Do You Offer Smbc Or Imbc For Wedding Cakes?
Business By mrsright41401 Updated 24 Nov 2006 , 2:36pm by Price
And if you do, do you charge more for it?
Rachel
I admit, I'm a newbie, so I have to ask... what is smbc and imbc?
Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Italian Meringue Buttercream
I use Italian Meringue buttercream on all of my cakes other than chocolate. Even a thin coat of it under fondant. I charge $4.50 per serving for all cakes but really should up that a bit for fondant. I do charge extra for gumpaste flowers, fondant bows etc.
I only use the Swiss meringue and yes, I charge more for my cakes. The only cakes I'll use a powdered sugar-based icing for is maybe a kid's birthday cake. I really like Toba Garrett's "decorator's buttercream" recipe...it's sweet, but not sickeningly so and it pipes well. Once people taste a true buttercream (I don't know how anyone can call an icing made with crisco "buttercream"), they never want to go back! My 9" rounds, without any fancy decoration, start at $40. Half sheets start at $50.
I use IMBC on my wedding cakes. I charge $2 per serving, and found out at my last wedding that I'm cheaper than Publix. Uggg...and that's after I raised my prices last year! 
My children's birthday cakes use CBC and most of my old fahsioned yummy cakes have cream cheese icing. A three layer, 9" is $25 from me.
Once people taste a true buttercream (I don't know how anyone can call an icing made with crisco "buttercream"), they never want to go back!
Not necessarily so, if I may say. I have made SMB before and actually had a couple of people say that they didn't like it. That they preferred the taste of the Crisco based icing.
We should never say never because not everyone has the same tastes. Regardless of what we think of other icings, made with Crisco or not, people have the last say on what they like.
I don't have a problem trying different icings. I myself prefer the taste of Italian Meringue Buttercream.
I am not a business but to answer the question, if I was, I would charge more for SMB and IMBC.
I would definitely charge more for the IMBC/SMBC. I have never made them before and have been looking for new icing recipes...I just went over to the recipes on this site and the ones that I read are a lot of work.
If anyone uses the recipes on this site, pleeeaaassse rate them...does anyone have a favorite IM/SM BC recipe? 
I would love to try it!!
Sugarlaced, I've used Sylvia Weinstock's Italian Meringue Buttercream and its wonderful! The recipe is on this site.
The Swiss Meringue Buttercream I tried once I got it from the internet but didn't do again since I found Italian Meringue to be easier to do.
I bake and decorate as a hobby, but I also would charge more for the IMBC if I was selling it! It is more expensive and more time consuming to make! For curiosity sake I have made myself a small pricing matrix, just to see how much it cost for all of these cakes I give away! The IMBC cost me about $3.75 more to make than a regular BC. That's just for the ingredients. I doesn't take into account my extra time and energy!
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