I have a lady, DIL of a friend of my Dad's, that asked me about making a cake for her parents' 50th Anniversary. While talking to her to find out what she wanted for the cake, she asked if I did fruit trays and then asked about finger sandwichs. It is a casual party for 60 people, and the cake design is simple enough, so I would have time to do other things.
I'm okay when it comes to pricing cakes, but I have no idea how to prices this. I know I'd really need to know how much I would spend to really know a price. Problem is that I really need to call her back and give her some prices. I know how much I plan to charge for the cake, but I have no idea about the rest of it.
So if there is anyone out there that does catering (or have ideas) and would have some prices suggestions, could you please help me out. I feel comfortable telling her I don't have an exact figure, but I'd like to give her a ball park range so she can decide if she wants me to do it or not.
Please and thank you!
Fruit trays are time consuming and expensive. Check out the deli in your favorite supermarket, or costco if you have one. I stronly recommend you suggest she buy that item.
Finger sandwiches are very time consuming. You wouln't think so, but by the time you add butter and/or creamcheese to the bread, make and spread the ingredients, cut the crusts off and then cut the sandwiches, you have spent a lot of time. You can expect each person to eat the equivalent of at lease one whole sandwich, and most will take some of each "flavor" Standard loaves make 5-7 sandwiches. Safely storing all this takes up a lot of refrigerator space.
I charge by the person for these when I do tea parties. Minimum $4 per person for simple fillings.
Fruit platters are a lot more time consuming that you'd imagine! Definitely check your local stores for their pricing!
What timing! I'm reading a book right now called How to start a Home-Based Catering Business by Denise Vivaldo. Maybe you can get that in your library like I did. It's a very good book and I borrowed it just to see if I can apply something to cakes. Anyways, she mentions that for calculating how much you have to charge, you have to figure out how much the food would cost per person and dividing it by 28- 34% food cost. Ok maybe I'm not making sense right now but I'll try to explain it better. You have to list every ingredient that you will use and break it down to how much it would cost you per person. Let's say (I'm just taking a number from air here) per serving it will cost you $3.
Calculate: $3 divided by 34% food cost = approximately $9.
$3 divided by 28% food cost = approx. $11.
So, you decide how much food cost you want it to be.
Quoting from the book:
"If your food-cost percentage is 34%, that means you're spending 34 cents out of every dollar on food, which leaves you 66 cents for kitchen labour (about 15%), overhead and profit."
Yes it's a little bit technical but I hope that would help you.
And some ideas as to what to serve, when I was working in a restaurant before, we also did some catering jobs. We use to make sandwiches from baguettes and cut it into small pieces. It's faster to make it this way. We had tuna, chicken salad, eggs, brie and tomato, ham and cheese, turkey and cheese. (hmm...that's all that I can recall). You can also use the soft tortilla wraps and roll them up and then cut it into two or three. We also had cheese cut into small cubes and served with grapes. And for the fruits you can make it faster by prepping them up the day before. You can take the skins off the cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple (keep the heads, they are nice for the display!), etc. the day before then plastic wrap it then refrigerate it. (yes, you will need a lot of space!) Then cut them the day of the event. You can also wash and dry the strawberries, grapes, etc.
Sorry this is so long but hope this helps. Wish you all the best and keep us updated as to what you decide. 
Thanks for the replies! I'm not doing it this time, but will keep it in mind for the future. 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%