My neighbor ordered a soccer ball cake for her significant other's birthday last month. I charged her $30 and she didn't bat an eye. It was the Wilton ball pan (1 cake mix size), white cake, fresh strawberry filling and bc (star patterned soccer ball).

Now she wants to order a baby shower cake for a co-worker - 20 servings, white cake w/ raspberry filling and buttercream. She was going to go to Candyland Crafts (Somerville NJ) to see if they had chocolate bees that she could possibly put on wires to have them circling the cake, but I told her I could make them from either fondant or chocolate clay. Also, the recipient will be using the Honey Bee crib set (from Babies R Us) so she wanted to know if I could incorporate any of those elements.

Here's what I'm thinking of telling her, as far as pricing, but would like opinions from you experts out there (just for demographics, we're in the Far Hills section of NJ).

White Cake w/ raspberry filling (20 servings) = $85 (includes fondant covered board painted green and white plaid with black and white around the perimeter)

Five fondant bees ($1.50 ea.) = $7.50
-of-
Five chocolate clay bees ($2 ea.) = $10
(I'll place these on wires and she can place them into the cake immediately before serving - I'll recommend using coffee stirrers in which to insert the wires, so they don't touch the cake).

I'll be using the Wondermold pan on top of a nine inch round. I'm assuming, due to the fact that I'm using a fruit filling, I should have the wondermold cake on it's own board and dowel the lower cake to prevent sliding. Opinions, please?

I would say that is a fair price. It's about 4.25 per serving. Not bad. Good luck it sound like it's going to be pretty.

I'm not from your area but it sounds more than fair. Hope you get the order.

Thanks, Karema.

I hope it turns out well. I would feel more confident if she had requested fondant, especially since she's bringing it to her office.

maybe insert the straws and she can just stick in the wires before serving.

just an idea.

Okay, she e-mailed me today and said that she was flipping the bill for this and wasn't getting too many rsvp's so she just couldn't spend that much right now. She's decided instead to go with a 1/4 sheet cake to look like the pillow.

So I quoted her a price of $50 for the white cake, raspberry filling, bc and fondant accents.

Hey Sugar_Plum_Fairy, you got your hair cut! I almost didn't know that was you!

I like it alot! It's funny how you get used to seeing someone's avatar and it really messes me up when it changes!

I might need to change mine and throw someone off!

Hey Sugar Plum Fairy!

I did a very similar cake with fondant and gumpaste bees circling the cake with wires that were curled. It came out really nice. The picture is in my gallery of the beehive cake. PM me if you need any help or advice. One of my bee wings broke when I set up but other than that it was so cute I thought

Haha thanks so much! I am hoping I can do another one, one day. I love cartoon-y looking cakes. Recently I have been trying to emulate design from The Whimsical Bakehouse. Love their stuff! It's really amazing what you can do in white chocolate. It is like the perfect way to scribble like a kid haha!