I am doing my first wedding cake and the bride wants only the bottom tier to be real cake and the rest of the tiers in styrophome....I have no idea how to charge for this can you please help me.

Here is a pic of what she is wanting but she wants it to be square, all in fondant, and for the tiers in black fondant she is wanting red.[/b]

Well I cant get the pic to upload on here but its a 5 tiered cake and I think that I'm going to do it in 6", 8", 10", 12", & 14" sizes....

Fake tiers cost are generally charged at 80 to 100% the cost of real cake.

Styrofoam dummies are expensive, generally are not returned to the decorator (or if they are returned, they are often damaged), and the rest of the decorating materials are the same as what would be used on edible cake. The time to decorate is the same.

Contrary to the myths put out there by "wedding experts", having a fake cake IS NOT cheaper than a real one. It may be lower in calories, but that's about it.

Rae

I charge 80% of real for fakes.

At least 80% of the cost of a real one. She's not going to save any money once she buys the sheet cakes to serve, so if you explain that to her she'll probably just get a real cake.

I think the fake cake thing can only be a cost saver if you basically rent an existing dummy cake that has space for a small real cake designed the same as the dummy. Some bakeries do this.

Thanks ladies for your help! I got one more ? So I tried to figure it out and I came up with $550 what are your thoughts on this for charging her is this way too much or too less? Thanks again.

I just did a real 14, 12, 10, 8 in buttercream and it came out to $520. Taking into consideration the fondant and 80%, your price seems pretty accurate.