What Would You Price This Cake As An Amature Baker??

Business By Krista512 Updated 8 Feb 2012 , 10:20pm by jgifford

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Krista512 Posted 1 Feb 2012 , 5:44am
post #1 of 18

a good friend wants me to make her wedding cake. i have made cakes but never a wedding cake.

i believe i would be using a 6,8 and 10 inch with two 2 inch cakes high for each tier. and have a 6 inch cake on the side since she wants to keep the top tier. she is having a grooms cheese cake also. and is expecting 100-125 guests.

the recipe that i use is a box mix doctored up with pudding and sour cream and added buttered vanilla flavoring for the vanilla cake and added creame flavor for the middle strawberry cake.

and unless i can figure out how to make my own buttercream icing i will have to use the icing at Sams Club. dont know if it is cheaper to buy icing or make it. i have never made icing.

i will be using my own home made marshmallow fondant

i will have to drive about 75 miles one way to get to her location.

what should i charge her. this is the worst part of doing cakes for me for friends cause i dont want to feel like im messing them over but i need a profit. especially since im not making cakes right now and am just doing this cake for her.
LL

17 replies
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scp1127 Posted 1 Feb 2012 , 6:25am
post #2 of 18

Are you legally able to accept money for your cake? Check with your local health department and find out what licensing you may need, even if you do it for ingredients only. Until the legal requirements are satisfied, the cake should be free, not to mention the required sales tax, tax ID number and business license.

Also, the venue may require a license and insurance. You should check this in advance.

One final note: With so little experience on such an important day, are you sure you should make this cake? And also with so little experience, you may want to consider doing this cake for free because it sounds like your skill level is not marketable at this point. I know she is your friend, but there are so many points where this cake can fail. Many friends who accept money have been sued for ruining this monumental day.

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FromScratchSF Posted 1 Feb 2012 , 6:26am
post #3 of 18

I can tell you when I was an "amateur" I would never attempt that cake for my 1st wedding! Sooooo much could go wrong there and that's a cake design that if it is poorly executed, it will be hard to hide. Square, fondant, wonky, tapered, off-set, black fondant, circle cut-outs... this cake is a perfect example of something a Bride thinks is "simple!" but requires a lot of technical skill.

Eeek, I wish you the best of luck and hope you are very confident in your skills, or at least know what to change in the design to make it a cake you are comfortable executing.

We can't tell you pricing because we don't know where you live, how much your ingredients are, what your overhead is, what you want to pay yourself, how long it would take YOU to make that cake etc. Sorry to sound so non-helpful, but this is something you have to work out for yourself.

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FromScratchSF Posted 1 Feb 2012 , 6:36am
post #4 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krista512

a good friend wants me to make her wedding cake. i have made cakes but never a wedding cake.

i believe i would be using a 6,8 and 10 inch with two 2 inch cakes high for each tier. and have a 6 inch cake on the side since she wants to keep the top tier. she is having a grooms cheese cake also. and is expecting 100-125 guests.




So I also wanted to point out that to make this cake, your tier sizes are off. To make the taper you need to go one inch up, and to get that off-set you need 4 inches in between the tier sizes, so a 6-8-10 isn't going to do it. This cake started as a 6-9-12. With the taper, the top tier has a 5" base, the middle has a 8" base, giving both 4" in the tier size difference to get that off-set. If you do your 6-8-10 your design will already fail.

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Pebbles1727 Posted 2 Feb 2012 , 3:52am
post #5 of 18

I have to agree, the execution of this cake requires higher level of skill than it may appear. Your sizes are off for what you are trying to accomplish as well, but it has been already addressed. I would also not have risked to do that cake as a newby, and if I did, I would not feel comfortable charging even ingredient cost. The amount of stress I would have put on myself to get this cake done with it being square and tapered and fondant covered and then have to drive with it such a long distance...for a wedding of a friend....just won't be worth it to me.
Good Luck on whatever you decide.

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mommachris Posted 2 Feb 2012 , 6:50am
post #6 of 18

Eee gads! That isn't a "simple cake" at all the whole offset thing is tricky enough to get right, but adding in the tapered layers. Wedding cakes take on a whole nother dimension of pressure when it comes to decorating.
I know you asked how much we'd charge, but I'm going to gently suggest you turn this cake down.
The cake + your experience + a long drive = an embarrassing picture on Cake Wrecks and a very stressed friendship.
All that is my opinion of course.
Take it of leave it.

mommachris

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howsweet Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 2:03am
post #7 of 18

To make sure you use the right sized pans just get a ruler and cut them out on paper.

