Hehe the question that always gets asked!

So i get a random question from a friend at school! She said that she has a friend who is getting married and was looking to get a spacific grooms cake but NO ONE they asked could do it for them.

Hey no problem! I asked what it was and when they needed it by. They needed a 3D nascar car by june 2. I thought for a second. "I can do that no problem!" i said to myself. So i give her the ok.

I've seen ton of car cake carving tutorials and i know i can do it no problem. I especially like the oval cake idea, so i'll be taking my 1/2 coupon to michaels in a day or two for a nice new oval cake pan!

She calls tonight and i took some time to price out my supplies. 15 dollars for the cake itself(thats doubling everything) and then 6-7 dollars for the buttercream(doubled recipe) and for the fondant 10 dollars base price(i figure that will cover whatever amount i need to make seeing as all i'm doing is putting 2 dollar sugar and 1 dollar marshmallows together!)

So all together it comes out to be 45 dollars. I times the servings(about 30) by 1.50 which comes out around 40 dollars. Together that made 80 dollars for this cake, but i gave a little discount because its my first paid cake and i don't want them to think i charge to high!

But did i give to much of a discount? The girl at school is my friend and this is her friend who needs the grooms cake. I'm sure my friend told her my cakes are great(i often brings cakes into school when i have no one else to devour my practice cakes. Everyone raves over them. I also did my teacher's wedding cake. Everyone loved and devoured that as well! )

I think for my first paid cake 60 dollars is reasonable. It won't be more than 12 inches, if it is i'll charge more, and i even charged extra for supplies. I'm just worried is that really to little for a 3D 12 in nascar car?

But on the other hand i'm excited to get my first paid cake!! I'll definately make this one special and do my best!!

Lol by the way i found out they want red velvet cake(any good carving red velvet cake recipes out there??) and number 8 nascar:

http://i.a.cnn.net/nascar/2005/news/headlines/cup/11/13/dearnhardtjr.phoenix/junior.wall.384.jpg

When i found out my expression was: The RED!!

Anyways thanks for reading and your suggestions! I really just want to be sure i'm charging a decent price for this cake. Any tips on making this cake would be greatly appriciated as well! I'm very excited and i need to get started ASAP to get this cake done in time ,but i have no intention of rushing or stressing myself out. Everything is going to be made AHEAD of time!!

Sorry this is so long. lol

I have the proble. I can't decide what to charge and I end up giving my cakes away for free. Guilt takes over.

I'm confused...are you charging $60 or $80?

I always have problems pricing my cakes! I would say...go with $75 You should go with whatever you're comfortable with. You don't want to do it for too cheap, or else people will think that your cakes are always that cheap! But if you do give them a discount, make sure they know that you are doing that & how much of a discount you're giving.

Good luck!

It would originally be around 80(if i was charging for supplies and then 1.50 a person) ,but i'm charging 60.

The problem is i'm not directly talking with my friends friend lol i'm only getting this information through my friend(who i trust, she is not stupid!). So i can't really tell her to relay that info. I'd feel like a real snob.
I told my friend my pricing and such and explained it to her so i trust my friend to see what she says.

If there is any conflict i'll get the friend's number and directly contact them to see what's up. But at this point, it hasn't been a problem. Later on though i am going to contact her about payment. I'm not going to do this cake without upfront paymet(after the cake is done but before delivery). So i think i'll ask for cash or a check at least a day ahead before delivery. I think that's reasonable?

I think right now they are desperate to get anything that will resemble the car. I guess i just need some.. i don't know.. moral support my pricing is ok!(Or moral support it isn't! )LOL. I'm just nervous!

It's really about finding what works for you, some people do the times x3 or 4 rule, others do it differently. I personally add up all the ingredients and sundries (ie. cake board, cake box, etc), I also add in paid time, so say I'm doing two cakes and decorating I might charge 4 hours at $5 an hour, then times the total by 1.2 to account for electricity, and those types of things, then if necessary add in delivery or discount. So I would say $45 + $20 (4 hours at $5.00 - because I've done a car and it probably took me 8 hours but we do need to be realistic sometimes, i.e. an average kind of say 2 hours baking, 2 hours decorating).

$65 x 1.2 = $78 + $10.00 for delivery if you are delivering it. Also you haven't priced in the cake board and cake box.

So your original $80 was more likely the better option waive the delivery fee and you've given your discount. If you want to give a discount that's fine, but I think it is important to add in some kind of charge for your time not just the ingredients.

It is scary sometimes when you are pricing, but you do have to get kinda firm on yourself, if people think it's too much then maybe it's not worth your effort, ya know! HTH