I've been having this problem where brides around here (rural area) are looking for the cheapest wedding cake possible- not by shopping around, but just by downsizing - I've been getting a lot of 2 tier cake requests and the rest sheet cakes for 200 people! I really don't like to make just 2 tier cakes, I'd rather them be 3+ cakes just for aesthetic reasons. I have troubles making a 2 tier cake look like anything special.
Do you guys have a minimum tier policy in place or something to that effect? Just wondering if there's something I can do in my business policies to encourage a bigger cake centerpiece.
Also, I'm losing out on a lot of income when they're buying sheet cakes as they're half the price per serving.
Any suggestions at all?
I haven't run into this yet but the way I have my pricing I hope I won't .
I price per type of cake they get, It is broken down as follows:
Single layer Buttercream icing
Double layer Buttercrem filling Buttercream icing
Double layer One layer filling Buttercream icing
Double layer Three layers filling Buttercream icing
My fillings are all the sleeved ones unless they go with a specialty then it is more per serving (same with cake flavors and fondant)
If they want a sheet cake to look like the wedding cake when it is cut so all the pieces look the same (which I HIGHLY recommend, don't want any questions by the guest) then it cost the same whether it is a 5 tier cake or a 12x18 sheet cake.
Just another suggestion =)
I tell my brides:
"The price for the cake is the same, no matter what pan I bake it in. You're getting cake for 100, regardless of how it's served."
Since I dont' offer wedding sheet cakes at lower pricing, I dont' have the problem. My wedding cakes include delivery. My sheet cakes do not.
An advantage I may have is that I offer my wedding cakes in a package form. For one price they get the cake, plates & forks, punch & cups, mints & nuts, linens, delivery, set-up, i stay and serve the cake, clean up and tear down.
So when I get a bride who wants to buy 75 servings in the package and "sheet cakes for 100", I look them straight in the eye and ask them:
"So 75 of your guests are getting cake on a plate and punch in a cup and 100 of your guests will be drinking from the water fountain and eating cake from the palm of their hand?"
They get the point.
Wow! You supply all that for a wedding? Do most decorators?
I've only supplied the cake and the delivery is extra - depending on where it is. In town - free - out of town, based on how far out...
Our sheet cakes are pretty basic - they 'go' with the main wedding cake design, but doesn't match, the guest would know - can you guys show me some of your sheet cakes? I'd like to see how extravagant it gets. That's why our sheet cakes are so much cheaper - they are way easier to do and take a lot less time.
Its not so much the money that I'm worried about, more about the design, I have troubles making a 2 tier cake look right for some reason.
Can I just say that to the client? The design is going to suffer being only a 2 tier cake?
Also - I get these brides that don't have an idea in mind, or don't care - I like having this freedom for someone I know, or for myself - but for someone's wedding - it really bothers me - I know they say they don't care now, but on their wedding day - things are a little different.
I am interested in how you all price out your cakes. Mine are also a straight price across the board, unless its a highly difficult cake, then I up the charge a bit. I need to get more precise on this.
No, I think it's safe to say that most decorators don't offer the package that I do. 
I started this policy 20+ years ago. I discovered the local bakery was cheaper than me and I had to come up with a marketing tool that made people want to use me instead of them. I may not have been able to beat their price, but I could outshine them on service!
My wedding cakes are a flat price per serving. I dont' charge extra for design (i.e. basketweave, stringwork, etc.). I only work in BC.
The package price is $5.50/person. The Drop-n-Run price (cake, delivery, set-up only) is $2.50/person.
In over 25 years, I've only done one wedding cake with sheet cakes on the side. It was my cousins' wedding forever ago and her dad kept adding to the cake requirement, even tho' I kept telling him he was going to have leftover cake coming out of his ears! I did a 3-tier cake on top of a fountain with 4 satellite cakes. He had 4 satellite cakes and 4 sheet cakes left over! (can we say "Told you so!")
Other than that, it's never happened.
I have read/seen on here someone (unfortunately, I can't remember the thread) but some people do have a minimum serving for the main cake before they will do sheet cakes. Some people also have a clause that sheet cakes must be bought from them and not from another baker/grocery store, etc. Personally, I think both are good ideas. And you are right, it is hard to make a wedding cake look super special and spectatular with only two tiers.
Wow, I can't believe you've only had one with sheet cakes on the side!
I'm new to the decorating scene and have 3 wedding cakes this summer. 2 of which are 2 tiered cakes with 4 sheet cakes on the side. It just seems like a waste for me, I want to explore what I can do, and I keep feeling limited.
Right now, I'm charging pretty cheaply - only $1.50 per serving, and $0.75 per serving for sheet cakes. I did this for 2 reasons. 1) I live in a very rural area and people (obviously) tend to be cheap. 2) I'm new to decorating, so I don't think it would be fair for me to charge and arm and leg for a cake that may or may not turn out how they wanted it to.
