a ball. When we started the first one the kids were all asking if they could eat it when we were done decorating it. By the time they were done, they didn't want to eat their "design". They didn't eat a single one during the party (their decision), but instead was anxious to bring home all their different cupcakes and show them off. I had fun too.

I don't do fondant kids classes...too much expense....you would have to give each child their own rolling pin, plastic mat, duster. I have tried it but the kid's enjoyed the buttercream one better.

I actually did something like this recently...but I did it for the 8-11 girls at church and since I'm the leader I only charged for supplies, so I can't help on that end. But as for running it, I figured they'd have too hard of a time icing/fondant covering cakes, so I just demonstrated that and let them help do a couple of cakes. (We only had about an hour.) Then I gave them a 6x2 fondant covered cake to decorate. I showed them how to pipe and took cutters for fondant. Most of the girls went for the piping bags, and not the fondant, much to my surprise.

I agree, the kids did love the piping bags. If I did this again, I'd make (OHHHHHhhhh, having a brain freeze, can't think of what it's called), but where you wrap some frosting in saran wrap and freeze, then you just clip the end off and put the tube into the frosting bags. That would have saved a ton of time over refilling with the kids. (My kids were around 9). They loved using different tips, then we used cutters and they have a ball cutting out animals and flowers from the fondant. They had as much fun coloring the fondant as anything else. I gave them each lollipop sticks to use as a roller since they were just doing small items, and it worked perfectly for them. But all cupcakes had frosting on them.

I held a fondant class for kids in my neighborhood. I only charged for supplies, but I made the fondant and cupcakes. I had them each bring a rolling pin from home. They loved making cupcake toppers and even exceeded the six each they had. Many kids took home 10 toppers. I think cupcakes are a better option. When I let my girls do a cake, they put on huge cutouts and the experience doesn't last long. They all had fun, but the 9 and up kids did not need as much help. Good luck.

As for the age limit I think the kids would have to be at least 7 or 8 years old..just my opinion

My sister is going to help me so I figure since there are 8 kids she can take four and do some fondant and I'll take 4 and do the butterflies and then we can swap...I'm going to look into buying cheap rolling pins, like kid size. This way here I have them in case this takes off to something and more people want to do it.

You could buy a length of pvc and cut it into individual rolling pins. Very inexpensive. And, buy vinyl by the yard in Walmart and cut that into individual mats for them to work on.

The PVC works great! That is what I use on my small fondant pieces. And I have an extra one for my grand daughter to use when she is here, and Nana is working on a cake.

I would figure it much like I would a cake.

How much is it going to cost you for supplies? (Cake, icing, fondant, color gels, rolling pins, matts to roll it out on and so on...)

How long will it take you to bake the cakes and do the prep work like coloring fondant, making the butterflies, gathering all of your supplies?

How long will the party be?

How long will clean up and repacking your stuff take you?

How much is your time worth? What is your hourly rate for the prep, party and clean up?

How much profit do you want to make?

Those are the questions I'd ask and answer when it came to pricing something like that.