AA friend of mine has just had her wedding cake baker bail on her because she's supposedly decided to go on holiday! My friend sent me over the pics of what they had agreed upon with the baker, and she's asked if I can do something very similar. I'm generally just a hobby baker, but have done cakes for friends birthdays and weddings, but nothing as detailed as this with all the extra flowers (I have the cutters for 2 of the flowers, and can easily get the butterflies. I've got all the tools to make the roses, but just haven't had the time to play around with making them.

My friend would like me to provide a quote for her on this display with a 2 tier cake, 40 cupcakes with a mixture of buttercream swirls & fondant tops with a few flowers on each of the fondant ones and butterflies on half of the buttercream ones, 20 mini cupcakes with swirls, and fondant topped cookies (let's say 24 of those).

I usually charge £1.50 for a basic cupcake, and then add on 50p if I'm making a decoration to go on top. Since some of these have several flowers I'm not sure what to charge. Would £2.50 be ok? Also have no idea what to charge for the 2 tiered cake - I was thinking £130. I have no idea what the original quote was.

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/2991293/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/2991290/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Any opinions and comments are welcome! Oh, and the wedding is still a few months away, so I've got some time!

AAnyone? I was hoping to give me friend a quote today sometime.

AI personally would charge no less than $375.00

AThis is a hard ? To answer. What is the market in your area? If this is a friend, will part of te cost be a gift?

Is the 2 tier a 6" & 8" or 6" & 10"? What flavors & fillings?

Are you providing delivery, set up, stand?

How many of each decoration? How much are the butterflies you are purchasing?

My basic cupcakes are £2.25.  With a couple of simple flowers, I suppose I'd be charging £2.75 - £3 each.  Some of them look like they have either Sugarveil over the sugarpaste, or may have been stencilled?

When it comes to the mini cupcakes, don't forget that most of your charges are for labour, not ingredients, so they're very minimally cheaper than the standard sized ones.

That looks like a 4" + 6" top cake to me.  I think your price is about right with all the flowers.

Good luck!  How unprofessional of the baker to just cancel on your friend!!

Suzanne x
 

It looks to me like a 4" and a 7" so I would say £350 excluding the stand. I think £130 for the cake is reasonable, I would charge a bit more but still, it's mostly cut outs and a ribbon. Plus its tiny. Edited to add that I do plain cupcakes for £2, in case you see the price discrepancy!

AIf you are up to doing a cake of this standard I think your underselling your talent and deserve to be paid for your time.

Where in London are you?  There are quite a few places that hire out tins, if you don't think it's a size you'll use regularly.

AI'm actually in Surrey about a half hour outside of London. That's a good suggestion though! I'll check with some local places.