I just got a request for a topsy turvy cake..this will be my first one!! Its for a sweet sixteen and she wants red velvet with creamcheese. She showed me a picture with zebra striped fondant, bows and flowers(4tiers high). SInce im new to this i guess i just wanted to know how everyones prices differed when it comes to cakes you have to carve like the topsy turvy to regular tiered cakes? She doesnt know how many guests yet till closer to the time but she is getting a sheet cake for the majority of the guests. So how should i go about pricing this one out? thanks ahead of time!!

depending on the decorations I start my topsy turby/3D cakes at 150% of my normal price per serving. On avg it's about 175%-200"% of my regular price per serving

I will honestly say I have never done a topsy turvy cake, but I think you'd need to find a good sturdy recipe to make a suitable carvable (is that a word?!) red velvet cake, and my recipe for cream cheese frosting would be too slippery I think for me to carve anything and hope the layers stayed together while doing so. But you may already have that covered...

Don't forget also that a Topsy Turvy cakes requires more cake layers to be stacked as you end up cutting alot away and need the extra layers for height.When I made mine I used 4 layers for the bottom and 3 for the top..Most was carved and cut away so you have to account for the extra cake wasted and not just what the end result in servings is.There is a great tutorial here on CC which shows how to make a TT cake...

If you've never made one before I'd do a trial run before the final project. They can be a little tricky.