Hello Cakers
I need some advise!!! I am a self taught cake maker and have just recieved my FIRST ever wedding cake order...exciting.... well it was until I tried to determine a price!

It is to be a 3 tier cake (choc mud bottom, caramel mud middle and vanilla top) covered in buttercream and surrounded all around each tier with chocolate panels!

The bottom tier will be 12" x 12" and get smaller as we go up tiers...
I am thinking I will probably have to make 2 seperate cakes for each layer and use buttercream in between to add height...

Can anyone advise me on a suitable price for this order???

I purchased CakeBoss software awhile ago and it is the best thing since sliced bread! You put in your master ingredients, then your recipe and it tells you your cost. How much a tsp. of vanilla and how much your flour etc. costs You also add how much per hour you feel you should charged plus your overhead. I do all scratch baking and it really has put my mind to rest.

Add up all of your ingredients (cake, icing, decorations) and triple it + cake box, boards, foils + how many hours it may take, oven and refrigerator time (you're using gas and electric)
Or you can charge x amount per slice...

Colleen

Colleen I have just purchased this also but I am having trouble using mls and litres in my recipes. It lets me put in under master ingredients but when I come to calculate it shows the item but doesn't calculate. Can you help. Probably very simple. Other than that I find it quite simple to use. Thanks

It gets frustrating sometimes but I found if you put in oz (ounces) it works better for butter, liquids , sugars and even flours. Sometimes the pound thing works for flour though my flour comes in a 25 lb bag
Sometimes you just have to fiddle around with it to get it to work
I've got my frosting recipes in all the differents amounts to; sometimes I need 4 1/2 cups of IMBC and sometimes 13 cups. It's easier. It took about a week to get alot of the master ingredients in. What I started doing awhile ago was magic marker the price on the bottle or bag of stuff because alot of states don't put prices on items anymore. That way it's easier and I save my grocery reciepts to see if prices increase over what I have put in.
for eggs put
1 leave blank egg in the master ingredients put: 12 egg $

You can call or email them and they are really good about getting back with you. The only improvement I would make it to have regular catagories on the page where you have your recipe and it price. Its all alphabetical and mixed up.

Good luck and just keep fiddling with it! LOL Let me know if you need any other help.
Colleen