I know!

She didn't end up ordering anything bc she says I am too expensive, apparently anything over 50 for that cake is daylight robbery

A

Yes... Robbery... as the Ferrari dealership is a scam!!!!!

Post by emarcomb: "TO CAR DEALER: $200,000?!?! Why, I can get a used Ford Pinto for fifty dollars from this guy on my block!! This Ferrari dealership is a SCAM!!"

LOL :D :D :D

I encountered my first facepalm worthy conversation with a customer recently. A lady called me to order a cake and one of the first things she said was "I've called around to other bakeries, but I just can't afford a hundred dollars for a birthday cake."

Sooo... you tell me I'm you're last resort and I'm supposed to offer you the same cake for much less?

AI've gotten that in the first sentence from a person on the phone. "Everyone else is booked....." Yeah? So I'm your last resort for a lame Sppngebob cake, which I'm not at all interested in doing? Nice...take a hike.

AEveryone else is booked? What a thing to say to the person you claim is your one chance at getting a cake. Probably means all the cheap cake ladies were booked. I'm sure they're overwhelmed with business.

ACould you please give me an idea of many pounds that cake is.

Sigh...

Some countries typically charge for cake by the pound...perhaps the buyer was from a different country/cake culture.

AI'm aware of that and I do live in the most ethnically diverse city in America, but this person has a American name and not a trace of an accent. Still a possibility, I suppose.

There was a thread about countries that purchase cake by the pound last year.

One of cakes that I sell, I sell it by the pound. I coat it with cake crumbs. 

AI'm talking about highly decorated fondant cakes and selling them by the pound doesn't make any sense.

AI got another email reply today where the customer thought that I didn't give her a quote on the cake she was asking about -- I'm sure because she couldn't believe it would be that much. She figured it was either a typo or I was talking about something else. She was very polite, but that drives me crazy.

I have to admit that's a thousand times better than complaining about the price or yelling at me. I will never forget the lady that yelled at me and then sent a scathing email....how dare I ask that much for cake...lol

AI would have told her exactly where to go! And that reminds me why I'm actually glad no one ever bothers to review me online. I'm sure the only ones who would bother would be people juuuust like that, not an actual client. (I get plenty of thanks and feedback, but never on the Yelp or Wedding Wire type sites)

ASo a cake covered in (light) intricate royal icing piping that took hours and hours would cost less than a similarly sized cake covered in fondant with nothing but happy birthday slapped on it? Interesting.

A few years ago when I was starting out I received an email from a lady about ordering her daughter's birthday cake. We had several emails back and forth.  So the pickup day comes and she never shows up.  I finally get a hold of her and she tells me she didn't realize she had actually ordered the cake.  She thought she was just getting info.  I reread all of our emails to make sure it was an order, and of course, IT WAS.  I tell her that's fine that it was just obviously a misunderstanding.  So I then post a picture of the cake on my cake facebook page offering this cake for half price because a customer didn't pick it up. She sees it and then emails me about how rude that was and how horrified and embarrassed she was that I told everyone she didn't pick up her cake.  I told her I was just trying to recoup some of my costs and that there's no way anyone would've known it was her cake because I didn't give her name.  I think she was just upset because she knew she ordered it to begin with.  That's when I learned to take a minimum 50% deposit on orders, lol.

I'm curious.....I realize that a cake coated with cake crumbs doesn't require the same amount of work a highly decorated buttercream or even fondant cake requires but cake crumbs don't really weigh all that much.  Why charge differently for this cake?  You still have the cost of the ingredients, the time put into it, the cost of utilities, etc.  Why not sell per serving like many other cakes? It still takes work and effort to produce the cake.   It still works the same, the larger the cake the higher the price. 

