I have a bride who brought me a picture of this cake for a quote. I quoted her $800 and she looked at me like I had 2 heads. Is this too much?? I figured that with all the berries, chocolate, gumpaste work, and fondant that this was a reasonable amount. Also, I think that the box on top is a cake wrapped with modelling chocolate. She thinks its just a plain chocolate box. Anyone?
Thanks Stef
ps-Is the trim on the fondant ribbon done in royal icing and then brushed with luster dust?? Hard to tell from the picture. Also, the bow on top also has the rope trim.
I think $800 is a steal for what she'll be getting.
And even a "plain choclate box" like she thinks, is not east to make.
Tell her she can go to the grocery store and get a cake or $800 and then maybe she'll realize how much of a good price that is!
If it's $8oo canadian, then you need to up your price ! That'll shock her 
Yup...it is $800 Canadian. I thought that for that cake it was a fair price. What would you guys charge? Going to be a 14" 12" and maybe an 8" if the top box is actually a cake. It's a coffee serving for approx 200 people. There are actually 350+ guests but she thinks that not everyone will want cake. I've catered enough events to know that once one person sees someone eating cake....they'll ALL want cake. This may have diaster written all over it. 
So do you think the top is cake or chocolate mold?
Thanks for you're help 
$800 CAD is more than fair!! The top cake looks like it is cake covered in modeling chocolate, but if you are comfortable enough working with just chocolate, I think it would look really good!
For $200 people, that's "only" $4 a person. What I find is people just can't do the math. They understand that $10 a person for 6 people is $60. For some reason they don't know how to figure $10 a person for 100 people is $1000. They only think "A THOUSAND DOLLARS???!!!"
- A piece of Ultimate Chocolate Chocolate cake at O'Charley's is $4.99 per slice.
- A piece of Lemon Cream Cake at Olive Garden is $5.25 per slice.
- A piece of Chocolate cake with a warm chocolate center at Bravo's is $5.50 per slice.
Your bride needs to get real. She can't buy a Cadillac with a KIA price tag.
The last bridezilla who complained about my quote I simply said "Dear, you're welcome to shop my prices all over town. I want you to be an educated consumer." Boy was she ever educated! I'm now doing the wedding cake! 
For me, that cake is minimum $1000, and honestly, if someone annoys me, I charge more.
"For me, that cake is minimum $1000, and honestly, if someone annoys me, I charge more. "
LOLOL Txkat, that is just what my husband does with his carpentry!! He hopes they won't use him if he prices things to high...usually they have him do it anyway! LOL
good answer wonderbuns...hope you don't mind if I use it!
Be my guest! Oh and yes, when she finally came back around she didn't complain about the "aggravation charge" I tacked on... (I hid it in the quote!)
You all think I am kidding. Just last month I had a mother of the groom get all snarky with me and I boosted her from $6.00 to $8.00 a head for cake for 200.
And she paid it and was thrilled with it.
they are like that ,
they come to me expecting i guess a 20 $ dolar price cake just like the walmart! 
but my husband told me this
just tell them you want o honda o a mercedez
plus supermarkets o bakeries they dont do cakes like this so ...i dont know what people thinks!
i guess they think it is just eggs and flour ....put it toguether..and our time shouldnt be included...
oh he also told me. this....when they complain to tell them .....how much u make for an hour?
and tell them a cake like this ..takes a lot of hours of job..... then i guess we have to work for 50cents an hour when they want to be paid good for their work and for us...what we are slaves? 
I assumed that the cake in the picture was quite a bit smaller than what she needed. I quoted her on the picture, not for the amount of guests she will have. Normally, I would have said that it was a MINIMUM a $1000 cake.
I agree with you indydebi that people are completely willing to pay anywhere from $5-$12 for a slice of cake at a restaurant, but they are not willing to pay even that for a wedding cake. Perhaps cake for themselves takes precedence over buying cake for all the friends and family. I think that a lot of the time when people hear that I do cakes, they automatically think because I don't work out of a bakery that I should do it for less.
No doubt its a beautiful cake.....I'd be happy to do it...but not at my own expense. Bobwonderbuns/Bearcreek.....I like your style....I forgot to factor in the "pain in the butt" fee.
Hang-on Terri-Jo, I might be sending one your way......
Thanks to all for the excellent help!!!!!
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