So this lady wants this cake....For 15 people.... I am guessing the smallest I should do each block is 6", x 4 blocks. So right there that is a minimum of what...32 servings? Should I just let her know that if she wants that cake she has to pay for that many servings and see if maybe she changes her mind?

What would you charge for a cake like this????

Well, I don't really charge for cakes, but I would say, yes, she needs to pay for all of the servings she's going to get - even if it's more than she needs.

But - in my experience, perfectly square cakes are a nightmare. I've done baby blocks twice - hardest cakes I've ever done to get them square and to stack right. I hate them!

You could try making just three blocks instead of four to cut down on the size, though, just maybe stack them a bit differently.

Good luck.

i agree she needs to pay for what she gets. you can reduce the number of blocks you make to meet the number of people it will serve.
im sure if she hears that she needs to pay for 30+ servings and is only having half that many people she might go smaller.
good luck!

Industry standard servings are 1x2x4, so if you make each block 6x6x4, that's 18 servings per block and for 4 blocks that's 72 servings total. I'd charge $180 ($2.50/serving). How many servings does she actually need? 15? That's nuts! She only needs ONE block to serve 15 people.

Yeah a cake like that is not based on the number of servings - she wants it because it looks good! It can sometimes be even more time consuming to try and downsize a design, just as much work for less money! If she only wants a small cake, I personally would steer her toward something like an 8" with little fondant blocks on top as decoration. Same sort of colours etc, but not so extravagant for 15 people! JMO - maybe she has cash to burn! Dont sell yourself short!

Baby blocks are a serious PTA! So hard to get smooth and clean edged. My baby block cake was one of the first I ever did, nearly drove me around the bend. My blocks were small though, cut 9 blocks out of a 9" cake. So if you are going to do this cake make sure you charge accordingly, it takes a long time to do.

Are you saying that if she has to pay for each serving, she may change her mind, and you will lose the order, and you don't want that to happen? If that's the cake she wants and that's what the servings come out to, then that is how many servings she has to pay for. I don't work for free, nor do I give away extra servings, just to keep an order.

Well a block needs to be square right? So three 4x4x4s would serve 24? So I'd charge 24 x $8. They are every bit the pia that we all have already mentioned upthread. Seems so easy but so not!

It's a sculpture with 15 nice smooth surfaces to produce/maintain and decorate individually and then you gotta stack it.

Huge engineering endeavor. Crazy huh. So I think that's right about $200 plus delivery.

Thanks, k8, for pointing out that to make a square you need 3 layers, not 2.

Just for illustration, here's how I'd do the math if it was my order.

Fondant = $4.50/serving.

6" square serves 18. But that's based on a 2-layer cake. with a 3-layer cake, they are getting 50% more cake in each of the 18 servings, so my price per servings would be 50% more. $4.50 x 50% = $2.25 + the original $4.50 = $6.75/serving.

three blocks of 18 servings each = 54 servings x $6.75/serving = $364.50.

you want bells and whistles? you get to pay for them.

Curiously .... what did she say she expected to pay for cake?

I was also going to say you could do 4x4x4's.

I've only done baby blocks for family and it was part of my gift to them because nobody wants to pay that much for them here.
It's a great cake but please make sure you charge enough for them, they do take a lot more time then you realize.
Jodi

This is a little hard to explain, but here goes. Make 2 8 inch square cakes and stack them on top of each other. (four inches high) then cut 1/4 of the cake off. Leave the other 3/4 intact. This way you are making 4 4 inch blocks, but the other 3 will just be made to look like they are separated by decorating them that way. They still are together. Then decorate the last block and put it on top with dowels and all that. Can anyone jump in here and explain this better. It still is quite a bit of cake, but will be easier.

Oh yeah - that's brilliant! Doesn't cut down on the number of servings, no - but wish I had thought of that for the last one I did!

Oh and I should have said, make sure to freeze the cake before you start to decorate it so that you have less crumb mess and can easily handle the
little one.

Just wanted to offer an alternative. This one was 6X6X4 (so not perfectly square blocks). The bottom two were cake and the top was a dummy, therefore there was no need to dowel.

So I just wanted to post that she got back to me with her budget...... $50! HAHAHAHAHAHA

I just thought I would share that cause it amused me

hahahahahahaha - it amused me too!!!!

But you wait - the next call will be "But why cant you just make a smaller version?"