I would suspect this tradition of paying or charging for cakes by weight began long ago, even most likely in the last century or two when cakes were VERY different and it actually DID cost more to produce a cake based on the number of ingredients, probably items added to the cake such as dates, nuts, etc., and the more that was added the more the cake did actually weigh.  However, as cakes have changed and progressed this tradition of pricing has not kept up with the change in baked goods and so now it's obsolete and outdated.  Change is hard for people of every culture I've learned in life and I've noticed particuarily so in the more "Eastern" cultures where tradition is VITALLY important in many areas in life.  Since bakeries have begun to charge by servings, most likely the younger generation are the owners, eventually all of them will change over time either when the younger people take over or because they're forced to as they become the minority.   

Last Friday I had a woman pick up a princess cake for her daughters first Birthday. She wanted a two tierd cake with tons of detail but couldn't afford the huge cake she had wanted. So she compromised on the size and ordered a 6" and 4" cake..which we discussed and she agreed too. 

Sooo she come's by to pick it up and the first words out of her mouth "holy crap that's small!!"..hours of decorating this intricate little cake for her, AND that was all she could say.  And to add to it..she say's "Well I just thought you'd make it bigger, I'll have to go to Costo and pick up another cake now. Its not enough."

Really? Its not like she didn't know what size it was going to be! And I'd have made it bigger..if you were willing to pay more 

AUgh!! How aggravating! ^^^

AHere is my two cents on charging by the weight. My mother and I charge fruitcake by the weight. This is because all the ingredients are purchased by the pound. It is not accurate to assume that substandard ingredients are being used as another Baker suggested. Prunes, currants, raisins, flour, butter pretty much everything other than the eggs and spices are purchased by the pound. As such the pricing is more easily calculated by the pound as well. The difference is, when someone wants the cake decorated I tell the the decoration aspect of the price is dependent on how many pounds they order. Obviously a bigger cake requires more frosting.

For my other cakes I charge based on the size and not based on the servings. Because in all honesty the servings are dependent on the size of the cake and the serving size is dependent on the person actually cutting the cake. When baking I can't add an extra half egg or couple tablespoons of flour to make an extra serving or two and I don't throw away batter either. So if they want less than the smallest size cake I have then too bad..If they want somewhere in between they just have to order a size up. I really don't get how my ingredients cost and time can be fully accounted for by charging. By the servings unless I calculate the cost of the size and then divine it by the expected servings but that's just an extra step to me. Can someone be kind enough to explain this please.

AShona, that's a pricing question and I think we were trying to save this thread for venting. If you wouldn't mind starting a new thread, I'm sure you'll get lots of answers. It's counter intuitive for a lot of people, but basically price is not based on your costs. If you price based on your costs plus a wage, you are charging the least possible amount for your cake. Don't focus on the cost of an egg if you're selling the cake for $50 less than it's market value.

Regarding cake by the pound - like the person who was familiar with the practice said, the new trend is to charge differently. If you google bakeries in Singapore, you'll see that the trendy ones who do fancy decorated custom cakes don't charge by weight.

ASeems to me that charging "by the size" and charging "by the serving count" amounts to the same thing in the end. And that serving counts far too often assume a serving size that barely amounts to a couple of bites.

Maybe the best solution is to charge for the cake by either weight or volume, and for decorating it by the amount of time involved, and the cost of any outsourced items.

A

It's an extra step to weigh the cake when you already know the size.

For Easter dessert, I picked up one of those grocery store, coconut covered, sprayed pink, bucket frosting, sideways half-cakes with the bunny mask on it. At the same time, a woman was grabbing another cake of the same type.

She confessed to me that her family always wants one of her homemade cakes and teases her about the grocery store cake, but she wants to get some time to relax that weekend. I told her if they tease her cake, walk out the door and go see a movie.

How sad! If my family ever treated me like their servent, they'd quickly find out how hard their lives can get. If I make a cake out of love, be happy. If I give you store-bought dessert out of love, be happy. If you tell me to give you something special that you feel you have a right to demand from me, and disrespect me for not providing it, I will burn down the town.