I have been taken advantage of in the past (hence the earlier postings I did).

eldag0615 I so want to see a picture of the cake. You cant mess up chocolate cake. MMMMM now I want cake. LOL

Opps, it did not attach, let me try again. Also, a friend of my other sister, from church wants a cake for her parents 50th. anniversary, for 275 servings, when she called me she sounded so humble and told me she was looking for something simple and not too expensive . I told her to come over to look at designs, etc. but (my mistake) I told her if it was simple, buttercream, just simple borders and simple filling like the premade they sell, I could sell it for $1.50 serving (kill me), she came, and what she wanted was all fondant with drapes, gumpaste flowers, you name it she wanted that, told her she could not afford that, then she asked for one that is on a wilton book, it has 800 pansies with gold dragees in the middle, a big gumpaste bow and some other fondant accents, I told her for being my sisters friend, I would charge her $4.00 serving, she wanted things changed and I have to make a lot of fondant pearls and dust them with gold pearl dust, she asked what about in buttercream? I told her $3.00 I still have to make the bow and the flowers plus the extras for breakage, etc. and she wanted to be delivered to Mexico, like 1 hour away from where I live. I told her I could take it (poor DH), for extra $100.00 (double kill me) then showed her HEB prices and they charge 3.00/mile for the first 5 miles then 2.00 each extra, up to 15 miles. She said she wanted to consult with her sisters and would be back with me and asked me for a copy of the pic. silly me I gave it to her, that was in november and have not heard from her again, my DH wanted to kill me when I told him 100.00 for delivery to mexico. Well, I don't think I"ll get that order but if I do, I will change the delivery fee, since this is a new year. She wants it for February. The thing is since I am not that used to charge what is right, stupid prices come to my mind and my big mout speaks before I think, my DH says that eventhough I love making cakes that does not mean I have to work for free or people I don't know. I have not made a lot of big cakes, but I know I CAN, but people want to pay Walmart prices, so, no, I will keep practicing and time will tell. I can't attach the pic.

Alvarezmom, let me see, here I go again, I resized it, hope it works, No, I can't, I can resize it more. I tried to send it to your email but I did not see anything to send attachments. I can email directly to you if you want. my email address is : [email protected]

eldag0615 I just emailed you with my email address.

Exactly, she told them next time to order it from me, which they have done in the past and they have the budget to do it, don't know why this time they didn't, or she will take the disposable plates or forks. They were expecting one like the other ones with coyote paws and fondant coyotes, since that is their mascot, I am so sorry I can't post the pic. of what they got, it is hilarious.Maybe I am doing something wrong and I am just "posting" challenged. Maybe I can send it to someone that can post it for me?

I just sent it to you. alvarezmom, maybe you can post it.

Let me try....brb

Let's see

I learned my lesson a while back about those so called friends. At this point I even charge DH for cakes. I only give him $5 off just like the rest of the close relatives. That is because he likes to give cakes away to his co-workers. Someone at his job will do him a favor and then ask for a cake in return and he says yes. They don't even order like they used to because he is giving them away! So he has to pay up since he wants to give away my services.

YAY Elda we did it! LOL It took some time but I got them to attach.

Thank you, thank you alvarezmom, you have to tell me how you did it. So, what do you think? they still ate everything, and I bet it tasted good also, afterall IS Chocolate

I had to save it several times in order for it to save as a jpg doc and not a webpage. Some times docs are weird like that. The strawberries in the 1st pic are much bigger. That probably would have helped your sister out and if she had left the leaves on them. For some reason it gives it a nicer look????? But yes, chocolate is chocolate is chocolate is chocolate!

I have only run into this problem once and that is when I offered to make my best friend's daughter's birthday cake. They saw the one I made for my daughter (I certainly couldn't afford to buy a two-tier stacked cake with fondant decorations) and really liked it. So, two months before her birthday, I offered to do hers and they were very excited. My friend wanted to pay me for ingredients before I even started making the cake (she's a gem!). I told her since I offered, there was no cost. (They loved the cake BTW). Her daughter is graduating 8th grade in June. I told her if they wanted, I would make her graduation cake--again, I offered. She is already insisting on paying for ingredients or she will not let me make it. So, I told her, first one is totally free; second one, she can pay for ingredients. This girl is my closest and oldest friend (since kindgergarten), so we will fight over the cost of ingredients at a later date--this would be like charging my sister--don't know if I could do it. Some of her relatives at the party asked what a cake like that would cost--their jaws dropped when I told them. I would be happy to make cakes for my friends relatives--they are not getting her discount, however!

You're right; that chocolate cake is hilarious! I'm going to be giggling the rest of the night!

Dlinnane, I told you, and I am not making fun of my DS, she is an EXCELLENT accountant and Asst. Principal, after dealing with more than 2,000 at her school plus the duties she has to cover like chaperoning the school dances, etc, she does not have the time to make anything else, besides whatever I know on how to use a computer, she taught me, she even knows the basic on computer maintanence! She does not let ANYONE touch her computers.She loves computers and eating the cakes not making them. She could easily have ordered one but wanted to teach them a lesson. I just got an idea, I want to make her a cake in the shape of a computer, my next challenge. I have to look for any ideas and surprise her.

OOops, when I said she has to deal with 2000, I meant 2000 students. I love my sister dearly.

Thank you NCmomof3boys, I will.

OMG! I have the same prob, over here... my DH employee's just told me at a employee meeting, "Oh, yeah, BTW, now we know who to go to for FREE cake and FREE cake orders!".. I almost fell to the floor....
I had asked, "Really?, who volunteered my FREE services?". I then told them the same thing everyone else says, the advise thing,, "You have to pay for your cake, unless I offer it for free to you"..

I told DH, there is NO free cake... employee or not, they gotta pay, unless I donate it..

Unreal, peoples can be............they still don't get it that it cost $$$$$ for all the supplies......and the time to decorate, etc....

Happy Baking.........

A good friend of mine called me this weekend and her son had gotten engaged the day after Christmas. She told me that she definitely wants me to do the groom's cake and they are going to have a co-ed shower and wants me to do a fun cake for the shower. She has no control over the wedding cake but recommended to the bride's mother and they were excited when they learned that I do fondant since they want a fondant-covered cake. So, my friend was getting prices and wanted to know what I charge so she could pass it along. I gave her a "real" price for a fondant, tiered cake.

Later, my hubby and I are in the car and talking about the conversation with my friend. Since I had the phone on speaker and he was in the room, he could hear most of it. We were talking about the cost of the cake and he said that he was listening to make sure that I quoted enough. We had talked before about the last wedding cake and some things I had forgotten about that I didn't charge for. He wanted to make sure I charged this time. Nope, I don't have to worry about him asking me to make something for free or giving a discount.

tracycakes-your hubby sounds like a good guy to me!