(I'm going to email you my foot ..... if you will kick yourself in the a$$ with it, I'd appreciate it!)

I know I'm getting in on this one a little late, but I'd like to say that Indydeb would be great to store in my brain every time someone tried to take advantage of me. You make so much sense. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to send me her foot.

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(I'm going to email you my foot ..... if you will kick yourself in the a$$ with it, I'd appreciate it!)




Well my Dh thinks you are the wisest cake woman .Iam sure my mom will love you .you don't know my friends .I haven't sold any cake to friends yet but I have heard them complain about things like this ,and most of the time they knew the price but still had the nerve to say they were ripped off.

This is such an interesting topic. I have been in the cake business for about 12 years now. It was a challenge at first, but I practiced! I practiced saying "The cake will cost $____." I always have an order form in front of me and I fill it out as I'm taking the order. I also have my price list in front of me. If I'm not certain how much to charge, I tell them I will have to figure it out and call them back.

I also try to look at things a little differently. I used to think that family or friends called me to do their cakes because they thought they'd get a discount. I changed that to - they call me because they want to give me their business. They know me and trust me and want to see me succeed. It's certainly a much better way to look at it.

I don't scare easy! Thanks for educating this newbie. I am going to get things in order so that next time someone asks me to make a cake, I will be able to pull out my order form and go down my list of needed items to quote a price. If they agree to it fine, if not they can go elsewhere (like Costco and buy their $14.99 sheet cake)!

chigurl - - - remember you are also a cake artist. You don't want to be a starving artist!

I had quoted a price to someone for a cake recently and then I worried a little that I was too high. I had already decided I wasn't coming down in price, if they wanted me they'd pay that price.

But, with hubby being a woodworker I know what all goes into his trade (time, materials, overhead, ect) so I decided I'd figure out what my hourly rate would have been on this particular cake. I figured in costs for materials then I figured out the time factor for all of the stuff I'd be doing (shopping, mixing, baking, even clean up time!)

By the time I was done figuring it all out I wound up at about $20 per hour and decided maybe I wasn't charging enough! (My husband makes from $40 to 60 per hour if he's charging time & materials.)

It does take skill and some form of artistic expression to do a cake. If everybody could do it nobody would be paying us.

I've got four kids and at least two of them need braces. I sure wish the orthodontist charged like some of you! lol

Gotcha!