Is there anyone from Sacramento or BayArea, CA? I would like to know what the going rate is per serving. I'm doing a Quinceanera cake next month and not sure what I'm going to charge her yet. The cake is going to be a 3 tier cake 16", 14", and 10"... stacked to look like presents...the 16" cake is the only one that is going to be actual cake... Banana cake withe cream cheese buttercream filling....the others are going to be cake dummies...Everything is going to be covered with MMF and somethings painted with luster dust.
Thanks,
Tiffany

I live in Oakland and I would $1.55. I hope this helps

because it has fondant....I would charge 2.50 per slice.

Seems like I am always disagreeing, but here I am back on my soapbox....

Chikie, your cake photos are really good. If you do this at $2.50 per serving and figure a 16 inch cake is 112 servings, you will be charging only $280.00 for this fabulous cake! What will it cost to make? And how long will it take you? Do you want to work for 5o cents an hour?

The bakeries around here seem to charge at least $3.00 per portion for a plain buttercream cake without any real decorating ecxept a border and a happy birthday. You will spend more time and effort than they and have a better product. You shouldn't charge less than they do.

Keep in mind that the dummies will take almost as much time to decorate as the 16 inch, and they are probably more expensive than actually making a cake, (unless you think you will get them back, and even then you have to spend time cleaning them, so that counts too) It seems with the time this will take, and the amount of fondant, you can't charge per serving, but have to charge as though there were many more servings. This is just like doing three cakes! It takes a lot of fondant to cover those dummies and MMF isn't free, even if it is less expensive than regular fondnat. Luster dust is not free either.

You ought to charge as though it is a 200 serving cake and extra for the bows that take a lot of time and material. (At least $20.00 per bow, I think Squirrely Cakes said last week?) If you want to figure $2.50 per serving and 200 servings, and then the bows, that starts to make sense, though I think it is still low.

This is just my opinion, but you are an artist and deserve to be compensated for your time. No one will value what we do, if we don't value it ourselves!

Oh, by the way, when you do give the quote, I wouldn't quote per serving at all, but for the total work of art. You might also suggest you could do this as 12, 10, and 8 inch cakes, which is just a little bit more cake, but a lot easier to do. Rolling out those huge amounts of fondant is a pain!

OK getting off my soapbox now.

I don't think you are on a soapbox......

I am glad you said that because I didn't realize how big the cake was....so its a cake you are right...I would probably charge more. I personally use MMF. It is cheaper to make...and in my opinion tastes so much better.

But thanks for that because now I will rethink my pricing for fondant.

Thanks for your all your advice!

Itsacake:
Thanks so much!...I didn't even put that all into consideration, artistry, time, bows, etc. I am changing the sizes,too...She is giving me full range to do what I want ...She just wants it to look like stacked presents and match the colors; baby blue, pearly white, and silver, and feed a hundred people... The party isn't until Nov 12...I'm meeting with her next week to go over everything. Well, again....Thanks!

p.s
I use to live in San Jose when I was a 12 (33yrs now) I went Alum Rock elementary school.