Another "how Much" Question - Help Please
Decorating By mscrivener Updated 3 Jun 2009 , 7:12pm by cylstrial
Hi everyone. I am very new to cake decorating and I recently made a cake for a distant relative's twin boys first birthday (thats a mouthful). I made the cake essentially in trade since she is a budding photographer and had done some beautiful newborn portraits of my daughter at no charge. She loved the cake and a friend who saw a pic in my relative's blog post has asked if I could price making a similar cake for her... although I'm glad shes not asking for something free, I have no idea what to say. Any advice would be appreciated. The base was 12" and the top is 6" both were modified pkg cakes; all covering and decoration is MMF or 50/50 with gumpaste. I realize it is somewhat dependent on pricing in the area but there really isn't anyone in the area that seems to do cakes aside from driving to a larger centre about 1.5 hours away or the grocery store slab cakes. Any advice would be appreciated!
- but I would like to say that this cake is amazing!! Welcome to CC and I think we will probably be seeing a lot of you!
That is so good! I love the way that you did the grass! I have never seen anyone do that. Is it just the little flower cookie cutter from wilton cut in half? Your creatures are amazing as well! I would say you should charge somewhere between 3.50 and 4.00/slice (people on here will probably say that's on the low side).
that is freaking cute. i am just getting the hang of the pricing thing although i don't go by serving cuz that doesn't really make sense to me,lol. i figure cost to make and doub;e that plus some for labor depending on the work involved. somthing like that would take a lot of time to make all those little critters. i'm guessing the cost to make would have been around 25? plus utilities and dish soap 
that cake is very involved to i wouldn't go less than 100-150. i know that prob sounds low to a lot of the others out there, but that's pretty much what i would charge. if the person thinks that is high, you can explain to her that home -baked cakes are way more costly to make than store bought. so this will be your first sell right? well congrats on that!
here's what i started out with... my first sell i charged 75 and actually thought that was high, but after it was all said and done i only made like $5 profit and it was a lot of work. it's the pink and black with feathers cake in my photos. the next one i charged 35 (she gave me 40) and that was the small pink skull cake. still not a profit because of the ingredients. the alice and spider man cakes were for a friend so i didn't charge her labor. she gave me 140 and that about covered supplies and all so i wasn't put out. sooo... havn't made any profit yet, but at least i've been getting some experience the next one i'm charging 200 and i was afraid customer was going to be offended but she was actually fine with it.
sorry this got so long
Hi,
Love your work!
I recently purchased the cake boss program, and I think its a great buy.
It helps with pricing(cost per, keeps customer lists,etc..)
If you want to spend $89.10- I think its worth it..
Thanks everyone for the advice ... and the compliments don't hurt either! lol . I'm just on mat leave right now so selling is just a little "icing on the cake" (bad pun I know) for me so I don't think I'd want to invest in software right now unless I start taking things a bit more seriously but its good to know it's out there.
Cylstrial - fyi, you're right, the grass border is the wilton daisy cut in half,,, it made quick work of it which, after the time everything else took, was great 
Cylstrial - fyi, you're right, the grass border is the wilton daisy cut in half,,, it made quick work of it which, after the time everything else took, was great
Thanks! That's what I thought. It is really a great way to make grass. And I would NEVER have thought of it! I just loved it all the way around! 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%