Please Help - First Real Customer Order
Decorating By aaversa Updated 10 Oct 2007 , 1:20am by QueenB4U
Hi
I have my first real customer (not family) order!! Im so nervous and I have a couple of questions. This is what they told me; they want a sheet cake, theyre having 50 adults and 20 children for their sons 5th birthday party. They want a Red Sox theme.
I would love to do a 3-D fenway park cake like this one midialjoje did: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=669533
1.What size cake would I need for that many people?
2.What would a cake like that cost for that many people?
I really want to do my best with this one since the mom said shell be telling everyone where she got the cake.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
That cake is really cute. If you did a cake like that it looks more square than "sheet". I wiuld just PM whoever made the cake you like and ask them how many it fed and the dimensions. I'm sure they would be happy to help. You might also want to consider a jersey cake. I just did 2 Detroit Tigers jersey's for a friend and everyone loved them! For those you use a sheet pan. Hope that helps 
Wow...I would say it would be hard to make a cake like that ball park cake to feed that many people. That is a LOT of people! Maybe you could make a cake similar to that one, and then place it on top of a sheet cake...that would feed more people....and I think it would look impressive too.
Well, as cakemom said, the size is pretty iffy since most of the middle of the cake has been removed. Perhaps if you placed the Fenway cake on top of a larger solid sheet cake. That would give you enough cake to serve while keeping the 3-D Fenway cake that you like.
Below are a couple of links from Wilton that give baking and cutting/serving guides for a 2" and 3" cake:
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/party_2inch.cfm
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/party_3inch.cfm
Pricing depends on many factors, such as area of the country, competition, etc. I'm not much help there.
Hello aaversa,
I hope that this helps you. I usually charge $ 50.00 for a half of a sheet cake which is 12 x 18 and it usually serves between 50-70 people. I haven't however looked at the picture that you are going to be going off of but you have to think about your time, the price of the ingredients and then I usually double that price to come up with the total and if you fancy ingredients than you need to add that in too. Don't undercut yourself....if they really like your cake and your work they WILL come back for more...
Good luck
Ashea
I would take two square cakes and then stack them. Only carve down as much as needed to create stadium. I would probably figure that cake to be big enough to feed 50 adults and then make a coordinating 20 serving cake for the kids. Just a suggestion.
I kind of guesstimate serving size. I usually take whatever they tell me they need to serve and make a cake that I think will serve more people than that. I need to get this together before it bites me in the bum!
Thanks everyone for the suggestions on size. I think I'll end up doing a smaller fenway park cake on top of a sheet cake.
But I'm still at a loss for cost. I checked a few bakeries and the prices range so much. At the local grocery store a two layer sheet cake is $55 and at a nice bakery her starting price for a sheet cake is $150!
I want to make sure I charge enough but don't want to quote a price that will scare them away - especially since this might bring me new business.
I was thinking I'd say for $100 I would do a sheet cake with a smaller fenway park on top. If that's too much for $75 I'll just decorate the sheet cake and not do the fenway cake....what do you think?
Thanks and sorry for all the questions...
Ok, so I spoke with the customer and he said he'd like the sheet cake with the fenway park cake on top. *yikes* He agreed to pay $100 
Now I'm nervous about the dementions of the cake - how big should the base cake be and how big should the carved fenway cake be? We both agreed that everyone isn't going to eat cake, but I want to make sure there's enough.
Anyone? thanks
Well, first I would contact midialjoje and see if they will give you the size of their Fenway cake. That would give you an approximate size for the Fenway portion.
As far as the sheet cake goes, the Wilton link I gave above says that a 3" high sheet cake serves as follows:
9 x 13 = 45
11 x 15 = 60
12 x 18 = 72
So, a Fenway cake on top of an 11 x 15 sheet will serve well over the 70 estimated guests.
However, I suggest you start with how big the Fenway part is going to be.
Good luck!
My 9x13 is more like 1 1/2 incehes high and I say it feeds 20.
Well this weekend I made the cake. It was 22x16 and had a carved Fenway park on top. There were quite a few lessons learned with this one but overall it went well. The one thing I will never do again is stack a cake without any support. While I was delivering this I was watching it fall apart! Thank god I brought a "repair kit".
The little boy and his parents loved it so I was thrilled. Thanks everyone for your help on this one.
here's a link to the photo:
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1129773
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