http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2007472

Just made this for my son's birthday and have been asked for make for others, but haven't a clue what to charge.

Hubby said i need to add info so you can better judge. This is my first real fondant cake. It is 12" bottom, 8" middle and 4" rice cereal for the tube. It is filled with what I call hostess cup cake filling. Chocolate cake. Thanks in advance for any and all input

You can't charge to duplicate licensed characters.

If all of the characters on the cake are toys (not hand modeled figures of fondant/gumpaste/marzipan) then you can make the cake and sell it (assuming you are legal to do so in your area)

To begin pricing it out, you will need to know what you paid for all of the ingredients and then determine if you want to make any $$ for yourself. How much are you worth an hour? How many hours did it take you to make the cake (include: shopping for ingredients, mixing, baking, clean up, all the prep time for decorating, the actual decorating time and clean up again, and don't forget to figure in your utility cost)

A cake that size will serve approx 60, in my world, a tiered cake starts at $3.00 a serving for buttercream or $3.50 for fondant but I can promise you, when I tell little Johnny's Mommy that it's gonna cost her $210 for the cake, she'll go running in the other direction.

After spending YEARS decorating cakes for little to nothing, I won't do it anymore. Ingredients are too darn expensive and the older I get the more precious my time is.

And make no mistake about it, if you don't start out charging enough in the beginning, you may never get out of the "cheap cake" hole you will have dug for yourself. Keep in mind too that if you start doing cakes for the cost of ingredients only, you will burn out fast because every "friend" you have will want you to make their cake.

Don't forget overhead costs from liability insurance, business license fees, accounting fees, etc. At a bare minimum you should carry business liability insurance before you sell food to someone outside family and close friends, the overhead cost per order can be calculated by estimating the number of orders you have per year and dividing your annual overhead by that number.

I would charge $240

Thank you so much for info. The licensed items are only toys and not hand crafted. I don't want to be in the cheap cake hole, they are time consuming and I love making them too much to charge only $50.

In the early 80's I started making pies and everyone wanted a pie, charged them $5 bucks a pie, barely covered cost, but I didn't feel it was right to charge friends more. I leared after 80 plus pies in one holiday season never again would I make that mistake.

With word of mouth getting out that I make cakes, even my kids schools are asking for special occasion cakes! Okay, for the school, free (lol) but not any others.

If I was younger, I would seriously go into a real business doing this. Nothing gives me more satisfaction that baking!!

Can I use words like "hostess cupcake type" filling? Since most people know what that means, better understood than cream filling.

I only use a name brand if I am using it as an ingredient. And it cannot imply that the item is made by or endorsed by the national brand. For example, I have an item with Snickers bar in the middle. I use that in the description of ingredients, not the name of the item. If it is a copy, stay away from the name. No reason to risk it.

Makes you wonder if there are people out there 24/7 just looking for a law suit. Crazy silliness.

It's not crazy silliness. It's the law!!! And a very important law. I have a copyright and I will have a trademark within the month. I thought of it and I will be the only one to capitalize from it. And I will look for infringements. If you had an original idea or object, you would want it protected. These protections also prevent the public from cheap copies.

Plus a company is required to pursue all copyright infringements (I know ... not possible to catch ALL, but they must show they are making the effort) or they lose the right to pursue ANY copyright infringements. They can't just pick and choose who they want to go after. They have to go after all infringements.

based on the wilton serving chart that I go by, a 8/12 cake serves 24/56 = 80 servings times my fondant rate would be a price tag of over $300.

When she falls over in a faint, remind her she is buying enough cake to serve SIXTY TO EIGHTY PEOPLE! Point out that this is enough for a small wedding reception. Point out that the $35 quarter-sheet cake she might plan to get at the grocery store bakery won't be this cute NOR will it serve anywhere near 60-80 people.

A $4 cup of coffee may not seem expensive .... until you have to pay for 80 of them.

Why does it seem like most threads on the message boards go in down a different path than what the OP questioned? Why does everything become a lecture?? I have posted questions on the boards looking for help as a beginner over this past year - that is why I joined this site, for mentoring - and nobody responds. But if I'm looking for a lecture, I certainly know where to go. Sorry, just really fed up and done. This woman is looking for advice - it's pretty damn obvious from the picture they are toys.

Your cake is wonderful.....The question is how much would you charge. At least $250 friend or not. Think about the time and working with fondant. (I hate working with it) $250 it is.

Thank you all for your help. The figures are TOYS and the toys would either be purchased by the buyer or added to the cost of the cake.

Made a couple of cakes for hubby's business, a 'bake-off', won hands down and many are asking what I charge. Gave hubby the ball park figures you all have helped me with and he said all but one didn't have a problem with the pricing. When they priced a local grocery for a similar sized cake, very basic buttercream, they told him my pricing was reasonable.

Thank you all so much for NOT letting me get sunk into the "cheap" cake hole.

I actually prefer working with fondant (except for trying to cover 16"x16" cakes - yuck) as it is less time consuming than trying to get buttercream very smooth.

Thank you, Sugarandstuff - one for standing up and two for getting the question answered. Appreciate it!!!!