My employer asked me to make these buildings in cake. I quoted them a price and they fell off their chairs. I know I am not crazy, nor did I ask too much. They will be cake, not foam, and need to serve about 250 people total. The will be done in fondant. I am just curious what everyone else would charge.

Here is the other building

I have seen where many people are selling there cake with fondant for $5-$6 per serving.
so for 250 people $5/serv is $1,250.00 and $6/serv is $1,500.00. I can't really see charging less than that considering the amount of work that is involved.

For my area, it's about $3-4 for fondant, so a minimum of $750, up to 1000. But that's here....

For this cake I would charge $6-7 per serving so $1500-1700

I'm agreeing wiht the $5- $7 ranges stated above. This is more than just a fondant covered cake ... there is some detailed work going on with these.

A couple of things the client should realize and understand, so be sure you sell these points to them:

(1) It's not a thousand dollar cake. It's enough cake to feed TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! (Take 250 people to Olive Garden and order their Lemon Creme cake at $5.25 each.... the bill will be over $1300. And this is a frozen from the supplier piece of cake ... not a custom designed made-just-for-them piece of cake!)

(2) It's not a pull-it-out-of-the-refrigerated-section-at-the-grocery-store cake. It's a custom designed, made just for you, duplicating an existing building, with lots of details that require special talents and lots of time.

(3) Custom designed cakes of this nature are not slapped together in a couple of hours. I'd even start out with "Estimating at about 30 hours worth of work for these cakes ..... "

Around here is would be 5 to 7 dollars a slice.

I'd be in the $1500-$1800 range.

So are you gonna tell us what your price was?

I quote him $1200 because around here that would be high and they agreed to it but the office staff are floored and cant believe I would charge that much. They have obviously never stayed up all night working on details for a cake before and have no idea what goes into this kind of project.

I knew I wasnt crazy. As always, thanks for the support. And Indydebi, thanks for the Olive Garden analogy, except I used the fact that they were going to have to order dessert from the caterer if they didnt order the cake and dessert per head for 250 people would run them just as much but probably not be as cool as a custom cake. The owners of the company debated and the one decided he wanted it so badly he would pay for it out of pocket.

Wow! Congratulations on your big order! That's exciting. I'm glad you did under price yourself. Please post pics of your final cake when you're done. I know we'd all love to see them. Good luck!

Right now I am struggling with what sizes to make the cakes. This by far is the largest cake I have done and am bit nervous as my boss is a perfectionist. Thanks for the support and feedback.

glad you are getting what you want!!! I can't wait to see the finished product!!!

I think it's sad how amazed people are when you quote them a price for a cake. I have had to lower my usual prices due to the fact that the area we've moved to doesn't have as high a cost of living as some cities.

People really don't understand the amount of blood, sweat and tears (sometimes literally) goes into a custom, detailed cake. Most people just want all the bells and whistles without having to pay for it. They need to understand cakes don't make themselves.

The analogy about the Olive Garden cake is very true and I think it should be copyrighted because every cake designer will be using it (I know I will).
I think in the end, that the price you quoted is very reasonable and I'll pray that the cake comes out better than even you expect!

Congratulations! That is wonderful! I vcan't wiat to see the your final cake!