I have always had a hard time charging what I think is fair for "birthday" cakes as opposed to wedding cakes. And I am learning that most customers are the same way. They don't mind dishing it out for wedding cakes, but birthday cakes ... it just seems ridiculous to them. I also find most birthday cakes, b/c they do have so many fondant details and figures, take more time than most wedding cakes. I try to cut corners and make birthday cakes with cake mixes and weddings from scratch, and try to find a happy medium that I am okay with. I would lOVE to charge $4.oo per serving b/c taht is what I, and YOU, deserve for a cake like you described. But in my town it just wouldnt happen. I would be lucky to get $2.50-$3.00 per serving. I am learning thought that... I need not be afraid to charge what I want!!! All customers are looking for the most for their buck and a huge bargain. If they want to only dish out what the would for a "wal-mart" type cake, but get a ace of cakes cake.... GOOD LUCK!!! Charge what you want or close to it and if the word gets out that your cakes are off the charts.... slowey raise prices. People will pay if your good and it tastes good. I am learning that and in the stage currently of raising my prices. That is just my 2 cents. I hope this helps you. God bless and good luck!

ok so here is the latest saga with the cake.....
got an email first thing this morning and she said that she is sorry that she even mentioned it, and wants the cake NO MATTER WHAT, also not to be insulted....and not to cancel the order....OK so was she just trying to get me to bargain with her, or after me explaining the pricing of the cake, she sees where I am coming from. She apologized more than one time, so I will be doing the cake and for the price quoted $260....Thanks again everyone for all the encouragement and support. It was SOOOO HELPFUL!!! You guys are all the BEST!

You can bet she was trying to get you to come down on your price. That's happened to me more than a few times. As soon as I say "sorry.. I'm now booked for your date" they turn into appologetic little praisers.. "we loved your cakes at the tasting and we REALLY want you to make our wedding cake is there anything we can do?". Which you can translate as "OMG we never thought you would actually book our date now we have to tuck tail and beg because you are the one we wanted.. holy crap we were just trying to weasle some money off the price and now we have no cake". Awwwwwe.. so sowwy.. no cake for you!!

Hopefully this will be the last time you will have to deal with this from her. Can't wait to see the cake!

Jkalman, that's exactly what happened to me recently with the lady who was trying to manipulate me. It's like they think that if they threaten to go somewhere else or that the price is too high, that your life is over. Whatever! I told her a million times that she needed to book asap as her event was 1 week away, and I was already almost booked for the whole weekend. She kept going back and forth, and finally the truth came out - she came out and asked me to reconsider the price. I told her no. The next day, she called and I told her I was booked (I couldn't deal w/ her anymore, she had taken up SOOOO much of my time and I was bending over backwards as it was for her), and I thought for a second she was going to cry. She screwed herself because at that point, it was like 4 days till the event, and she had no where to turn. I couldn't do her order, because I felt there was no mutual trust, and it could've been a huge disaster.

It does sound to me like she called around and couldn't find anyone to do it like she wanted for less money than you are charging. Way to go for sticking to your price! Just to be safe, make her pay in CASH!

Yeah and not to mention she has seen my work, as well as had my cakes. So she knows what she is getting and the quality of work. There was no way that I was budging on the price...Plus if for some reason I lost my mind and thought about doing that...she would have won, or felt like I knew I was overcharging her (which isn't the case). I also don't want to get a reputation that "oh if she quotes you too high, try and cancel..and she will bargain with you.." No thanks! Like people have said on here before...IT IS WAS IT IS...! Thanks again..I will be sure to post the finished project...going to start baking it tonight.