I am making this wedding cake and it's only my fourth. The bride wants a thin raspberry jelly filling with alternating layers of chocolate and white for each tier.
I've never done a jelly filling but think I can pull that one off (w/the help of you all). My concern is what to charge. I will do the roses from fondant but the cake will be buttercream only.
I am still new so I don't charge a whole lot. I think I charged about $1.25/slice on the last ones.
Help?....and thanks in advance!
I would charge at least $2.50 per serving. Don't sell yourself short. I would not charge any less than the grocery store bakery. They give out flyers with prices for their wedding cakes...that's where I would start for pricing.
Jacqui
OMgosh! Definitely charge more than that!! I agree, at LEAST charge what a "grocery" store would charge!!! I have a friend that works for a grocery store bakery - you don't even want to know how little time they are allowed to do the decorating on a cake!! They spend very little time, and you will be spending A LOT more - you deserve to be paid for it!
A cake like that with your talent is an easy $4 - $5 per serving. You know your cake will be waaaaaaaaay tastier and nicer looking than the grocery bakery.
Really you do nice work. Charge for it!!!
ps/make sure to use ''seedless'' raspberry jam. It's sold at most all markets. Also remember to make a ''dam'' to keep the jam in and not leaking onto the outside icing.
Good Luck and can't wait to see a pic of YOURS!!
that is a gorgeous cake. i would say DEFINATELY no less than 2.50 a serving. if you can talk her into a fresh fruit puree instead of a jam, i bet the taste would be much much more appealing, and you could bump it up to 3.00 - 3.50
do you know where this cake pic came from? (i'd like to check out the designers website- very inspiring! )
Thanks! You all are helping me tremendously!
As for the pic, I have no clue where she found it. She couldn't remember. I wish she had because I'm almost sure it's covered it fondant- right? I keep looking at it and wondering how I would do the little "lines" around the sides. I'm thinking it may be harder to attach them to buttercream than to fondant. Yes, no? If anyone knows where this cake cake from please let me know!
I've only done one cake (see it in my pics) completely covered in fondant. I did it with MMF and I just don't care for my own MMF. I like the taste but the mixture always sticks and it's messy and the consistency never comes out right. Am I sounding frustrated yet? Yikes!!! 
I appreciate the help with the filling and the prices. This makes me feel much better. If I do end up doing the entire cake in fondant, can anyone give me a good brand to buy? I'm willing to spend a little more on it if it's easy to work with and tastes good. I would like to find one that looks like the one they use on Food TV. That stuff looks excellent! 
Yes, I think it is fondant covered and I think they used fondant ropes. I too don't like making MMF, it's also very sticky. I use Pettinice and Satinice...both are great to work with and delicious.
Jacqui
Oh, if you do cover in fondant your price should reflect that. $3.50 per serving.
Jacqui
Melysa & ksgirl you can find the cake at http://www.brides.com/weddingstyle/cakes/gallery/editorspick?ff=Cakes
It's on page 5.
The cake in the picutre serves 70 and the price is $700. I wonder if the bride saw this?
Hey I found some more by Cheryl Kleinman.
http://www.mynewyorkwedding.com/categories/cakes/brochures/cakescandies_18288.html
I was thinking the lines were made with thin fondant ropes. I guess maybe I'll have to do a trial run and see whether fondant or royal icing looks better.
If I use fondant ropes, how would I attach them so they don't fall after a few hours?
If I use royal icing, is there anything special I need to do so it doesn't fall either?
If I use royal icing, is there anything special I need to do so it doesn't fall either?
I saw the instructions in Toba Garrets "The Well Decorated Cake" You have to do one line at a time and let it dry in order to build the bridge. Then when you have it the width you want it, you flood the top so that it's smooth. Of course, the book is more detailed, but that's the general gist of it. HTH
Yep I bet that's why the bride couldn't remember where she saw the picture of the cake. $700, that's $10 a piece!! Wow. She doesn't want to pay that much. I don't think I would charge her only $1.50 per slice. I bet if you charged her $400 for the cake, she would think she's getting a bargain. Even though the cake looks easy, I don't think it will be. It's a beautiful cake though. I love it.
Okay - maybe I'm way off base here and please keep in mind that I'm only a beginner - not doing this as a business or anything and I've only worked with Buttercream, but can't you do those lines in Buttercream if the cake was iced in buttercream? couldn't you use a ribbon tip (104 maybe?) with stiff buttercream icing so that it stands up?
