I was hired to make this 12 x 18 sheet cake below. My daughter did the shells, because even though she's only twelve she is sooooo much better at shells than I am!! 
(she hadn't finished the bottom border when I took the picture)
I charged $40.00 for the cake, so how much do you think is fair- $5, $10? She spent about 20 minutes working on this. She doesn't know I want to pay her, but I think it's only fair since this is a paid cake.
Thanks,
Kathi
I would imagine whatever you paid her would be appreciated. But remember you will be starting a precident and she just might start expecting it. LOL 
But encouraging her is far more important. She did a great job!
Actually littlegrahamcracker I want to start the precedent! I want her to know from the beginning that her skill is worth being paid for. 
Anyway, I'm just not sure about the amount in relation to the work on the cake. Below is a photo of the completed cake. She did the shell border and 2 bushes. I did the rest including prepping all the icing, bags, cleanup, etc.
Thanks again,
Kathi
i think about 5 is fair enough. at least when i was 12, 5$ would have made my day... 
I just did 2 cakes over the weekend and my 13 year old dd was my assistant. Although she didn't do any decorating on the cakes for me, she did divide out the icing, color them and help load the bags. She also cleaned up most of the dishes while I was decorating. I paid her $10.00 for all the work she did. HTH.
Beth
I think $5 was a good wage to pay your daughter.
I love that you are teaching your daughter to respect the value of her time and skills. I think it's an essential part of learning to not sell yourself short (which is imporant in all areas of life).
Hmmmm...... $5 for 20 minutes of work equals $15 an hour. If you need someone to do shells and your daughter is not available I'm sure there are a few of us here that would be willing to help you out!
I think it is a great precedent to set! You value her skill and if your skill is appreciated in this why not hers! Way to go. I think $5. Leaves you some leeway if she does even more in the future. My son used to like to cook with me and now he is an Executive Chef!
Yes, it does say 130 years! My customer was the "baby" brother and only 55. His brother is turning 60 and his sister 70, so he thought this would be funny. Hopefully his siblings will be amused. I copied the trailer from an old photo.
Thanks everyone. I never want my kids to feel taken advantage of, so while they do have required chores just because they are part of the family, I do try to pay them for extras. And as mentioned, since I get paid to make things, I think she should get paid for her skills, too. She is willing to "work with me for free" to improve my shellwork since we do teach each other many things. This is the kind of relationship I always hoped I'd have with my daughter, so I really cherish it. And it's nice to be able to remind myself of the good things when she does have those "pre-teen" type days!!
Our next cake is a gift so no pay for either of us, but she has volunteered to do my shells again.
Kathi
Wow, are you guys getting off cheap! My 14 year old has been working weddings with me for about a year and she gets paid $60 a wedding, plus she gets a cut of all tips that are received. One day she was my only helper so she got the entire $100 tip PLUS the $60 I paid her. We make her bank a lot of it, but we let her splurge with her first $100 tip and she got her iPod with it.
Of course she puts in about 6 hours on a wedding and she is doing some heavy duty hard work (go on....take a guess on how much 17 glass plates per box times 10 boxes weighs?) When I get busy (like when I'm putting the finishing touches on the cake) and one of my crew has a question, I will frequently refer them to my 14 year old, who can take care of it for me.
5 bucks sounds fair to me. I'd be sure and make helping with clean-up part of the job too. I've started letting my granddaughters do some piping on cupcakes and graham crackers, and the practice board is next for the older one. But I'm teaching her to clean up too. She washed tips with the little brush and also washed my featherweight bags for me. She does a good job.
As a daughter who loves cooking with her mom to this day, trust me the last thing on your daughter's mind is how much money she is going to get. My mom got me interested into baking when I was 4 or 5 (she was an at-home mom and baked all the time and gave me the leftover pie crust to make my own pies 
and then taught me to cook for the entire family (seven people) when I was 14. Even if my mom was getting paid for that stuff I wouldn't have expected/wanted a dime (heck I still wouldn't).
Although, I do blame my mom for one thing. When ever I cook anything, I can only cook/bake for 1, 2 or more than 7 people. Heck, I've even cooked rice for 300 people and I was able to handle it, but anything for 3 to 6 people is way too confusing for me
Hmm. . .well you also have to take into consideration her allowance and other things of that matter. I'm trying to look at it from a professional point of view and not trying to get sentiments involved; is that what you wanted or did you want sentiments incorporated? Am I just being arrogant? 
I probably have a biased point-of-view, though . . . 
Maybe I'm poor or just cheap but I just gave my nephew $5 for a weeks (sorta) worth of loading and/or unloading the dishwasher.
If you plan to let her help more often I would settle on an hourly rate and pay her that. Say you pick $6 an hour (more than most first jobs) then if she spends 20 mins doing a border she gets $2.
