Customer sent following email, I don't know how much to quote for something like this.. the entire thing silver! the knot work..? I usually just do a base price, but this seems more time consuming, do you charge extra for more details? WHat do y'all think?:

What we'd like is a 3 tiered square shaped cake with silver fondant and a pattern of Celtic knot work in burgundy and black that runs along the sides. I will be able to supply you with a pattern of the knot work as well.

As for flavors, we'd like a chocolate hazelnut flavor (think Nutella), but we are definitely open to ideas (we recently had a butterscotch cake that was amazing).

If you have other ideas for what you could do in conjunction with the base elements we'd like to have on the cake, we totally have open minds and are happy to have you exercise creative freedom to suggest some ideas.

The cake will need to be for about 100 people for August.




~Thanks for taking the time to read! CC

Silver fondant? Does she want it painted or airbrushed w/ Silver lustre dust? I would figure the price of a fondant cake and add on the cost and some time for the lustre dust. As for the Celtic I guess it depends how involved it is. Have her send you a pic. Sounds interesting! Good Luck

August? Uh, that's pretty close. They wouldn't procrastinate would they? As for the silver fondant. I would apply gray fondant & airbrush it w/ silver. If you don't have an airbrush you can paint on luster dust, it just won't be as "flawless" b/c of brush strokes.

I would ask for a picture of the knot to be emailed to me so I could see how detailed it would be. You can paint that onto fondant. Just poke holes in the paper & press into freshly applied fondant & it will give you a template. Are they wanting it like a border, one big knot in the center of each side, like a rope of knots (top, middle or bottom of the cake), etc.

As for the cake flavors, do you have a list of flavors offered, do you say you'll work w/ their flavors? It's a scary thing to bake a new cake for someone & it'll be xtra time for you to try a new cake recipe. I would suggest a common flavor cake w/ a "different" flavored filling & maybe icing.

Yes, this would be more than just a base cake. Fondant usually increases a base price by $.75 to $1.25 per serving, depending on who you ask. Painting (if you don't have an airbrush) will be time consuming & have to let it dry. Then handpainting the knot would be a pain.

For my basic. $2/serving = 200 (keep it simple w/ the 100 serv). Fondant = $3/ serving = $300. Handpainting (depending on the knot) at least another $1/serv so $400.

Great info, thanks!!! I've asked to see a picture of the knot design, they want it as a border along the bottom - not sure if that is each tier or just bottom tier. People love to procrastinate don't they!!