Okay Cc's I need some help here I am going to make a cake for barter from my hair stylists . Now normally I have no problem these days prcing MY OWN CAKES , but ....... She has sent me a 4 tiered pink box cake {lol} Now I have never bought a pink box cake so I would like to know about how muc hthis cake is worth so I can let her down gently that , my hair cut and highlight def won't make an equal trade for such an ambitous cake ?? So can some of you all give a guess of what I should tell her this cake costs ?? I am a hobby baker that only makes cakes for friends / family / and the occcasional client . Thanks for your help {{ please no negative feed back about pricing , I really just need to know how much a cake likethis costs , I have an idea but I want to know for sure . }

Why don't you contact the Pink Cake Box and ask her?

This cake if a 6x8x10x12 wonky would serve 155

My price per serving for a fondant level 3 cake is $9 per serving so $1395.

I think Pink Box has a minimum of $250 base price for any of their cakes. I'm sure this one is well above that, since it's topsy turvy AND 4 tiers...

Cakesdivene, Thank you : I didn't want to contact PinkBox bakery I figured they may not give me a direct price {due to competition } But I to assume it would be at least 700 .

Greengryle that's what I was looking for exactly , so I can tell her just to order from them would automatically be 250.00 {assuming} that way she has a much better understanding when I tell her we need to sacle it dwon lol

Thanks for your help , I will Email her now !!

or you could just make it and ask to keep the difference in credit for the future? I'm sure you get your hair done at least a few times a year, or there are manicures, etc...

this baker (i think she's a CC member too) has her prices on her site... show her this if she won't believe you.... (props to this baker--i'm not sure who you are, sorry!--your cakes are awesome too! )

I'm guessing between 700-1200

Thank you Sugarmama good advice, and my___squared very positive feed back thanks --

if you contact them they will tell you exactly how much the cake is.. do a form online.. they get back to you within 12 hours... that cake is my guess at least 1500.00.... they are pretty pricey!!! I have contacted them about cakes before and they are not cheap!!!

I think it's pretty irrelevant what PinkCakeBox charges for that cake. Are your cakes up to par with theirs? Are you in the same market? If not, then it doesn't matter. How much would it cost for you to interpret the design? You don't have to do the entire 4 tier cake, but maybe make your own interpretation of it in a smaller form, unless of course, your hair stylist NEEDS a cake that big.

The design doesn't look that difficult, but it does have a lot of elements and it takes time to carve the topsy turvy cakes and get your fondant work "clean". If you know how you price your own cakes then coming up with a price for this one shouldn't be that difficult.

Yes... they will give you a quote. You are in Texas.. they are in New Jersey. It's not like you are direct competition. Plus... Anne is a sweetheart.

I am betting that it is well over $1000.00 to get that cake from The Pink Cake Box.

Assuming that you don't do this for a living and you just want to do it as a favor to her??? I live in Mississippi, and while people will pay a good bit for wedding cakes, they won't seem to give up as much money for birthday cakes - even though I constantly get requests for 3 and 4 tiered 1st birthday cakes for kids, and especially 16th birthdays.

Much of the time - if they don't need that many servings - you can use "dummy" or styrofoam cakes for the bottom one or two layers and carve them into the shape you want. It still takes a lot of time and effort, and the styrofoam is not cheap - about $10 per layer - but that is less than the cost of cake layer ingredients. Plus, you don't have to worry about stability issues. So, see if that could be an option, but tell them it DOES NOT lower the price because it's the same amount of work and the same cost of ingredients. It's just less work on your part because you are baking fewer layers.

