I make celebration cakes ie birthdays, anniversaries as well as Wedding cakes.
Now I have a bride who wants a 4 tier cake, but wants to know the price of each tier separately! Its my friends friend and she is going to ring me but apparently wants to have the cake broken down into seperate prices.

Now when I do celebration cakes ie a 10" sq iced cake with small decoration on I usually charge about £30 - £35 depending on decoration, and prices for different sizes go up or down respective of the size.

Now if someone orders a 3 tier cake ie 12, 10, 8" iced with filling & sugar decs on it I would charge about£300, as of course I've had to do more layers, dowell, stack etc.

My problem is - is the bride gonna think why such a difference for 3 cakes cos its a wedding cake? I know there is more work I put into it and the caks are deeper than regular celebration cakes etc, I still feel weird about breaking down the pricing to her.

Should I just say I cant do seperate pricing for wedding cakes and that I just quote for the whole package. ie 3 or 4 tier complete inc delivery etc. Not had this before!!

Uh, that's not how that works. You don't have to break down your pricing like that.. To avoid dillemas ilke this, price all cake the same.

well, my wedding cakes are the standard price for here (UK) but single tier celebration ones are a lot less.

A 3 tier wedding cake (12, 10, 8") can be anything from £300 upwards but a single birthday cake 12" would be about £45. They wouldnt be so deep and only have one layer of filling, but they would be nowhere near the equivelent of a wedding cake tier for price.

I know it would be easier if all cakes were one price - but if I did that my 12" would have to be about £170!!
Brides usually just order the cake they want and not go into tier pricing!!
I can see your point though so thanks for answering.

that is one very cheap celebration cake!
the standard depth for wedding and celebrtion cakes in the uk is actually the same. if you choose to do differntly, spell this out loud and clear to the bride 'wedding cakes cost more as the cake is deeper'

there is an argument that the client doesnt dictate your pricing, so tell her the price for all is £x. or she can pay for an hour or two of your time if she wants the break down.

you could break it down reasonably simply for a general design, and then to account for doweling and stacking time etc (the extras for a stacked cake) call it a 'design fee'. if she was having sugar flowers id maybe say an extra 'flower fee' as that cant be broken down to the tiers the same as the cake can.

maybe need to ask what her budget is, this might be her trying to figure out how she can cut costs...
xx

There is also the support system to consider and the extra labor to set up a tiered cake, and generally speaking different decorating techniques are used for wedding cakes that can be more detailed and time consuming than most standard celebration cakes.

I charge the same for everything just for moments like this...Someone thinks that they'll be clever and try to break it down into individual cakes. Wedding cakes are more work SORT OF, but depending on the cake that's not necessarily true.

You could either figure out the individual wedding cake tiers and price them so that they all add up to the same amount as the stacked cake, or you could tell her that the celebration cakes are shorter and don't have as many servings in them as a result, so they're priced differently.

Personally, dowelling the cakes takes about ten minutes total for an entire wedding cake, so it's not such a big deal that I'd charge less for stacked vs. unstacked. People think that an unstacked cake will be a lot cheaper, but the time involved in dowelling and stacking is minimal, so it shouldn't make that much of a difference in the overall price.

by set up i am mainly refering to delivery and onsite set up, as most wedding cakes require this, but a celebration cake can just be stuffed in a box and picked up. I include delivery & set up in the price of all my wedding cakes- so this affect the price compared to a single tier pick up.

thanks for the reply brincess. My celebration cakes are usually 3" depth and wedding4".
Alway thought my prices were a little low!!

I agree with you about the extra time a wedding cake takes with dowelling, stacking etc. She wants, I believe sugar flowers on each tier as well, so extra time for that.

I will have a chat with her when she rings up and comes for a consultation, maybe her budget it tight. I think she has had a price quote already from somewhere else and was a bit shocked, so I think she's trying to get prices for seperate tiers thinking it will be cheaper!.

she is probably looking at M&S or asda, where each tier is priced seperately... if thats the case, remember your cakes are deeper, level, deliver the right number of servings and personalised - and stacking isnt what she wants to do in the morning of her wedding! (lots of unimpressive cakes out there: depends hwo important the cake is to her)
xx

well my friend told me she already had a quote from somewhere else and it was just over £300 which is cheap for a 4 tier wedding cake anyway. So my friend told her that I do cakes and maybe should come and see me. My friend said that her friend wants the price of each tier seperately, so I'm jus assuming she is on al low budget - maybe..