As I said maybe I'm cheap (could be more of the poor part) but if she wants to keep helping those $5 here and there are going to start adding up really fast. Atleast have her do some of the clean up or prep work to help earn the money.
Well let's see nglez09...I spent 4 hours decorating this, including painstaikingly taking a old, poor quality photo and drawing it with a toothpick onto the cake. I shopped for ingredients, baked the cake, mixed the frosting and colors, did all the dishes, dealt with the Rabbi's inspection, dealt with my very annoying customer, and made the delivery. She spent 20 minutes doing the shell border and begged to make 2 bushes (about 5 minutes). She definitely didn't contribute 18% of the time, ingredients or labor, so I really don't think she deserved 18% of the payment. On the other hand, while I can do shells, she is better than I am and she wanted to help., and she ended up with 12.5%. If you subtract 33% for ingredients, electricity, etc., 10% for my kashrus oversight, and her 12.5%, my "profit" is $17.80 on this cake. This means she made almost 1/3 as much as I did for far less than 1/3 of the work. So I certainly don't think she has the right to be "mad" about anything. (Not that she is, I had to talk her into taking the money). In addition, unlike indydebi's 14 year old, my daughter has never helped me with any of my baking or decorating before. This was the first cake outside her Wilton class cakes that she has ever done any work on.
I wasn't looking for sentiment, I wanted to know what seemed fair. And as I just ran the actual numbers for you, I think I was very fair!
Kathi
kathik I am with you about the 5.00. And like you said she was pleased as punch. And she will do it again in a heartbeat with pay or not. I have a teen that doesn't get an allowance per say. He is part of our family and we all have our chores. But in my business and such he helps me all the time. I will by him things for helping. Heck give that kid his favorite food and he will do anything. He is always asking me what I need done. He respects money and knows he has to work for what he gets. He was in boy scouts and sold all kinds of stuff to go camping and rafting. He totally loved that trip that he worked so hard for 
And your DD is probably proud of herself as well. Doing what she likes to do with MOM with or without pay. And she knows you respect her as well. Maybe one day she will be a famous cake decorater. But she will always remember the times she spent with you Priceless.. Ya call me a sentimental FOOL.
Hey Kath! I agree with Kay! My daughter is 10 1/2 and would love to help me. I haven't quite gotten to the point of letting her yet but she hasn't had any classes or anything. Although she is pretty much a natural. I do think it is great that you are teaching her that her time and talent are worth something especially when she's doing it just because she loves it and doesn't expect anything in return. Way to go!!!!
Your daughter has talent!!!! $5 was very fair. If she's interested maybe you could offer to pay for cake decorating classes in exchange for her help. Just a thought
This is kathik's daughter. I just want to say that I think my payment was fair. But I don't think I should have been payed, because I'm doing it as a favor for my Mom. But thanks for the mulah anyway!
You are a dear.
Keep that one Kathik!
Well let's see nglez09...I spent 4 hours decorating this, including painstaikingly taking a old, poor quality photo and drawing it with a toothpick onto the cake. I shopped for ingredients, baked the cake, mixed the frosting and colors, did all the dishes, dealt with the Rabbi's inspection, dealt with my very annoying customer, and made the delivery. She spent 20 minutes doing the shell border and begged to make 2 bushes (about 5 minutes). She definitely didn't contribute 18% of the time, ingredients or labor, so I really don't think she deserved 18% of the payment. On the other hand, while I can do shells, she is better than I am and she wanted to help., and she ended up with 12.5%. If you subtract 33% for ingredients, electricity, etc., 10% for my kashrus oversight, and her 12.5%, my "profit" is $17.80 on this cake. This means she made almost 1/3 as much as I did for far less than 1/3 of the work. So I certainly don't think she has the right to be "mad" about anything. (Not that she is, I had to talk her into taking the money). In addition, unlike indydebi's 14 year old, my daughter has never helped me with any of my baking or decorating before. This was the first cake outside her Wilton class cakes that she has ever done any work on.
I wasn't looking for sentiment, I wanted to know what seemed fair. And as I just ran the actual numbers for you, I think I was very fair!
Kathi
You're 110% right Kathi. That's what I wanted to do, aren't I smart? Very fair. Thanks for breaking it down. $5 actually now seems a little nice - maybe too nice.
I also agree, the $5.00 was very fair. Your daughter sounds like a very respectful young lady. You are very lucky.
I would ask her how much she charges, I would pay my daughter at least half. Holy cow, her shells are awesome, I'm a Michaels cake instructor, she needs to take some classes and get her own business cards and hand out to her teachers. I have had 3 young girls take my classes, youngest being 11 and they all printed out business cards and gave them to their teachers and friends. They are in business. Not sure how far they actually took it since I don't see them any longer, but your daughter has some talent!!! Anyone that can do a shell can pretty much do anything in my book!!! Have fun with her, she has the same interest as you (for now anyways!!) Ginger VA Beach, VA
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