Three years age for my 50th birthday my husband and my daughters surprised me with a cake from Duff. It was $1,000 for a small sheet cake and delivery was $500. My daughter drove to Baltimore to pick the cake up.
that's too cool--how was the cake???
and you don't look a day over 40!!!!
she drove there so she could didn't have to pay the $500?
Hey do you have a picture of your Duff cake. I'm sure we would all like to see what you get for your money. I don't do cakes for money cos living in the country people think that your time is worth nothing if you work from home and I value my time too much. Can earn more working at a supermarket and without the stress!
OP - I'm sorry you had a run in with this PITA client. Don't you just feel like smacking them when they waste your time like that?
I think the pricing was on the money, if not on the cheap side.
SOME people want an edible work of art, for the price of "just a cake". Whether its made of marble, or sugar, eggs, flour and butter...its still a work of art that takes 40, 50 or 60 hours to complete.
However, there are some people who get it! So stay positive and hold on the the plans for another time :-) Even just researching them has given your brain a better understanding of how to put a plane cake together.
Oh, and Jess155, I sold a cake last year to serve 30 people. The price was $3000 exactly. So its a bit presumptuous to assume $1500 is too much for some poeple for a custom, highly detailed cake.
What ever happened to , YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. If you want quality than you pay for it, or wedding cakes would be as cheasp as a slab.
ADo you think maybe the client was expressing themselves poorly, and expected something that was recognizable as the exact plane and the medals, rather than an exact scale replica? Even then I suspect her $100-150 budget was too low, but still.
EVOIR i'd love to see the $3000 cake!!! do you have a picture??
AOhhh I want to see the picture of the duff cake, pretty please!!
I get requests for life-like 3-D cakes often and have found it helpful to up front tell them that the price of a cake of that magnitude is based on the hours it takes to create not the number of servings. I will direct them to a 3-D cake in my portfolio and tell them for instance, that cake was $$$. If meeting in person they sometimes will gasp and stammer and say, "I had no idea!" Sometimes they say, well it's what I want so let's price it out and we move forward.
I just did a quote for a groom's cake that is going to cost almost as much as a wedding cake. It's to be a guitar. I told them that for $ they could have a guitar shape with butter cream piping . For $$, it could have some fondant and detailing. But, if they wanted it to be realistic then it will cost $$$ because of the time involved. Their choice.
I want to see Evoir 's $3000 cakes AND the Duff cake! I have to say I wasn't impressed with the couple episodes I saw. Mostly foam covered fondant, not even RKT, like Buddy. I use as much CAKE for my CAKES as humanly possible, but it has to at least be edible, unless it is for support, like straws, or dowels, or PVC pipe.
AI'd like to post a pic of my biggest order to date (the $3k cake) but I don't have permission from the client to share the photos online. I've been meaning to catch up over a coffee with her for months, so I could grab some of her professional pix of the event. We've both been too busy! I have some of my photos of course, but her photographer's will be better!
AThey want a "Cake Boss" cake at a Walmart price! I no longer price to please customer I price to recoup my costs to make the cake and my labor.
That's just it, isn't it? They want the WOW factor but they don't want to pay for it.
I experience the opposite problem. I'm one of those (horror!) supermarket decorators (albeit with 20+ years of experience), and I can't tell you how many times we've had customers coming in asking us if we can do X or Y in wedding-cake-tasting-decorating detail because they either saw the cake on TV or in a book or they want something different, whatever.
We have to tell them that we're not equipped to do X or Y. We tell them that they'd be better served going to one of the many freestanding bakeries in the area because they'd be better able to produce the kind of cake they want.
Almost always the response is a version of, "I'm not going there! It's too expensive!"
:headdesk:
That's just it, isn't it? They want the WOW factor but they don't want to pay for it.
I experience the opposite problem. I'm one of those (horror!) supermarket decorators (albeit with 20+ years of experience), and I can't tell you how many times we've had customers coming in asking us if we can do X or Y in wedding-cake-tasting-decorating detail because they either saw the cake on TV or in a book or they want something different, whatever.
