I am doing my first topsy turvey cake this weekend. I am having trouble with the pricing. I charge $30 for a three layer decorated 9" round cake. It looks like it will take two recipes of cake batter, so I would think $50. Then I think about the extra boards and support for the stacking of tiers. Ofcourse, there is the problem of this being my first, so I usually give a discount for my trail runs. Uhggg... It would almost be easier to give them away!
I've never made a TT cake, but I think this is an example of a cake that can't be priced just by a serving price unless you build in all the extra work involved. I think these cakes would fall into the carved cake category, where you really price it more for the work and time involved, and less for a flat-price-per-serving. If I ever do one, I'd add an extra labor fee for the design for just these reasons.
I charge $1.50 more per serving for a topsy turvy than a regular fondant cake. It works out well to account for the carved part (but there isn't too much loss in them, just time) and they always have extra fondant work, all the little balls for the border or whatever you plan on doing.
I start TT cakes at $7/serving (my carved cake price) and I only do them in fondant. If they are highly detailed the price goes up. My TT cakes have 6" high tiers with 3 layers of cake and 2 layers of filling. So you have 50% more cake to start with.. you then carve some away.. so you are left with about the same amount of cake you would have with a normal cake of the same size.. say you have an 8" tier.. it is normally 20 servings.. add 50% you have 30 servings.. then you carve it and you are left with ~ 20 servings.
There is more work involved doing a cake like this than there is with a normal cake. Make sure you cover your time and blood sweat and tears.. 
I only do cakes for family and friends, so my advertising is by word of mouth. It seems that all my cakes are, "Do you think there is anyway you could do me a cake this weekend??? Please...I would have called ealier, but time just got away from me..." I'm a big softy. 
You'll lose that softness soon enough.. 
.. when you get sick of rushing to make cakes that would have been a LOT less stressful with more time to plan. Good luck with your cake!! Be sure to let us know when you post the picture!
I got the cake finished in plenty of time. It looked cool, or "tight" as the birthday girl put it. I charged $100, because I was unsure if I could pull it off. My only problem was with my MMF bubbling. How do you get it to lay flat on the butter cream?
You did a great job!! And way underpriced. Glad the birthday girl liked it!
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