Am I just too inexperienced to know what I'm talking about? 
I found the details on that cake. Here they are and I included the link for you to look at further. On the website there is also a close up of those lines. Cheryl's website says that all her cakes are done with fondant and marzipan.
Vanilla Swirls
White cake filled with vanilla-bean buttercream and raspberry jam, and covered with vanilla fondant. Cake by Cheryl Kleinman, $700, serves 70, 718-237-2271. Footed cake stand, $60, from Fishs Eddy, fishseddy.com. "Marbled" cup-and-saucer sets, $45 each, from ABC Carpet & Home, abchome.com.
Link:
http://www.brides.com/weddingstyle/cakes/gallery/editorspick/detail/124788/?ff=Cakes&af=Color%3AWhite&offset=18&page=2
Hello ksgirl, I have just looked at the cake picture and you could make the fondant rolls around the cake by either using a clay gun with the circular disc or just making a sausage of fondant and rolling it until it becomes a long thin sausage then attach to a fondant covered cake with edible glue which you can make by putting some fondant on a plate and working in small amounts of water until its like chewing gum. The roses look like you start with a long strip of gumpaste , then just roll it up and on the last roll thin the paste out slightly with your thumb and finger to give it a bit of movement. Hope this helps you. I am sure you will manage just fine with such a great group of people on this site at the back of you
Best wishes Sue
Well, here it is. My version of the much-better-cake-decorator-than-I, Cheryl Kleinman's cake.
I think because I was trying to do someone elses' cake, I found several mistakes. I have to say I like it much better when I can be creative and do an original. Overall, though, I was pleased.
Thanks to all of you for helping me out. I seriously couldn't have done it w/o you!
just for curiousity's sake, how much did you end up charging?
Thanks guys!
I'll try and do my best to tell you how it all "went down" 
It's a 6, 8, & 10 in. Each tier is torted in 4 layers (is that the right way to say that?); choc/white/choc/white, with a raspberry jam filling. Each tier was about 4" high before the fondant.
With the advice I got from others here, I put a very thin layer of buttercream on both the top and bottom sides of each layer so the raspberry wouldn't soak through. However, I wondered afterwards whether this is what made it difficult to cover on the outside because I did notice that the layers kept wanting to slide back and forth with the pressure of my spatula. I'm curious to see if some of you have experienced the same thing.
Moving right along...Roses are 1/2 fondant-1/2 gumpaste, except that is, the one rose on the bottom layer that stands out like a sore thumb! Ugh. I made that once first out of only gumpaste and later, after the picture was snapped, noticed it had a different color. Also, can I tell you I didn't realize that the fondant had a dirty look to it. Go back and look and you'll see that they look yellow-ish. That's one lesson learned.
For the ropes, I just made sausages by rolling the fondant out by hand. This was hard because the consistency was not there. Next time I'll have to try a clay gun (which I didn't have at the time but one CC'er suggested). Again, at the advice of another here, I the glue was fondant which had been softened in water and painted on with a brush. I first used my fingers dipped in the glue but then had trouble with the ropes sticking to my hands. It was much easier when I used a brush.
I hadn't done a cake like this in fondant and I didn't trim the bottoms very well. That is why you will see I put ropes on the very bottom of each layer (diff from the orig. creator) to cover that up.
I made the roses by just randomly rolling out the fondant into a small sausage, with one end thicker and the other thinner. Then I took the rolling pin and rolled it gently across the length to flatten it out. Then, starting with the shorter-in-width side (does that make sense) and started rolling it in. As I rolled more of it around, I would start to thin the edges and fold them outward. I found the undersides would end up really thick so then I have to pinch that part off so it had more of a flat underside. I did that so it would lay better against the cake. Once that was done, I would take a thick gauge wire, with the end folded, and push it in underneath. I then bent the wire sideways and put the roses through my cooling rack to dry.
Sorry, I may have given too many deatils. I can't think of anything else. Oh yeah, my poor DH had the job of holding the cake in the car all the way to the reception- 45 minutes away! Let's just say I owe him big time! 
I ended up charging $3.50/slice plus $20 for the roses. After doing the work, I really thought that was a fair price.
Hope this helps someone else out. I really can't stress how much I appreciate everyone's help on this. Seriously! I love you all!!
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