Okay, I know everyone is probably tired of getting the pricing question but I am having a lot of troubles with this one. This will be my first actual wedding cake but the design is very simple so I know I can do it. The bride showed me this picture below and one other. The other picture has fresh fruit instead of the marzipan fruit. The cake will be for 70 people and one tier will be white and the other tier will be a rum cake. Three teirs in all with the anniversary cake, all covered with fondant. I called around and the general pricing is 3.00 dollars a serving as a base price. I will ad a twenty dollar setup/ delivery charge which will take the price to 230.00. She wanted to know the difference in pricing between the two. This is were I run into the problem. I priced the fresh fruit and it will be about forty dollars for the strawberries, rasberries, and blueberries . If I make the one in the picture below I will use fondant instead of marzipan and will not need any on the top since she has a topper. I have no idea what to charge for the fondant fruit. I don't want to overcharge but I don't want to short myself because I know this will be time consuming. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Can't help with your question glad to give you a bump

Making all of those fondant fruits by hand takes time. I'd charge at least the same as the fresh fruit (you have to get paid for your time!!!)

Before I priced the fruit I was thinking I would charge fifty dollars for the fondant fruit. I don't know if 280.00 is two much for a cake that is only feeding 70 people. Do you think I should lower the serving price to 2.50 or 2.75?

How about estimating all your ingredients and pricing that plus estimate how long it will take you to do the whole cake and put a "per hour" charge? I'm not sure if this helps but its a start.

$280 is NOT too much.

It's absolutely not too much for a cake with that much detail work.

I would probably check out www.marzipanworld.com and see what they charge for that amount of fruit and at least charge her that much extra for the fruit. Even if you make it in fondant! pssst...might be easier just to order it though lol

hang on that may not work.......those fruits are tiny I think!

http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/spareroom/presents.htm

here are some instructions on making marzipan strawberries if you want?

http://www.fashion-era.com/Christmas/christmas_food_marzipan_fruits_recipes.htm

ooh here......this has directions for tons of fruits!

Thanks so much! Those sights are great!

OK mariak, how on EARTH do you have any time/energy/stamina/you can fill in the blank to make a wedding cake with 6 children and one on the way ?!!?!? You rock!

BTW, I am so completely jealous. DH says we are done having babies--after only 2. Count your blessings, girlfriend! (Like I have to tell you that.)

Thanks LickDaBowl! I do most of my decorating after they go to bed. It is hard though since the oldest is only eight and the youngest is one! My goal is to someday have my own buisness when all the kids are grown. I will have several years to practice before then.

Oh my goodness! I can't believe you have time to make a sandwich, let alone a cake! My hat is off to you. (or it would be, if I wore hats. )

I am jaded here in NY I think...but I think yo can go higher, even.

You will be doing those fruit for many many hours...and fondant is expensive to buy and time consuming to make.

I would ask for $350.

I charge 50 cents per piece of gumpaste fruit or vegetable I make. While some might think that is expensive it is a time consuming endevor what with the shaping, waiting to dry, and then painting, and is still cheaper than buying from a bakery. I just did a three tiered wedding cake of 6-9-12 inch round layers and used about 100 pieces of fruits and vegetables, plus 10 gumpaste leaves. They didn't go completely around all the tiers like the cake you're planning, but that number might give you an idea of how many to make. You can see the cake in my photos.

If you are making the fruit, which is a lot of work, I feel you should charge at least $6.00 per serving that would make it $420.00 for the cake. Anyone can go & buy fruit & place it on a cake, but when something is handmade from Marzipan, Gumpaste, Fondant or whatever, it is special & you should charge accordingly. Keep us posted.

We made our first "wedding" cake in class tonight-some were covered in fondant, some buttercream. Someone asked how much they should charge for the cake and our teacher said $2-$3 a slice and if you use fondant, double the price and I agree with the others. You are going to spending a lot of time doing all of those fruits, so don't feel bad about raising your price. I know for my cake for class, I spent all day last Saturday to make fondant "water lilies" and I only used 2 different flower cookie cutters. Just the way I did them, making them "curl up", and letting them dry, then putting the smaller one on top and making it stick, just took a lot of time-practically all day. This is probably going to take you 2-3 days, if not more, to do, so charge for your time, too. Good luck!!!

I understand your worries - that happens to many of us.
Reading all the opinions might help you out, or it could confuse you more, but here goes... Charging $280.00 brings your price to $4.00 per portion. I think that it's a fair price. If I were in your place, I'd be scared of chasing the client away. This is your first wedding cake and you've never done fruit before, so you don't really know how much time it'll take. Use this cake as a means to find out if in the future, you should charge more for something like that.
A question: are you counting the anniversary cake or are you planning on giving it to the bride? Because if you're charging for it, of course you'll have to raise the price!
Good luck!

Marie