Hello, bakers. I was asked to do a 3 tier white simple wedding cake and they are going to but live flowers on it. 

I’ve never sold a cake like this. What is your policy on this kind of cakes?  

I’ve only added flowers twice. Both times flowers were organic. Pricey, but flowers don’t contain pesticides that regular flowers do. Pesticides, and sometimes, bugs can transfer onto the cake. I also besides wrapping stems of the flowers, I placed stems in flower picks so no contact with the cake.

That’s I was trying to make the customer understand.  You just can’t put on the flowers just like that.

Thank you jchuck

Yes SweetDesire88 besides the pesticides, there are also many poisonous flowers too. Namely Baby’s Breath that EVERYONE seems to use!!! When our cake club was active, every single pro decorator refused to put real flowers in a cake. I know to some that may seem rather ridiculous. But, if by chance someone got sick, it sure wouldn’t be ricdiculous then, would it??? Food for thought...

The use of 'fresh flowers' is so over used when gp ones can be just as beautiful and probably much the same cost.  Yes, jchuch is right on how bad they can be.  I learned that the hard way when a florist asked me to put fresh flowers on a cake he ordered for his mother.  Not knowing back then, I put iris on - just stuck the stem into the cake and he chided me - talk about a red face!  He gave me a lesson on what was safe and exactly how to prepare the stems. 

As far as pricing - it takes just about the same amount of time to nicely cover & border a cake no matter the icing used as it does to 'decorate' it.  I would charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $3-5 per serving for b'cream and slightly more for fondant.  Pricing is so localized that it's hard to say for sure.  What do you usually charge for b'cream?  Fondant?  Just take off maybe $1-2 because you are not making flowers/a design. 

I am in the camp of no fresh flowers. Although I have used them in the past. The more I read the less convinced I am that they are a good idea.

That said, I wouldn't charge any different than regular. When I make a cake that is decorated exclusively with gp flowers, I charge per bloom on top of the regular cake price. If you are arranging the flowers on the cake then add a flower arranging fee. I build that fee in on my bloom prices.

My base price does include basic decorating, but it is still my base price even simply frosted.

I was going to charge her $3.75 per serving as she wants gourmet flavor cakes.  

I use silk flowers or gp flowers for cake decoration. Just to be safe. It’s really hard to get a customer to understand the policy and safety regulations. 

If I were to have a customer that wanted fresh flowers and didn’t want gumpaste, I would suggest silk flowers. Today with such realistic silk flowers they are quite lovely. Of course, factored into the price of the cake.

If you know a florist who can order edible flowers, then you can suggest that. We had my throw-a-way bouquet on top of the cake, but the florist knew a lot about that sort of thing, so we had a nice white doily type covering on the top of the cake for the flowers to lay on. Our cake was mostly white with roses piped around the base of the tiers, nothing too fancy (grocery store cake, but that lady was an awesome decorator and knew her stuff!)

I didn't know baby's breath was poisonous! Good thing I hate that flower, I think it smells aweful.

I agree, silk flowers are a much better choice.  I guess if someone is making quick fantasy gum paste flowers, they would cost about the same as fresh flowers, but I would charge more for my roses!  They take a while to make.