So I'm starting it at this and then hopefully when I start to get a little busier, I can afford to lose a couple of clients and still maintain the extra income. I'm trying to ease into it right now and then next year my husband and I plan to start a family and then I'll stay home - and maybe then I'll start advertising and such for my cake business and I can do that 
Much preferred over my marketing job!!
I've never thought of doing all those extras that you do. That's something to think about. I'm also a graphic designer, so I've thought about doing invitations for the wedding and also programs. But I haven't cracked into that yet - kind of a package deal like you were talking. I should maybe look into that a little more..............
I should think of adding a minimum to a contract for the wedding couple to sign....???
Do any of you have a sample contract that I can take a look at and change for my own? I sort of did one once, but it wasn't very professional - I'd like to make this a little more professional if I could.
What if you do the bottom tier as a dummy cake? Then you can have 3 tiers. I guess they probably don't want to pay for the dummy tier though!
I bite my tongue ALL THE TIME with both of my jobs, being a realtor and making cakes. I would LOVE to tell people "told you so" but I keep biting that tongue of mine!!
Hey ruralepicure - where are you at in Iowa? I'm up in the northeast corner....
Yeah, i've struggled with the dummy cake price as well.... I've decided on only giving 10% off my regular cost if someone wants dummies - its the time that goes into it that costs.... do you guys agree?
This is a very annoying topic for me. It seems to me like all of a sudden I've had an influx of cheap brides. It's extremely frustrating when you sit down with them and they pretty much want to get as much out of you for the cheapest price possible. For example, this past Monday I had a tasting and all they did was rave about (and these are their words) "Oh your such an incredible artist!" "This cake is so delicious" blah, blah, blah. Then after a half hour of mapping out the deisgn of the cake they say "oh we want the cake to serve 50 plus the top tier to save and the rest in sheet cakes!" I believe their guest number is 130. I'm doing it but I am so tired of that. I want to find a tactful way to stop it from happening. My husband says I should charge the same price no matter what, but I feel that that them brings down the value of the tiered wedding cake. I am charging them $1.25 a serving for the single layer sheet cake. Their tiered cake is $4.50. I really want to ask them how they decide who gets the fancy wedding cake and who gets the square of sheet cake. I wonder if they say to their caterers, "Gee, to cut cost, I want bacon wrapped scallops for 50 guests and then the rest can have pigs in a blanket"! Or is it just the cake people that end up being screwed? I also blame the wedding planning websites out there. They tell the brides that they should do sheet cakes to save money and even go as far as to suggest a a tier or two of fake cake in order to still have a niced size wedding cake on display. A cupcake wedding cake to save money is one thing, it's fun and different but just being cheap and doing sheet cakes is a whole other!
(Can you tell that I am very upset about the whole thing?)
Sorry to rant!
I'm in Central Iowa, not too far from Iowa State University in Ames.
Actually, I wouldn't discount the dummy cakes at all. You may not have to bake them but aren't they just as much work? I've never done one so I'm not too much help!!
.... I also blame the wedding planning websites out there. They tell the brides that they should do sheet cakes to save money and even go as far as to suggest a a tier or two of fake cake in order to still have a niced size wedding cake on display.
Can we say "Stephi"?
Oh, I get my mom-voice and mom-finger going on this one and I tell brides, when they ask about sheet cakes and dummies ... and I quote:
"Contrary to what the wedding websites and magazines tell you, dummy cakes and sheet cakes are NOT cheaper. Now maybe if you are buying your cake from a mass-production bakery who pulls one out of the freezer and just slaps some icing on it ... .that might be cheaper. But I'm doing a customized cake just for you .... you're getting the same cake, the same icing, same bake time. Whether it's sheet or styrofoam it's pretty much the same decor, the same decorating time, PLUS the cost of the styrofoam dummy. They are all being delivered in the same vehicle, using the same gas and my crew is getting paid the same hourly rate ... and you're supposed to get it cheaper why?????"
I will not lead the parade to the Bargain Basement Pricing convention. I will not be brow-beaten to lower pricing by some non-baking person who has a job filling white space in a magazine with information that they have no first hand knowledge of.
Folks, if we dont' stand up for ourselves, who is going to? I am very willing to walk away from an order if they want a grocery store price. My name is on that cake and I will not prostitute it to the cheapest bidder.
Yeah....I get a little passionate on this one, too.
My two cents; we do have a minimum its three tiers period! If they have say 200 guests I make sure that the bulk of the cake is within that 3 tiers. We do adjust how tall each tier is so any given cake could have tiers that are 3 to 6 inches tall. We suggest sheet cakes to make the math work out closer to their head count.
