Is It Fair To Give A Price After You Make The Cake
Decorating By julzs71 Updated 22 Nov 2009 , 5:02pm by Kiddiekakes
I had a friend call me to ask what her friend should pay a cake decorator. Her friend had gotten married and a co-worker had asked to make a cake for her. The married lady had asked repeated times what the price would be. The cake lady told her I'm not sure I'll tell you later.
In the end the married lady didn't get the cake she wanted. They had 2 layers of styrofoam and then the top cake was real. The married lady had to buy sheet cakes. When the wedding was over she came to her with a price of 260 or 280.
I bake cakes and kinda said sorry about the cake decorators loss. She doesn't deserve 260. It should have been in writing ahead of time. Now it is up to the married lady to give her what she thinks she deserves.
What do you think?
$260 doesn't sound even close to what it woulda been from me anyways. The price of a dummy cake is barely less than real. I'm not charging for the materials so much as my time. Time to decorate the piece of art I'm supplying you. And "had" to buy sheetcakes? Or was told to buy sheetcakes to supplement the fact that part of it was fake, and was agreed upon (probably not known to you) by both parties?
Sounds like someone dropped the ball. Personally I think the person ordering the cake should have stood their ground and said I need a price before hand or I don't want the cake.
And cake lady shouldn't have done the order unless a price had been discussed.
I'm not a professional, but I won't bake a cake with out the price having been agreed to before hand. This just helps from having issues where cake person thinks one price is fair and customer isn't willing to pay that.
Personally if I had ordered a 3 tiered cake that I wanted to be all real cake and I had to order sheet cakes because two of the tiers ended up being styrofoam I wouldn't be happy. Having done dummy cakes I do know that they still take time and shouldn't take off that much from the main cost. It is more the what exactly did she order and what exactly did she agree to and what exactly did she get. Did she know she was getting dummy cakes or was the order for all real cakes? Was it her choice to order the sheet cakes because she asked for dummy cakes, hoping it would be a lot cheaper?
I still think that neither handled the situation very well. If you don't agree to a price before hand how can you really fight about it after ward?
Something is missing from this story for sure. $260.00 for a decorated three tiered cake (regardless of the fact that some was styro) is more than a fair price. I only give a small discount for dummy tiers... they cost plenty and take just as long to decorate. But I am confused... was the decorator supposed to deliver the suplimental cakes too? This is the only circumstance I would say she wasn't owed the money she charged.
Both sides of this story were stupid enough to enter into an agreement without knowing att of the details... so personally I think they only have themselves to blame.
i have to be honest...i don't know anything extra. I live in a different state.
I think the price of the dummy cake w/real on top is a good price. However, I think it isn't very business like to say oh..later and then give someone a 260 dollar bill. I'm thinking she took some wilton classes and it sounded fun for her to do the cake.
Oh I hope she is new to this and wasn't sure how much to charge or how much it would cost her ahead of time. She could have researched though, so that is really no excuse.
I really do think both people are at fault here, but if this 'cake lady' is going to continue doing cakes for people she needs to learn the proper way to handle orders, and that isn't sticking the price tag on after all is said and done.
Something doesnt seem right to me. A price should have neen agreed upon. The bride could come back with a counter offer of $160-$180.
So this cake lady/co worker volunteered to make this cake but didn't know what to charge, so she said "I'll let you know" then did the whole thing and decided what it was worth and then sprang the bill on the "married lady" on delivery? Wow! Why would the "cake lady" go forward on the cake without knowing a price had been agreed on? Why didn't the lady wanting the cake make sure she knew the cost before it went any further than talking? Did the lady want a 3 tiered cake with two being dummies? Unless the base was the real cake that's probably why sheets were needed. Hard to know without more details. Both women are at fault here since the customer should have pressed for the price and the caker lady should have at least done her figures and gotten right back with the price.
Communicate people!!!!! Otherwise please don't crab about the mess you wind up in!
