Am I Pricing This Correctly? Please Help
Decorating By andiesweet Updated 11 Oct 2007 , 8:02pm by andiesweet
Ok I have a bride( my daughters teacher) that is having a cocktail style reception and wants to do a dummy cake for her pics with petit fours passed on trays for dessert. I have never done petit fours before, (and from what I have read on here I don't want to lol. ) so i was thinking i would try to steer her toward cake truffles instead. cover some in choc., some in white choc decorate each with their initial or a heart or something. I know that the truffles will be easier for me to do and i can give her a variety of flavors which is somehting else she is interested in.
OK here are the questions that I have:
How many truffles should I allow per serving? ( I was thinking 3 each)
How much should I charge? I was thinking $12/doz My DH says that I should try for $15/doz since they will be decorated and is for a wedding.
I was thinking of charging $50. for the dummy.
If I can get her to go for the truffles is $3 a fair price for a 3in single torted mini cake decorated with initial or heart?
The cake truffle idea sounds wonderful. Unless I'm totally off, I'm with your husband and would think $15/doz would be fair since each one would be customized. That would be just over $3 per person (3 pieces per person) and for the detailed work involved for indiv. desserts it would be a bargain! I like the idea of the monogram - very elegant.
What size will your dummy be? Is $50 enough to cover supplies and your time since it will take the same amount of time to decorate as a regular cake? It seems a little on the low side unless it is a very small dummy cake.
I just purchases some dummies from dallas foam ( GREAT prices) to have for practice and to take pics of for portfolio. I would be able to reuse them, and since know one is eatingis i could use all shortening icing for it. I was going to make a10, 8, 6. Do you think $75 sounds better?
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1061703.html
These are 3inches round by 2 inches high. They are torted and filled, crumbcoated with buttercream and then covered with Satin Ice fondant.
They were a hugh hit. I made one per person, I charge $3.00 each for these.
I can't help you with the price for the dummy, sorry
Jibbies
$75 for a 3 tiered cake? Dummy cake or not.. no way. It will still take you the same amount of time to decorate as a real cake.. and most of the cost in a cake is for the time you put into decorating it. I hate it when people think "oh it's not real cake so it has to be cheap". I'd charge the same for a dummy cake as I would for a real one.
So you take 10-8-6 which is about 65 servings.. multiply by what I would normally charge and there's the price.. the petite fours or cake truffles are all more. So for a modestly decorated cake covered in fondant.. that's $4.00 per serving.. that's a $260.00 cake (dummy or not).
This is where the brides get the misconception that a dummy cake is cheaper than a real cake.. not from me it isn't. It's all about the time you put into it not if there's styrofoam in there.
I definitely wouldn't charge less than $75 - that works out to about $1 per serving if it were a real cake for that price. And I would do that if it's a simple design nothing too labor intensive for you that will take a lot of time. If there is a lot of work involved I would think about at least $125. I'm sure there are other CC'ers who have done dummy wedding cakes that might have more advice.
Just something to think about - have you discussed with the bride getting the dummy cake back? I would just make it clear or have it in the contract that you get it back. I've heard of some brides wanting to keep it and better to have that clarified on the front end. And will you get a deposit from her to guarantee that you get it back?
I did tell her that I want the dummy back. She is my daughters teacher so I'm sure she will return it.
Maybe will charge moe for the dummy because i had planned on giving her a discount anyway.
Also, does anyone else give a referral discount to their customers? Like $10 off thier next cake if they send an order my way? Am I crazy to do this? I just want to get some orders...
I did tell her that I want the dummy back. She is my daughters teacher so I'm sure she will return it.
Maybe will charge moe for the dummy because i had planned on giving her a discount anyway.
Also, does anyone else give a referral discount to their customers? Like 10% off thier next cake if they send an order my way? Am I crazy to do this? I just want to get some orders...
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