What Should I Quote Her? Help Please! :)
Business By Copacabanya Updated 14 Sep 2007 , 7:24am by Chef_Stef
I did a birthday cake for my cousin's daughter this weekend. I really don't think I will charge her for it, but there were several moms at the party who were asking my husband if I did cakes for people so I think I drummed up some potential business. Most of these people had never even seen fondant so they were pretty excited about a cake that looked so different from the good ol' Wal-mart and Albertsons cakes they are all used to. I know they will be asking my cousin how much the cake cost or what I charge so I need help on what I should tell her.
Here's a link to the pic of the cake:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1021293.html
It was a 2 layer, 12 inch cake, WASC, with buttercream and covered in Fondx.
I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give me!
Anya
minimum $168, and i would prolly charge more like $180.
Thank you! I appreciate your help. 
I'd be making that cake once a week if I thought they'd actually pay that around here. 
I guess that's the drawback of the people who are used to those Wal-Mart cakes I mentioned!
Anyone else? I'm sure it differs depending on the area so I'd like to have a few more opinions.
Well, according to Earlene, a 12" cake yields 45 servings. I am guessing you don't charge per serving and you feel bad charging too much. Have you figured out what you have in it though? 12" cake is a lot of cake and a lot of purchased fondant. If you were at your CHEAPEST, you should get $1 per serving. Yes, that is $45, but if they were buying a full sheet cake, they would get just a few more servings and you would charge that much (I would hope) not including the fondant.
That is a really cute cake!! I hope you get a lot of business...if they won't pay, tell them to go back to Albertson's. Good luck with that store doing the same cake! You cannot compete with store prices so DON'T TRY! 
I haven't really worked with fondant, so my opinion may be moot, but I'd say $50ish. Yes, I know I may get hounded down for that, but I'm also know it's easier to increase your prices once you have your client base in tact, rather than trying to go in with higher priced and then being forced to power them.
I would say around $50 also that is alot of cake and work for that price, especially if you are drumming up business then you can increase your price the more clientel that you acquire.
Beautiful cake also, very colorful for a little girl. I hope she loved it!
Beautiful cake! I love the purple color and the butterflies. I too have the same problem with people being accustomed to getting a $13 cake from Wal-Mart. If that's what they want, then that's where they should purchase their cakes from.
IMO for fondant work I would probably would use $2/serving because of the additional cost of the fondant and time. $2 a serving X 45 servings = $90. That seems fair and reasonable to me for a fondant cake. Especially for such a beautiful cake that was custom designed for the recipient. Something they can't get at Wal-Mart.
I would say a minimum of $2/serving for a total of no less than $90. I also use Earlene's chart. Depending on your area you could go up to $2.50/serving, but if these ladies are used to Wal Mart and the grocery store, they may well be in sticker shock hearing $90 (which is a TOTALLY fair price) so I would stick with that for now
Around $110, and I'm sorry, NO, it isn't easier to increase your prices once you have a client base, it's actually harder to do so and you will lose customers if you try. Start at the level you want to be at price wise, of course there will be small yearly increases as the cost of ingredients rise etc, but that's a lot easier for your customers to cope with than you suddenly going from $50 to $100 KWIM?!
I was only able to get 1.50 a serving where I used to live (which was fine with me because I would usually get a "tip" along with the price from certain people.) I was also able to lower my cost by doctoring a cheaper mix and flavoring a water/shortening base frosting.
Now having said that I ALWAYS charged more for fondant (when I used SatinIce).
SO,,,I would tell your cousin that you charge X amount per serving and that you charge more for fondant. And tell her the cake feed 45!! Most people dont think of that.
Charge the full price, at least $100 - I'd charge around $155 around here. Then offer a ONE TIME discount of whatever you feel. This will let them know the actual price, yet they will buy one cake from you and then never want to go back to Wal-Mart again!
Don't start low and try to increase without letting them know what kind of deal they are getting from you.
I agree. This is definitely at least a $100 cake, looking at my cake matrix with what you described:
http://www.lmk4.com/home&hobby_cakematrix.xls
I would charge no less than $90 - $100 for a beautiful cake like that. To be honest, it looks like way to much ingredients and hard work to do for a mere $50, IMHO, of course..... 
I finally realized my time is valuable and unless it's for my family, I need to be sure the time I am spending away from the kids and focusing on cake is worth my while.
I think it's a good idea to tell what your per person price is. And then offer a first time discount. I think if people hear it framed that way, it seems a lot less expensive. Plus, if you just tell them a flat price, it might scare them off when they might would buy an 8 inch cake from you at the lesser price. When did you last go to a birthday party for a kid that had 45 kids at it? I think most people would want a cake half that size.
(I do think, though, that it would be hard to get 45 slices out of that cake--with a non professional trying to cut it.)
I like vickster's idea of charging by the serving - that's a great way to go about it. And sometimes the serving charts seem so off to me - I realize it's possible, but how often do you have a professional cutting it?
Your cake is adorable by the way- very cute!!
Thank you for all the suggestions! I really think that if I go with a per serving price, which is what I told her in the beginning, that the most I can get in my area is $1.50. I would ideally want $2 per serving for that much fondant. I hadn't really stopped to do the math until this afternoon and I have at least $15-20 of just fondant on that cake, so I definitely shouldn't short myself on that.
And I know 45 kids at a birthday party sounds crazy, but there were, indeed, 40 people there to serve cake to. That included 2 parents for nearly every child. Thankfully, I was there so I was able to cut the cake properly to make sure they had enough to go around. It went a lot farther than I thought it would!
Thanks again for all the help. I think I'll go with around $70 and I shouldn't scare these people away. Fortunately for me, she runs with a pretty wealthy crowd...my family not included. 
Oh and thank you for all your compliments! I really appreciate them!
Anya
this is the first time on this board i've seen people quote such low prices for fondant!! whats going on? i charge $3 per serving for fondant, minimum and i go by wilton servings. they can cut it any size they want, but im paying myself based on the wilton "standard". that said, it serves 56 people and at $3 per serving, your minimum should be $168. im sorry if people in your area won't/can't pay that, because its really a LOW price in the spectrum of fondant pricing! many areas charge $4-5 per serving minimum! if they can't afford it, tell them to order a smaller cake, or order it in BC with fondant accents.
and it is a big fat lie that some how gets continually passed around that its easier to start low and raise your prices later!! when you "start low" you establish a client base of low end customers, who will FREAK OUT when you try to up your prices later! you need to start your prices at a level that is compatible with the customers you want to attract. you will never be a successful business trying to cater to cheapskates!
im off my soap box now.... 
I'm with beccakelly...$1.00 a serving is Dark Ages pricing. You can't even get an ice cream at McD's for that! Read my signature below--try ordering a piece of cake at a restaurant and see if they have any for a buck. 
I charge $3.00 MINIMUM for BC and $3.50 MINIMUM for fondant, and pricing is going up for 2008. Anything fancy/extra like heavy design or scroll work, luster painting, etc, the price goes up $0.25/sv, for each detail added, MINIMUM.
I also use Wilton servings to charge by. They can cut the cake however they want, but I don't fool around with "party servings" or "wedding servings"--my cakes are all 4-1/2" deep or more, so the 1 x 2" "wedding serving" size is actually a good-sized piece of cake.
Don't undersell yourself. You'll just be sorry and mad when you're done.
ps--I guess I should add, I also don't do many party cakes--mainly because not many people want to pay $75.00 to serve 25 guests.
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