You don't have an accurate story - you are getting it 3rd hand with many details left out. For instance - if the dummy cakes were a surprise (which is implied) when did the bride have time to pick up the sheet cakes? $260 is a great price for a wedding cake - bride must have thought it looked great or you would have been told about that, too. Pay it and be done. Who would ever go into a handshake contract with a price given after the fact? Both parties were very foolish.
It sounds like the bride was unaware she was getting fake cake. Maybe the lady just wasn't experienced enough and felt it would be easier just to use cake dummies. I doubt the bride asked for this since she still had to buy sheet cakes to feed her party.
Nothing has been said about the number of servings the lady wanted. Sounds to me like they didn't discuss anything about this cake other than "I want a cake" and "hey, I can make one". If the bride doesn't have any more sense she deserves to have to pay up. And if the cake maker isn't any smarter then she deserves to eat the cost of the cakes. If the bride wanted more servings than the real cake provided and got a lot of dummy cake instead then she ought to pay for the real cake and the caker chalks it up to being stupid about business. This really sounds too stupid to be real.
Someone said "Too bad stupidity isn't painful" and sometimes I agree.
if the dummy cakes were a surprise (which is implied) when did the bride have time to pick up the sheet cakes?
good one!
Yep, exactly. Which makes me wonder if she asked for dummy tiers thinking they would be next to nothing, and went out and bought cheap sheet cakes, then got a surprise when, hey dummy cakes really aren't that much cheaper.
if the dummy cakes were a surprise (which is implied) when did the bride have time to pick up the sheet cakes?
good one!
Yep, exactly. Which makes me wonder if she asked for dummy tiers thinking they would be next to nothing, and went out and bought cheap sheet cakes, then got a surprise when, hey dummy cakes really aren't that much cheaper.
Yep---much more to this story than probably meets they eye! 
Just when you think you've heard it all...............
Yep, this all should have been settled well in advance of the wedding.
At the beginning, if the cake lady couldn't/wouldn't give a price, then the bride should have gone elsewhere. I won't even haggle with someone who can't give me a firm price right away, let alone proceed with a purchase without knowing down to the last dime how much it will cost me.
If they continued this awkward dance right up to the day of the wedding, then they're both ostriches with their heads in the sand.
If the bride knew, in advance, that part of the cake was styro and that she'd need sheet cakes, I feel that she's on the hook for the entire amount. It is a good price for a WELL DECORATED 3 tier dummy.
If, on the other hand, the dummies were completely unexpected and there was a rush to Wally World for cake servings, then I think the cake lady should be docked a fair amount of change--both for the cost of the cakes as well as the stress and discomfort of having to scramble at the last minute.
Rae
That's weird....what decorator wants her money AFTER the wedding, anyhow? What's to stop the bride from running off and leaving her hanging, technically?
A brand new first wedding cake ever cake decorator might not know any better, as well as not know what to charge. We see it here all the time.
Why am I suspicious that this is another hoax?
Someone said "Too bad stupidity isn't painful" and sometimes I agree.
Oh, so true, so true...
Two things come to mind ...
"Stupid is as stupid does."
... and, from a Cdn. comedian who's name escapes me at the moment ...
"Everytime you do something stupid, you should get an ice cream headache. That would solve a lot of confusion about who's stupid and who isn't. [adding my own text now] Hey, I'll bake you a wedding cake and tell you the price after the wedding. OUCH! Sure, I'll pay you whatever you want. OUCH!"
Two things come to mind ...
"Stupid is as stupid does."
... and, from a Cdn. comedian who's name escapes me at the moment ...
"Everytime you do something stupid, you should get an ice cream headache. That would solve a lot of confusion about who's stupid and who isn't. [adding my own text now] Hey, I'll bake you a wedding cake and tell you the price after the wedding. OUCH! Sure, I'll pay you whatever you want. OUCH!"
LOL Amen!!!
Hmmmm...take my car into the dealer to have work done on it.... Not given a price or anything to tell me how much it is going to be to fix 
Na.....I think I wanna know up front! Same with any cake I do...I give you a price and you decide if you want it or not!
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