I'm doing a retirement party cake for a friend of mine later this year (for her father), and she told me she wants me to give her a real price for the cake. No discounts.

This is what I'm making:

18x12 one layer with buttercream with the Williams Sonoma train on top. (Her dad is a train enthusiast.)

The 18x12 will have minimal, if any, decorations on it, maybe just a border around it. The main decoration will be the train.

So what do you think?

anyone? please?

what size is the train? About how many servings?

For the sheet cake I charge $1.50/serving (2x2x2 serving size)
For the train I would charge $3.00/serving This is my base price for anything that is not a regular pan shape (rectangle, round, square, hex, petal etc...)

So for the sheet cake my price would be $81.00 (54 servings)
Make sure you cover yourself on the time you will spend decorating that train.

Edited to finish uncomplete thought in orginal post

I'm estimating that this size cake will serve around 49 people? So according to what I charge, I would probably charge around $85-90. I can't quite get away with charging a full $2 per serving where I live. So I usually go with about 1.75 a serving. Hope this helps.

I'm so sorry I'm not able to help you with the pricing but I just wanted to say that this is going to be one fantastic cake. I can hardly wait to see it. It sounds absolutely perfect for this person. Good luck and I'll be waiting to see this one.

That train will be a pain to decorate. The cars are so small.

I would charge $45 for the sheet cake. Depending on how realistic and detailed you are going with the train would determine my price. I would start at $30 and go up from there.

$75-$100

I would start at 35.00 for the sheetcake, especially it's minimally decorated. Then depending on the train Charge accordingly. If You are using a train mold(which is what I thought I read) How many cake boxes does it take, how much time do you spend, etc...?

I'd think $60+ would be a good starting rate.

cCc

I charge $35.00 for a 12x 18, 1 layer, and $25.00 for flat character cakes, I don't know what the WS train pan looks like but I'm guessing it's similar to the Wilton train pan(flat one) so put them together and I would charge $60.00
Hope this helps

I charge $35.00 for a 12x 18, 1 layer, and $25.00 for flat character cakes, I don't know what the WS train pan looks like but I'm guessing it's similar to the Wilton train pan(flat one) so put them together and I would charge $60.00
Hope this helps

If it helps -- Williams Sonoma train is a link in the original post, so you can see what that looks like.

Ok so are you doing the Whole train cake? If so I think that cake is about 45.-50. dollars on it's own. And that is on the cheap side.

The pan it's self is 34.00 and that doesn't include Tax.

I think if you charge 50.00 (for train)then you'll pay for your pan and ingredients of both cakes.

So that would be about 85.00 minimum for the whole thing.

cCc

$100

OK let me change that price! (I viewed the pan, sorry I didn't even pay attention that there was a link) still $35 for the sheet but no less than $50.00 for the train so $85.00 minimum
Please post a picture of it when you get done
Happy baking Ch0psuey
Jibbies