We never allow the design to suffer for the cheaper sheet cakes. I think that if you charge too little you will get cheaper clients. Our cakes start at 4.50 per serving, fillings are extra, frosting other than butter cream is extra. Sheet cakes are 2.50 per serving minimum 40 servings.
Fake cakes are 1/2 price but again we only suggest this if it is a very large or very small wedding. For large weddings we still make a good profit and the cake appears to be more impressive. For smaller weddings the cake doesn't look dinky.
We have a wide assortment of brides from both sides of the track..... this year we started insisting on a phone or email quote before we meet and I am happy to tell them I don't want to waste their time if your cakes won't work for them. They have never complained but a few said they didn't know what they wanted. When this happens I tell them we need then to find 2 cakes before we can meet. If a bride doesn't have email I am reluctant to work with them.
We must decide each time what will make the job easier and more poffitable, sheet cakes are fast, fake cake can be finished on monday. Do what woks for you but for me I suggest these options to our brides to make my job easier!
Jreimer- This is our 6Th year in legal business so I know what its like to be a home baker wanting to build your business. We must be firm but flexible and let them know before you meet what they are looking at price wise. We need to pay our bills don't we? Type out in a nice letter your policies and email it to them before meeting. Just because you are in a rural area doesn't mean your cakes are not as great as the city offerings. We have clients that drive 1 hour each way to visit us!!!!! If you are good they will come!
I don't have brides that ask for sheet cakes on the side. I think I have only done that once and I charged them the same price as the wedding cake. I also do package deals, but I do not provide linens or cut the cake, that is extra. Whether you rent the linens or have your own, you still have to have them cleaned and spend the money to drop off and pick up, and I am not cleaning them myself. I have a price for using their stuff i.e. punch bowls, cups, etc, or a price for my stuff which I rent to them. If they want me to provide cake cutting service and clean up then it costs them more money. Like someone said, its the same cake, oven cost, your time, same icing etc.
To clarify; When we make wedding sheet cakes they are solely to supplement a large order. They are not decorated at all, no time invested in that. Nor do we have to figure out how to set it up, and think about transportation challenges. So I have to disagree "cupcake", sheet cakes cost way less to to produce, yes its the same mixing, baking time but the labor and worries aren't there. We make 20-25 wedding cakes a month and only 20% of those need sheet cakes. It's good business to think about your clients needs and reduce yours too!
Something else to consider; We also rent chocolate fountains and for those we stay to supervise. Then we offer to cut the cake if we are there anyhow. I want to make sure the cake looks good on the plate too especially since we are representing ourselves at the reception. Therefore having a sheet cake also allows us to get a head start on the plating.
"Indydebi"- your service is a great edge over the competition, is $2.50 the going price in your area or are you less for a reason? I know that many here are doing this on the side but that is way too cheep! Different areas of the country price differently, we get $4-$7 per serving in Jacksonville! "Kerry Vincent" gave a lecture a couple years ago in Orlando and told us that in the last 20 years the cost of cake making has continued to increase but he price to the client hasn't moved up too. That it is our responsibility to raise the cost of wedding cakes to at least be more than the best grocery store! Here Publix is the highest grocery store standard and they start at $3 per serving. We must be more then that, and price our work for what it is worth. It takes time but keep raising your prices as demand increases. We provide something the big grocery stores cant so we must show our worth by charging for it! Every 6 months I check the competition and make sure we are in line. I encourage everyone to make sure your aren't selling yourself short!
I don't do wedding cakes as of yet but plan to in the future. But when I have a birthday party order or another occasion that calls for such and such cake and a sheet cake just incase we need one, I charge them full price for that sheet cake. The last party I did I had made a doll cake, 4 mini doll cakes, 24 cupcakes to match, as well as a sheet cake to match that got hidden until it was time to cut and serve. I did the cutting and serving because I was asked to, mainly because I made the cakes and no one else knew how to cut them lol. (It was my nieces bday party so I was going to be there anyway)... The sheet cake never got cut for the party but they did keep it for later. They had just barely enough cake and cupcakes to feed everyone without cutting the sheet cake. I charged $35.~ for the sheet cake and that is my base price for sheets.
I'll be making a 2 tier with a 3rd being a doll cake this weekend and I'm debating weather I want to add cupcakes or a sheet cake. I'm thinking cupcakes would be easier then doing a sheet cake with time and details and everything although I can make a sheet cake look better then I can cupcakes lol. Anyway I just wanted to put my two cents in that I charge full price for sheets weather they are on the side of a bigger cake or not.
Thank you all for your input. I know this is a passionate topic for everyone.
