Has anyone ever been asked to just decorate a cake before?

The customer is bringing their own cake because it's a traditional cake from their country.

Thanks

Nope I've never done just the decorations. If I ever get asked I would probably charge about $8.00 an hour to decorate it. That could be too high or too low. I don't know. I'm sure Squirrelly, MrsMissey & the others that have been doing cakes longer then us will probably have a good answer. Glad you asked this question!

I've never done this but what I've heard from others is...

Most won't even consider doing it. If the cake is bad or, worse yet, moldy (echhh), the decorator takes the rap for the whole thing.

They charge their usual 'per serving' fee... wedding cakes are labor intensive and time consuming. Don't sell yourself short.

HTH


Di

I was pondering this myself and my time is worth 15.00/hour. That is slightly less than what I make as a teacher. If I have to work for less than that, it's not worth working. So maybe figure out how long it will take you, how many hours, and give them a rough estimate. (4 hours could be $60.00, etc)

I am not really sure. But are they even bring you the frosting to decorate with? If that is the case, or supplies cost is very minimal i would figure out what your time is worth and charge by the hour or if you know the design figure what it would take to do it and give them a flat rate for the design. I think giving them a flat rate would be best at a customter stand point this way I know what i am paying up front.

OMGosh.. I have just been asked to do the same thing for this weekend. Mine is a birthday cake. The little girl wanted to bake the cake with her grandma. Now grandma decided that she cannot decorate the cake They baked 3 single layers.. 9" 7" & 5" and want me to turn this into a "tiered" cake I am going to try and make the best of a bad situation I have decided to total the cost of the ingredients I will use to fill and frost and then charge $10/hour for my time.

This is a lot like the situation you run into when using dummy cakes with real cakes in a wedding cake set-up. What I do when a customer wants dummy cakes is take the number of servings that dummy would feed if it were real and then multiply that by half of the per serving cost for the rest of the cake. I figure that at least half of the per serving cost is to pay for my labor that is related to decorating only; the other half would be for materials costs and the labor of making and baking the cakes. And you know, whether the cake is real or not--the amount of time you spend decorating it is going to be the same (but no matter how many times I tell myself that, I still cringe a little when I charge $100 or more for a wedding tier that isn't even edible, but, darn it, my time is valuable!).

Anyway...back to the topic...

You could do the same thing in your situation. Figure out how many servings there are in the cake they want to provide, then multiply that by a percentage of your normal per serving cost (whatever percentage you feel is appropriate given the design).

Of course, as was mentioned by someone else, you have to think about whether you want to risk that cake being nasty and your name being associated with it all. Maybe they could provide you with a recipe for their cake (and maybe even any exotic ingredients), and you could just make it all.

I would charge the same.

2 reasons...if you do it for one and the word gets out, you will be having to do it with other customers...and customers WILL talk.

#2 baking a cake is actually prettey minimal in time and work...think about it the bulk of the time is spent waiting for it to bake and cool.

what they are paying for is your expertise in taking those ingredients and turning them into a work of art.

That never changes...

So, no matter if the customer brings you the cake or not they won't feel that they are getting a "BARGAIN" so it will eventually discourage this practice

Which is what you want...you don't want the cake to fail and be blamed.

Wow! There's definitely some good advice here!!
Thanks everyone!!

Now, let me see if I can answer all the questions:

DiH, I don't think I would get a bad rap if the cake wasn't good, because the family is letting people know that they baked it themselves and sent it out to be decorated. Anyhow, it's a very small family wedding.

cakeconfections, no, they aren't bringing the icing, just the cakes. I have to cover them with almond paste and fondant and then decorate.

cakesoncall, I think I really like your idea to just charging half the per serving cost. Also, I don't know if there is a recipe for these cakes. Everyone who makes them, has their own way of doing it. It's a really dark, heavy fruitcake similar to Christmas pudding. I don't think I really want to get into that kind of cake. When a customer requests one, I get them from my a family member of my dh's who has a catering business.

ThePastryDiva, I won't be doing this for all customers. This one happens to be sort of related on dh's side, so I don't mind doing it for them. Also, they're regular paying customers of mine. I definitely wouldn't do this for strangers. As I said to cakesoncall, I can offer anyone else that same type of cake, which I get from a family's catering business, but strangers bringing me a cake to decorate isn't an option.

I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Thank you so much for all your advice, everybit of it helps, and I will carefully consider what everyone has said.

Thanks again!

WHAT? you want to charge 1/2 for decorating a cake that you have to cover with marzipan? Do you REALIZE just HOW expensive marzipan is? If you can do this cake for 1/2 of your usual fee and still come out ahead...then God Bless you and Happy decorating..


Dont' forget to post the pictures of the before and after..lol

Is it a West indian/Caribbean black cake (aka fruit cake)? If so, yes there is a recipe for it but like any other cake everyone likes to tweak the recipe perhaps with a bottle more rum or less raisins more currants a few more shakes of rum more butter and even more rum... LOL... It seems that this is the type of cake you are talking about. It's traditionally covered with marzipan and royal icing.


Princess

Ditto PastryDiva. If you're covering these with marzipan AND fondant, no way can you recoup cost for half of what you'd normally charge. At least, not with compensating yourself for your time, too.

Ali

A Black fruit cake ( if that is what they are bringing you) also like a traditional fruit cake also takes several months to "mature".. and traditionally covered with royal icing...lol

So...no...I would NOT cut my fees in 1/2

Even it if WASN'T ...I still wouldn't!

Hugs!

Thank you all for this wonderful advice. I have been asked to just decorate and now know to keep my prices the same.