i got a call (email) from someone I don't know (yea) for a cake. They want a cake for 30 people. My thing is, if I charge 1.25 (just giving an example) per serving I would only be getting 37.50 for a small tiered cake? that just doesnt seem like I would want to do a tiered/stacke cake fr that cost.

what do people do for smaller cakes that are tiered/stacked? still just charge per serving price?

I would raise my cost per serving.
It isn't worth doing small cakes if you don't charge more.

well, 30 guest doesn't mean the cake is 30 servings, they want a 3 tier cake, it would have to be at least 50 to 60 servings to look decent, then you are charging for the servings in the cake, not the servings they are using, Get it?

I have had people say well i only need x servings, well sorry the cake you picked out is for xxx servings and i can only narrow that down to xx servings so thats what you need to pay for.

For 30 wedding cake servings i would do a 10 inch round cake, 3 to 4inches high should feed that many people. And 37.50 is reasonable for a cake that size.

they just told me 30 guests and ask me for suggestions. I didn't want to suggest a 2 tier cake make a 8 and a 6 or somethign like that and then end up doing a bunch of work which should cost more than I quoted KWIM?

I would set a minimum price of 50 bucks.

You have some lovely cakes!

Definitely raise your "per serving" cost and don't forget to add in additional costs for flowers, fondant, etc. Do you have a website or a way to show the person some of your cakes? They could pick something out that they like and you could tailor it to fit their needs. That could also help you determine the time, costs especially if its based on something you've already made. Hope this helps.

I pretty much specialise in small tiered cakes which serve about 30-40 people. I charge £60 for a three tiered small cake - the top tier is 4" and the bottom tier 9". My avatar is a small tiered cake and here's another to give you an idea of size: