Are My Expectations Too High? Costs Of Ingredients Too Much?
Decorating By calla74 Updated 18 Feb 2009 , 2:04am by calla74
know it is all so tricky, especially when you are starting out. I have recently been doing cake for friend and now friends of friends are asking and although they pay for the ingredients I am still out on electricity, petrol, parking meter costs etc... I find it awkward to say no though at the moment as I still have lots to learn and use this as a chance to practice a bit. The other issue is that if I decide to try and do this properly I am going to have to bite the bullet and pay to go legal which is the best part of £200 for the food safety and public liability.. probably just the start and then I just know that the people that "love my cakes" when they are at less thna cost price are NEVER going to buy them at what would be a true reflection of the price, so who will 
I find it awkward to say no ....
Because women are taught, as little girls, that we are to always be "nice" and not hurt anyone's FEEEEEEEELINNNNNNGS.
look at it this way .... do you want to teach your children that it's "awkward" to say "no" when someone offers them a cigarette, a beer or drugs? Do you want your 14 year old daughter to feel awkward to say "no" when some 16 year old scuz-bag of a teenage boy wants to have sex with her? Or do you want them to learn to say "NO!" loud and clear!!!
Adult women need to learn the same lesson that we want to teach our children.
look at it this way .... do you want to teach your children that it's "awkward" to say "no" when someone offers them a cigarette, a beer or drugs? Do you want your 14 year old daughter to feel awkward to say "no" when some 16 year old scuz-bag of a teenage boy wants to have sex with her? Or do you want them to learn to say "NO!" loud and clear!!!
Adult women need to learn the same lesson that we want to teach our children.
Amen.
look at it this way .... do you want to teach your children that it's "awkward" to say "no" when someone offers them a cigarette, a beer or drugs? Do you want your 14 year old daughter to feel awkward to say "no" when some 16 year old scuz-bag of a teenage boy wants to have sex with her? Or do you want them to learn to say "NO!" loud and clear!!!
Adult women need to learn the same lesson that we want to teach our children.
Amen.
I second that.
And thank my parents profusely for teaching me that it's okay to be (what others perceive as) a loud-mouthed b*itch.
Chutzpah--Oh I love your new avatar.
And the chick in the picture is not bad either.
Thanks for the advice everyone I was really losing hope. I do tend to be a pushover that has a hard time standing up for myself. Part of me thinks "wow, they like my decorating so if I say yes maybe more people will be interested so that IF I ever go pro I would have customers". Of course, in the end I wind up feeling bad because I've taken time off from work and neglected my family for a day (or two). The guilt then leads to me being grumpy and that is probably why my DH has begun to run for the hills when I do have a baking project!
Mommyle - thanks for the spreadsheet. Plugging in my info I definitely spent $40 just on ingredients. I know my family was trying to be nice. I guess I need to stop being so darn sensitive!
Beautiful cake! Calla-
The baby shower cake is gorgeous and awesome? You are worth over $40 if anyone ask the cost to make a cake.
If a family member ask for a cake and will pay me under I always suggest they can try Costco or Sams club or and grocery store that may be at their price range.
Your cake is great!!!!!!!!!!!! Beautiful. I agree it should be about %85-$100....
A $40 cake.... see below 
lol.
A friend of mine from school asked me to make a little wedding for her mom who decided to get married on thurs (she called me the sat before). Just a simple 2 tier.. there were only going to be 3 people in attendence (bride, groom and her).
I really thought a 3 tier would be more wedding, so I kept there design and made it a 3,5,7. Covered in fondant. All in all it didn't take THAT long.. maybe 10 hours (shopping, baking, cleaning, decorating). In fact I should have charged her at least 80, but I was really in the mood to make a cake!
So I paid for ingrediants, and that is about it. But she is a friend and in college, and paid for the cake herself.
I will get flack for this but oh well. If you like making cakes, and feel you need more practice, just have your friends/family pay for ingrediants. Make an itemized list of EVERYTHING you use. Even if you only use 2 t of vanilla. Just guess how much it costs.
I am happy I did the cake, it was nice to get to practice and do a wedding that didn't have lots of pressure. Moral of story, right now...as long as I am not swamped at school, I would make cakes all the time if I didn't have to pay for ingrediants. Just for the practice. My first wedding cake I charge $285 for a 6,8,10 and 2D gooms cake that looked like t-shirt. plus tons of calla lillies. I covered the cost of materials and got paid aboput $150 for 50 hours of work. Part of the time included driving, and researching but still (not to mention on my way to get supplies, I was rearended and my car was totalled....and 4 months later I still have headaches!) Fortunately I was on my way to another job and was covered under workers comp (no need to go into more detail).
I pay alot of money for Sweetex, but I think it makes things so much better. Don't buy crap ingredients beause it will show in the ta
Your cake is beautiful. I agree with everyone else.... "non-cakers" really have no clue how much is involved with decorating a cake. AND, most of them only have the grocery store prices to compare. I agree with Rocketgirl899, I would make cakes all day if I weren't paying for the ingredients. I am still very new to this and really need more practice. I make cakes for practice and take them to church a lot. I am no where near a place for me to take any classes, so I think the money I spend on ingredients to do "practice" cakes.... I would have spent that on a class.
Your cakes are beautiful. I can't believe the PTO asking for cupcakes for 25 cents..... they are just clueless!
oh... so far the best investment I have made Hsterling is Sugarshacks DVDS. I have the BC, fondant and stacking... and am saving for the boxes and bows.
If you are not near classes (and not just wilton...) I would go for the dvds. they are reasonably priced and you get so much info. She takes her time to show you everything!
This is the spread sheet that I use. Feel free to update it (a year old, and I think that prices have gone up a bit since this), and use it to show your family and friends when they say "Oh, I could make that for $10."
Thanks for sharing mommyle!!
I had a VERY similar experience with the third cake I ever made. It was for my best friend's birthday, and at the time it was a really complex cake for me - two tier, covered in fondant with gum paste accents. I was so friggin' proud of that cake!
When I took it to the party everyone "ooh"ed and "ahh"ed over it, and someone said "Wow, you should do this professionally! You could have made $50 on this cake!". I was pissed! I knew how much time it took me to make that cake, and here these people were devaluing my work!
It's what I like to call the I Could Do That Complex. People see an amazing cake and think "I could do that", and subsequently cheapen it in their minds. The saddest part of the whole thing is that friends and family are the most frequent offenders.
P.S. I think your cake is a knock-out!
Y'know, I did actually make 10 dozen decorated sugar cookies for a work bake sale on Friday and sold them for. .25 each.
'course, I used two bags of mix I got at the dollar store that only needed 1 egg and some water, and I decorated them with a bag of grocery store icing that was on sale. 
It was pure profit after the first dozen sold!
....Ok, so they tasted like crap, but then what do you expect from a .25 cookie? 
You get what you pay for...
CeeTee - I had that same idea but I know she is expecting the same level of cookies that I make for all the class parties too. I also considered letting my 4 year old do them but then I had nightmares they would do some sort of acknowldgement in the programs or on stage during the raffle!
I'm thinking I'll still do the cookies for practice but I may just use the same cutter for all 10 dozen and use fondant instead of RI. I also think I'll let her know what they would normally go for and hopefully she'll get the hint to ask more or them. I'm going to use it as practice and consider it a donation. Who knows when or if I'll be able to contribute again. We just got word that they are trying to close our elementary building because of budget constraints 
that and our superintendent/school board have their heads firmly planted up their 
! They want to close our building and build a $13 million new one closer to town and they want a new football field, swimming pool, etc. SO glad they have their priorities straight!
A side note to the cake - I just got a thank you in the mail today with a gift card from the relative that hosted my SIL's shower and she said she was sure it didn't come close to covering my time and cost. She wasn't the one that made the comment but it was still nice to have that acknowledgement.
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