We have to tell them that we're not equipped to do X or Y. We tell them that they'd be better served going to one of the many freestanding bakeries in the area because they'd be better able to produce the kind of cake they want.
Almost always the response is a version of, "I'm not going there! It's too expensive!"
:headdesk:
In the current Rachel Ray magazine it tells brides that if they are on a budget they should go to the grocery store. There's a blurb in there about how many will do the design that you want (shaking my head).
For the OP: at least now you've learned that the first question you should always ask before you do ANY kind of planning for a cake is: "What is your budget?"
AHonestly, that Rachel Ray is a retard.
I have read so many things that she (or a member of her staff) has written and I just shake my head. The general public then reads that crap, and, since said crap has come out of her mouth (pen?), everyone (save for a chosen few, including myself) thinks it is the word of The Big Baker.
Please, Big Baker, spare me from Rachel Ray and others like her.
In the current Rachel Ray magazine it tells brides that if they are on a budget they should go to the grocery store. There's a blurb in there about how many will do the design that you want (shaking my head).
Some chains do wedding cakes -- I've heard Super Walmarts do, for instance (we don't have any in my area, so I haven't seen any firsthand). Ditto Publix down in FL. I have a friend whose small chain in the Midwest does them. One of the chains in my area tried it out and ended up pulling the program because anybody who wants a wedding cake around here automatically goes to one of the many long-established bakeries in the area :shrug:
The supermarket bakeries I know of, mine included, aren't equipped to do wedding cakes. We don't have the cake sizes available for a tiered cake nor have the equipment, the fondant, etc. We also don't have personnel experienced enough to make what's generally accepted as a bona fide wedding cake.
That said, I've done both shower and rehearsal cakes -- usually a sheet cake split, filled, iced, and more care taken with the decoration appropriate to the occasion, either in traditional buttercream or Bettercreme. I'm not sure every chain can even do that, though.
Honestly, that Rachel Ray is a retard.
I have read so many things that she (or a member of her staff) has written and I just shake my head. The general public then reads that crap, and, since said crap has come out of her mouth (pen?), everyone (save for a chosen few, including myself) thinks it is the word of The Big Baker.
Please, Big Baker, spare me from Rachel Ray and others like her.
<Preparing sand bags to dodge the flak that is going to be flying everywhere because Godot said the dreaded "R" word>
(BTW, I don't EVER use the word for people with mental or physical disabilities, but I totally call my DH one, and my kids too, and Rachel Ray, and Sandra Lee, lol)
for what it's worth, the supermarket i used to work for
would do custom designs on cakes including wedding cakes
not a lot of lambeth designs particularly
but management would make an effort
by placing us in a vise
oh wait, i'm digressing 
but yeah we did' em
<Preparing sand bags to dodge the flak that is going to be flying everywhere because Godot said the dreaded "R" word>
(BTW, I don't EVER use the word for people with mental or physical disabilities, but I totally call my DH one, and my kids too, and Rachel Ray, and Sandra Lee, lol)
Well, this might be "enough" to make the point that in "polite" company, it's not "politically correct".............or kind or thoughtful or mature.............
I'm sure that we have members here (who have special needs children/family members) who take justified offense at someone who thinks it's OK to write something like that in a public forum.
I learned not to use the "R" word when I was in junior high school............like 40 YEARS AGO......................
Rae
I learned not to use the "R" word when I was in junior high school............like 40 YEARS AGO......................
Rae
When I started reading professional baking manuals, I always had trouble understanding the term "retard" and "retarded" as applied to yeast dough. It took me a while to realize that they meant "rise" and 'risen"
So oddly enough this is a profession where we can say "XX is retarded and needs punching down"...so long as we are referring to lumps of dough
OK. So, firstly using the word "retard" is offensive to people who have, or who have children/other loved ones with, mental afflictions or learning disabilities. Its also offensive to people who are sensitive to discrimination occurring in general. If you have trouble getting your head around it, think about the misuse of the word 'gay' , applied in a derogoratory manner to an action or object.
Secondly, it is a clear directive of Jackie that no slanging of caking personalities occur on the forums (check her forum rules).
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