I was asked by a good friend to make a cake for her grandmother's 85th birthday party.......her grandmother is also a dear friend of mine through church. At first, when they began planning her party, she was just going to order a cake from Sam's Club, but then asked if I would do the cake. At first, I thought it would be a full sheet cake, that's it. Then the number of guest began to increase, and I began to plan doing a round, tiered cake, currently at 140 people. The problem is that I never gave her a price, and I would like to do it for a minimal charge, since this lady is like a grandma to me also..so I thought I would check with Sam's Club and our two local bakeries to what they would have paid had they ordered from them.......Sam's is $26.95 for a full sheet cake, and the local bakery starts at $42.95, so if she would have ordered the cakes from either one of them (one and a half sheet cakes), the most she may have paid would have been $70 or so....and she keeps asking me what it will cost. I am fairly new at doing this, and will spend hours decorating........has anyone else gotten themselves into this predicament, and how would any of you experts out there handle this one. I don't need to make a huge profit on this one, but need to get back a little for all the time spent.......help?????

Okay - First, a caveat - I am not a professional cake decorator so you may disregard everything I have to say if you want.

If this were me, I would maybe rethink my design so that it would fit more in her budget. If she just wants sheetcakes, than doing two sheetcakes is going to take less time and money than doing a tiered cake with difficult decorations on it. Also, that way, if it didn't cost me too much to do, I might be inclined to just make a gift out of the cake (since you said she was like a grandmother to you).

Of course, if you just want to make this a purely business decision, than I would give her the choice of your tiered cake (with drawings, maybe) or two sheet cakes - price out both options for her (including what you would usually charge and what her discount would be) and let her pick which one she wants.

For what it's worth,
Christine

in situations like this....i also tend to be the main star!!! hahahahahaha because she is like a grandma to you, perhaps you can charge for the supplies only....or i would charge inbetween the bakerys and sam's club price's!!!!!! good luck!!!!!

I am in the same camp that if she is truely "like a Gramma" to you, if I charged at all, it would be for the supplies only. You'll be getting a lot of exposure from this cake, I would want it to be nice so the WOW factor is there too. (just my 2 cents)