One of the young girls I work with is getting married in Dec...right after Christmas. She asked me to do the grooms cake and she wants the theme to be from the movie "The Matrix". So anyone made any cakes in that theme?
Not sure what to charge. Can you put raspberry flavoring in a white cake? You can tell I live a sheltered cake life... 
She said probably enough to feed maybe 40 to 50 servings. So even if I only charge her 2 bucks a serving I don't think she will end up having me do it because that would be 100 bucks. Now I am thinking she thinks it might only be at the most 40 dollars but hey...I ain't doin it for free....I won't starve without the order.... 
So any cake muses out there???
I don't know anything about the Matrix, but as far as the cakes go, I would think that to serve 40 to 50 you would want a 12" round. $100 is definitely not too much to charge. Are you doing the wedding cake too? Do you want raspberry flavoring or filling? If you want raspberry white cake, there is a recipe in the recipe section . . . .
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-4543-Fresh-Raspberry-Cake.html
I haven't actually tried it yet, but I have heard good things, if you want filling, yes you can do it. But, I would do a thin layer of BC on each side of the layer and put the raspberry in between so that it doesn't bleed into the cake. I hope that makes sense. Good luck!
My standard answer is kind of lame, but...rent the movie! Whew, there are so many different themes in this film, it's hard to suggest which direction you might take it. The first thing that came to my mind was a black cake that just depicted the glowing green screen of scrolling data that was "The Matrix". Or an image of the back of a head, with the socket at the neck.
Check out www.whatisthematrix.com for some visuals...
If you want to add raspberry flavor to a white cake, I've heard of folks adding rasp. creamer to the batter. I think it was "raspberry white chocolate" to be exact- thread was from a couple of months ago. The creamer is not colored so the cake retains its white color.
I know this is going to sound lame, but go to Google and type in "the matrix" then at the top of the webpage click the images link. It's just a bunch of images from the movie (the black and green being the most popular, and everyone that sees it automatically thinks of that movie). Hopefully, you can find an image that will inspire you.
However, if she's wanting something not expensive. I think I would just go with the black and green. It's simple, and not too incredibly expensive. No sculpting involved, but it probably will be a little time consuming in order to get the symbols just right.
OR you could just do an edible transfer. Fast, easy, and less time consuming.
Hope this helps,
Holly
Actually the black and green screen is what she is wanting. She said she wanted a square cake...but my larges square pan right now is a 9 inch one. I do have a large sheet cake but not sure about how big the edible transfers are.
No I am not doing the wedding cake ( to big of a chicken to do that plus she didn't ask me) The wedding is south of Indianapolis by more that and hour and I am east of Indianapolis by more than an hour so ...plus it is at Christmas time and not going to do the driving to Bloomington in winter. She said she wanted me to do the two little pills that the main character has to choose between....make them out of fondant and put them on the cake....
Oh and I did find one cake in the gallery that had the screen although it was more gray ....but she put in a hidden message in the screen ...it was pretty cool.
I guess I do need to rent the movie or see if my daughter has it. Don't know whether to use just blk bc or do fondant...which would cost more....
thanks for all the advice....
Only thing that comes to mind would be to do an image of the open palms with the red and blue pills (one in each palm) as seen here http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3DThe%2BMatrix%2Bpills%26qp_p%3Dmatrix%2Bpills%26imgsz%3Dall%26fr%3Dytff1-msgff%26b%3D21&w=377&h=567&imgurl=www.nickdorazio.it%2Fimages%2FMatrix%2520pills2.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nickdorazio.it%2FRRW%2520Reality%2520Show.htm&size=16.7kB&name=Matrix+pills2.jpg&p=The+Matrix+pills&type=jpeg&no=28&tt=140&oid=c3b39984ce0dd408&ei=UTF-8
And make the pills out of fondant with a bit of Luster dust to make them realistic. And perhaps the background could be the green and black. Sounds like a fun challenge!
Though you want to give her a deal don't sell yourself short, I wouldn't accept anything under $75-$80 for that. You're spending a great deal of time not to mention the expense of the supplies. And she will have a hard time finding anyone to make it any cheaper, not even a grocery store bakery would go much lower. HTH 
Does piping gel harden well? Colored piping gel would make great pills if it does, since they're like liquicaps (is that what they're called? gelcaps, maybe?).
That would be an awesome cake, if you can make the hands, with the pills on the palms, resting on a square black cake with the green symbols.
I just bought some Black Satin Ice Fondant and it looks fabulous! Maybe you could cover it in that. I'm using it to make a keyboard for a groom's cake I'm doing. He wants a computer, with a screenshot of the game he plays on it. I'm making it life sized. It will be my first cake done with fondant (that wasn't just for play) and my first carved, first a lot of things.. hehe
Good luck with yours! I can't wait to see what you come up with, and photos. Be sure to post them here. I'm excited for you. I'm not sure why, but for some reason thinking up new things to do with cake always makes me excited. haha I'm weird, I know.
TOhara.....thanks for the pic of the pills and the hands. That helps alot...which one did Keanu pick in the movie??? I know...I need to watch the movie..
I didn't plan on doing it for less than 80...since she wants about 40 servings then at 2.00 a serving would come to 80. But the black fondant (satin ice ) is expensive and I am not sure how much I would need to cover the cake. So I may just go with black icing ( yuck factor comes in with all the black) but start with chocolate so it will color better.
So maybe a white cake with raspberry filling with choc icing...that sounds rather good.
like I said....she may decide not to once she hears the price which is ok cause I am not doing a cake for less than 80 and if I have to drive to Indy from home (if I am not working in Indy that day then I will charge a delivery fee too.
keep the ideas coming....thanks....
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