Why would you accept an official "order" if you don't know how to price?  You can't just pull an arbitrary number out of the sky and hit the kitchen.  That taps into your personal budget.  It would be in your best interest to research how to price your cakes so this doesn't happen in the future.  Also, if something is outside your skill level then don't be afraid to say so.  Otherwise you create a ton of stress for yourself and potentially upset the customer.

 

As an aside, I don't think it's unreasonable for her to be upset.  Christians are allowed to get upset too.  Perhaps she shouldn't have said she was going to throw the cake at your back door, but she has a right to be angry.  There are two perspectives to this...the "I paid $75 for something that collapsed" and "OMG I spent my own personal money and lost sleep and time and now the customer is complaining."  You are only looking through one side of the lens here.

 

In the future, use Excel to figure out what each ingredient costs.  I know the cost of each ingredient by weight and it's easy to go to the tab for a specific recipe and figure out what it costs just for the ingredients.  Don't forget to charge for pan grease, soap, paper towels, water, electricity, packaging, etc.

 

Before someone hops in and says pricing isn't relevant to the discussion, it is.  OP has spent her own money and basically given a free cake to the customer, so she's already eating the cost of the cake itself, and if she wants to continue in her business then she's going to have to offer a refund, which will undoubtedly come from her personal budget.

A

Sorry to single this out, but this could mislead someone into thinking cost has more to do with how to price than it does. It's such a common misconception that in order to learn how to price that you figure up your costs and decide what you want to make per hour and then you have the "price". All that is is a recipe for charging at little as anyone possibly could.

[I]Your pricing structure is determined through market research and analysis of financial considerations. Basic marketing strategy is to price within the range between the price ceiling and the price floor. The price ceiling is determined by the market; it is the highest cost a consumer will pay for a product or service and is based on perceived value. What is the competition charging? What is the quality of the product or service you are offering? What is the nature of the demand and what is the image you are projecting? The price floor is the lowest amount at which you can offer a product or service, meet all your costs and still make your desired profit. Consider all costs -- raw materials, office overhead, shipping, vehicle expense, taxes, loan and interest payments and owner draws are a few. [/I]

I should have made that more clear.  As the OP is probably not running a legit home business, I just wanted to start with the basics since she was talking about what she spent personally on ingredients. 

 

Obviously one would want to do the research regarding competition, market, etc., and of course take into consideration any overhead.

 

Perhaps OP would find some entry level business classes beneficial?

pricing did not appear to enter into the problem area, a non-collapsing cake structure did.

I thought this thread was more of a vent than the OP asking for constructive criticism.

A

Or it might not be real.

To MBalaska: In my portfolio there are 2 square wedding cakes that have whipped heavy whipping cream as filling and blueberries and raspberries on top of heavy whipping cream and I cut 2" high cakes in 3 layers not 2 layers. I do cakes with heavy whipping cream blueberries, raspberies, kiwi and strawberries all the time never had them collapsed or brake. 

Based on reading that other thread, it sounded like things started a little rough.  That's why I said don't be afraid to turn down stuff that's beyond your capabilities.  Someone asked me for a carved Nemo cake last year.  I said no way.  I don't do carved cakes because I think I'd butcher them.  After 15 years of baking I know what my limitations are.  But given the questions on the other thread, it sounded like she was in over her head to begin with.  Pricing was probably the last thing she thought about with this one. 

 

I just feel bad because if the cake did indeed collapse, then the customer is due a refund.  OP has already lost a considerable amount of time and money, and it's going to be more money out of OP's pocket to keep the customer happy, and to avoid scraping a fruity bible off her back door.

 

Whatever the case may be, it just requires getting back on the horse and seeing where to improve next time.