I tend to agree that someone's wedding is not the place to do this for the first time.

I'd be inclined to buy the fondant and make the buttercream. The fondant, by the standards of many, is not necessarily part of the cake that's to be eaten. Make a delicious cake and filling, THEN worry about the taste of the fondant.

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leah_s Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 2:18am
post #8 of 18

Have you even covered a square cake in fondant? How about a tapered, square cake?

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AZCouture Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 3:10am
post #9 of 18

As an amateur? I'd ask her if she's consider doing rounds. I think you would both be better off. Less stress for ya.

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mcaulir Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 3:34am
post #10 of 18

This is a troll post, yes? We have the 'never made icing', the 'very difficult design for a first wedding', the 'long drive to location' and the 'no idea how much to charge' all in one post.

BINGO!

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karukaru Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 3:44am
post #11 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcaulir

This is a troll post, yes? We have the 'never made icing', the 'very difficult design for a first wedding', the 'long drive to location' and the 'no idea how much to charge' all in one post.

BINGO!



Ditto!

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AZCouture Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 3:51am
post #12 of 18

With 48 previous posts and a gallery full of cakes?

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dukeswalker Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 3:55am
post #13 of 18

1- you need to check if her venue will allow unlicensed kitchen's to provide food (if you are unlicensed)
2- I would really try and see if she would go for round cakes
3-look into using the SPS if you're going tp be traveling that far and make sure you have a totally level, large space in a car to transport the cake in
4- are you just looking to recoup the cost of ingred? or ingred+electricity+gas+driving? or all of that plus your time?

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karukaru Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 4:13am
post #14 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by AZCouture

With 48 previous posts and a gallery full of cakes?




True, maybe I'm wrong but the info she is giving us Does not match the level of skill represented on the pictures of the cakes in her profile.

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carmijok Posted 7 Feb 2012 , 4:30am
post #15 of 18
Quote:
Originally Posted by karukaru

Quote:
Originally Posted by AZCouture

With 48 previous posts and a gallery full of cakes?



True, maybe I'm wrong but the info she is giving us Does not match the level of skill represented on the pictures of the cakes in her profile.




This has also been posted before. I also addressed the tapered look in the first post and the OP wrote back that she's not going to do the tapered...just offset.

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Pebbles1727 Posted 8 Feb 2012 , 9:44pm
post #16 of 18

However this same person keeps posting in How To forums and others about best recipes for icing and cake to carve and not done a stacked cake until recently, one of the posts is that she has not done a cake in 7 months because of being on bedrest and now having a 6 month old. I think she is still doing this cake and intends to charge. I think she is for real....

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LNW Posted 8 Feb 2012 , 10:00pm
post #17 of 18

Like everyone else has said, I wouldn't do this design for your friends wedding. Not that I think your skills stink (you've got a lot of lovely cakes in your gallery) but this is a hard design, harder than anything you've got in your gallery. I would ask her if she would be okay with round cakes instead of square. Have you ever tried to fondant a square cake? Talk about headaches. This design in rounds would still look awesome and I think you could totally pull it off.

As far as pricing goes if your not a legal baker than its a freebie. You should also make sure that the venue will accept your cake if you aren't legal. How embarassing for you AND the bride if you got there and they wouldn't let you in.

If you are legal and can charge, in my area fondant cakes start at $3.00 a slice and go up from there. But I live in southwest Missouri, I have no idea where you are.

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jgifford Posted 8 Feb 2012 , 10:20pm
post #18 of 18

OK - - first of all, from the "Hook 'em Horns" cake in your gallery, I'm guessing you're in Texas. If that's the case, you're all legal to charge for your cakes under the Cottage Food Law. As long as the financial transaction takes place face to face and you have the required label on the cake, you're good. And since your cakes are tax exempt, no problem there.

Now, as to the degree of difficulty that everyone's so concerned about - - looking at your gallery, I would say that's not going to be much of a problem. You don't say when the wedding is to take place, but unless it's this weekend you have time to do a practice run. I think you're perfectly capable of doing it, but it would be loads better if the first one you did wasn't for the actual wedding. A practice one, even 2 tiers, would give you a much better idea of what you need to look out for. You should always learn something from every cake you do, and I think this will be a true learning experience.

Pricing is a touchy issue; everyone has their own way of calculating prices. For a fondant-covered cake, I would start at $3.00 - $3.50 per serving and adjust from there, depending on your area. Same for the groom's cake. Delivery would be $1.00 per mile round trip.

Your bride also needs to be educated about the world of cakes, and what is reasonable and what's not.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

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