Hi everybody, hate to do it but I must ask a pricing question 
This is one of the cakes I will be exhibiting at a bridal expo this weekend and I have no idea about pricing it. I don't know of many places doing commercial stringwork for comparison pricing, any help would be appreciated. This cake has gumpaste flowers, satin stitch embroidery and of course the stringwork. I am in a big city and my pricing starts at $4.50 ps. Thanks!
I don't think I can give you a dollar value for the whole cake, as you haven't given all your sizes and the details about all the other components like flowers etc, but a cake with GP flowers and stringwork takes you into the upper stratosphere of pricing. $10 - $15 a slice is not uncommon for this much work. Multiply that by total number of serves for your cake.
HTH.
I don't think I would price stringwork per serving, but seperately. Like a huge gumpaste flower topper. $200 or the more - depending on cake size. You really can't price stringwork too high - the endless hours that goes into it should be compensated. I know I'd rather not do a cake with stringwork - than do it for cheap. Especially since you can't do it in advance, like with gumpaste flowers.
And the cake is beautiful! Good job.
I don't know the answer to your question, but I love your cake!
I don't think I would price stringwork per serving, but seperately. Like a huge gumpaste flower topper. $200 or the more - depending on cake size. You really can't price stringwork too high - the endless hours that goes into it should be compensated. I know I'd rather not do a cake with stringwork - than do it for cheap. Especially since you can't do it in advance, like with gumpaste flowers.
And the cake is beautiful! Good job.
I agree with this entire post! 
Good luck getting someone willing to pay for the work.
The cake really is gorgeous!
Michele
Many bakeries will price stringwork by the inch. So if you are doing a 8" round in stringwork, you have 25" of stringwork to do. How intricate your design is should drive your per inch price. This is a question I asked of Ms. Randelsome (who does the most amazing extension work) and I believe she said she starts at $3 per inch.
Love your cake!
Thanks for the nice comments on the cake everybody. Just got back from the show and it was amazing!!! When I got home I already had two e-mails asking to schedule design appointments. I handed out about 1000 brochures and I lost my voice about 3 hours into my day but I am very happy with the way things went
I was glad that I thought about the pricing for this cake because the question was asked 100's of times. So thanks again everybody, I count on all of you to act as my "consultants".
Given the fragility of the stringwork, in my experience this is one of those things most brides like to look at but seldom end up ordering it. We price by the inch too and it varies from $2.50-4.50 per inch. I love doing it but it does get trying sometimes and top of that transportation is a mental anguish! Good luck and congratulations on the success of the show.
I agree with Monkees.....of the few people I know who are willing to do this type of work, most charge by the linear inch.
I took a class with Geraldine Randlesome a few years ago and she was charging C$1.50-2.00/inch then for basic, bridged, white stringwork. Prices went up if there was hailspotting, colors, bridgeless, etc.
HTH
Rae
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