I would have to say that for a topsy turvy cake that I baked to trade with someone with this amount of detail - the handmade shooting stars, the handmade number on top, the hand-rolled border, etc., etc. $350 to $400. It really should be quite a bit more, but people just don't want to spend that for birthday cakes. I don't see why they think the cake is any less work than a wedding cake - it's more work, actually, because of all the colors involved. In any event, I would not go less than $300, or I'd just tell her that I couldn't do it. At some point, you have to take a stand that your time is worth more than a pittance. You will probably have $50 in ingredients - depending on what kind of fondant you are using. The heavy bottom cake boards and the ones that go between the layers are not cheap if you have to pay retail, nor are the dowels, food coloring, fondant, etc. Not to mention your time. You can save a little money getting powdered sugar at Sam's Club.

I'm sure your hair stylist doesn't flinch at charging you $150 for highlights and a haircut that takes her 2 hours. Well, this is a cake that will take probably 10 hours, at least. Even at $350 to $400, she's getting a much better deal in trade than you are. Please note that all of the above is just my opinion, and is based on my experience here in Central Mississippi. You may be able to get a lot more for cakes in TX. Good luck!!!

Hey Kim62808 where in Texas are you located?

I would like to say birthday cake price = wedding cake price =all cake price. For me it doesn't matter what type of event the cake is for. A 4-tiered cake is a 4-tiered cake. Also, dummies take just as long as real cake to decorate and thats why dummies tend to only save a person 20-30% off the price of an actual cake layer. Cakesdivine is on target with the pricing. The thing I'm concerned about is how will this work out for you, bartering? I'm sure she has no idea that she is lookng at an over $1000 cake and doesn't expect to have to give that much in services. Definetly get all the details hammered out and in writing. I've seen good and bad things happen when people barter cakes.

I also think it is irrelevant what Pink Cake Box would charge for the cake. The question is what would YOU charge for the cake. You have to take into consideration your cost, time, and mostly your skill level.

I charge about $5-$6/serving for fondant tiered cakes like that... wow... well I have to wait until my schedule fills up a bit more before I continue to raise prices.

She also might be willing to have a smaller cake with the same feel of this cake... so find out how many she is looking to serve and go from there. I'm betting she doesn't need 160+ servings of cake.

Thanks for all your advice ! I know how much I would charge her for the cake {and sure it wouldnt look exactly like that ,she knows that though} , I just wanted to tell her how much that particular cake made from Pink Box would actually cost so that she has an idea of what kind of work-detail and money goes into a cake like that instead of just being able to go online and pick out the biggest cake she can find and from a pretty awsome bakery and call it an equal trade and in return expect to only give me one cut/highlight lol . I know it's silly . Well agian I already emailed her and told her I can do a smaller version of the cake{like some of ya'll suggested , and some other details .So I guess I'd better go make my appointment ....

As someone who has bartered cakes in the past and had it come back to bite me in the butt...
let me just advise you to GET YOUR AGREEMENT IN WRITING. That way there is no confusion over what each of you will get.

Sometimes telling a customer what something else would cost is not the best option.

I think with the way you are going is ok. you could also say "Ok, a haircut and color equals $$ and I can do THIS type of a cake for that price" that way she is seeing what YOU can do for the same amount. and it's always good to show a little sketch so you are on the same page

for future reference...if you want the price of a pink cake box cake that you or someone else has seen on their website, you can just call them directly. the gal who answers the phone will ask for the # of the picture that you are referring to and will tell you the price. i've called before for a customer who sent me a PCB pic of a 3 tier topsy turvy (fed 40ish) and i want to say PCB said it would be $565? i could be wrong b/c it was almost a year ago, but i'm pretty sure of the amount. but they have soooo much business that there prices are obvioulsy working for them!

thing is, i'm not PCB (i aspire to be)...so i couldn't charge close to that to my customer, but i loved the way the cake turned out and so did the customer

Oh I am located Dallas tx . Sorry forogtto answer taht one I am so busy lol , as for calling them I did'nt know they even had one in dallas or Tx I looked it up didnt give me one in the area therefore I would Prefer not to call some place long distance . I know asking about pricing is a touchy subject but I needed help right away on this one and got it thanks

They don't have one in Dallas that is if you are talking about the Pink Cake Box. They are in New Jersey.