I agree with weddingbymindy, checking out the competition for pricing is vital. I do need to do that! I think I've proved myself for the area, as I don't know ANYONE around here having a cake with fondant for their wedding.... that's how behind and cheap we are here. But I think my cakes in the bakery window are getting some attention so that people will start coming by and I can now show people my 'portfolio' even though I've only done 1 wedding so far, my display cakes have 'beefed' that up a little.
I'm still interested in knowing what people do for a contract. If anyone can, attached their contract to the post so we can take a look at it? I'm sure there's something on CC about this, so I'll do a search as well. I have a wedding consultation coming up next Saturday and I want to know exactly what to do, so at least I might look more professional than I might be.... Also - this may be a duh topic - but when someone calls to set up a consultation - what information do you get on the initial phone call???
weddingsbymindy, we do our annual price review and adjustments in sept and that $2.50 is going bye-bye!
I dont' charge for design (dont' charge extra for basketweave or stringwork or type of / number of flowers) so 'decorating' a sheet cake is no cheaper than 'decorating' a wedding cake. If someone charges for design elements, I can understand how a sheet cake might be cheaper, but that's not we set up our pricing policies.
Indydebi; We get many clients that bring inspiration photos from the web and magazines... many of these design are labor intensive such as pressed fondant trim, corneli lace, color matching (pain) gumpaste flowers, luster dusts and so on. Why do you not charge extra for this extra work and supplies? Your time is certainly worth more than the average grocery store cake.
We have a basic charge per cake, and more for weddings (as they are more hassle then any fillings and upgrades on frosting are also charged. Would you sell a sheet cake undecorated for the same price per serving as a Colette Peter's masterpiece? 
No way! If you are making mostly traditional style wedding cakes that have been basic for 20 years and few modern labor intense designs I can see why your price per serving would be the same but you must agree that our time is well worth being compensated for. Our kitchen sheet cakes are undecorated therefore way less time and expence.
I've never had a bride who was anal about color match. The orange one I did last week .... she left me a color swatch and it took me 2 minutes to match it.
I don't do fondant ... I find most brides are more interested in the smooth look rather than the fondant itself. Once I demonstrate I can do the smooth look with BC, they are fine with it. Most of my brides use fresh or silk flowers .... no gumpaste. If they did want gumpaste, I'd do what most bakeries do .... order them from my supplier and charge the bride.
corneli and the 'hand-cramp' dots do take more time, but a cake with just ribbon on the bottom takes way less time .... and I dont' discount for that. We selected our name intentionally .... we "keep it simple"for the bride and that means the price they see is the price they pay. We dont' like to "nickel and dime" a bride to death. We choose to keep it simple for her.
It works for us. 
I was just debating over this same topic for the last couple of weeks. I'm doing a wedding for 230 people and the bride didn't want a gigantic cake, so we planned to do a couple of sheet cakes to supplement the main cake. I couldn't decide wether to charge two different prices or just one price for everyone. I ended up deciding to charge $3 per person for everyone because I figured it would just be easier to price that way. Plus, we haven't decided on the exact size of the main cake yet so it would have been harder to give them a price without knowing how many servings the main cake was going to be. I'm planning on doing a two layer sheet cake so it looks like the main cake when cut.
When I called around to a few bakeries in my area(Providence), most started fondant at about $4.00 and one started at $7.00 per person!
Courtney
I recommend sheet cakes to supplement. I know how expensive weddings are now a days and I think that the bride finds it nice and helpful that I am willing to work with her. I have only done 2 - 2 tier wedding cakes to date. With those 2, the bride had other desserts. The rest of my cakes have been 3tiers or more. When I consult with the bride I shy them away from the 2 tier. Most are only 6-8-10, but somehow I don't have only 2 tiers.
Oh, I also have a recommended serving size chart that I give the bride during my consultation. I do not have any 2 tiers on there for pricing. If you control the consultation, you should be able to drive them, politley to a three tier.
Im new to all of this and i have one quick question... what is a fake cake?
thanks
Nic
This usually refers to someone making a whole cake from a cake dummy or using maybe 1 or 2 tiers of a cake dummy with the real cakes on top for systematical purposes or just because someone likes the look of more tiers with less cake to serve or less for the baker to make. Some people charge less for the dummies so it can help brides save on cake, but I personally don't see where it's much different pricing wise when you still have to decorate the dummy and still use time to put the whole thing together.
I offer sheet cakes to Brides with a main cake of more than 250 servings only.
Up to 250 if the cake they want doesn't fit their serving needs we add kitchen cakes for the same price per serving as the main cake. These are usually 8inch or 10inch cakes decorated and filled.
My sheet cakes are $35 for a 12x18 and they are scored on top with a heart or rosebud on each piece.
I also state in the contract that my cake is the only cake allowed. No sheetcakes from another vendor to make up the extra servings are allowed.
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