I have tried and tried to reply to my previous post. I am giving up and doing it here. Thank you all so much for your help! What you have said about pricing by the serving makes perfect sense. It seems obvious now that I would get faster and not be able to charge by the hour with any success. I’ve called a few bakeries in the area and they seem to be charging $4 per serving for buttercream so I’m thinking $3.50 per bc serving for me to start out and $4 or 4.50 for fondant. As far as the fondant sculpting or cake carving im thinking I’m just gonna have to estimate how long it,l take me and wing it. For example, i sculpted 2 detailed trolls for my nieces bday and I figure they took me about 2 and a half or 3 hours apiece so I’d figure that at an hourly rate....right? Y’all are sooo helpful! Very grateful to everyone that replied!

 well wait -- sculptures are different kaching kaching -- you can start those out from a minimum price -- like $250 or so -- because what happens is someone will want something say a guitar and you say oh for 30 servings it's (say times $8) that'll be $240 -- then they go -- yeah well we only really need 20 servings -- so you go oh ok that's $160 -- it's the same amount of time involved so if you establish a minimum  you can spend the  time to get it right and make the big wow moment for them -- avoiding the ones who aren't serious in the first place -- "sure I can do a guitar for you -- they start at $250"--  bam -- separating the shoppers from the customers in one easy exchange -- 

you can do minimums for 2-d sculptures and 3- ones and for weddings -- and whatever

but the way I always wanted to work it (I could never be legal from home -- I worked in bakeries mainly) is to have x amount of servings a week for the elaborate work and take orders for a few just regular birthday cakes to sell too -- but it's easy to make a few more cakes when you're baking anyhow -- keep 'em frozen or whatever -- whip 'em out -- slap on décor and you're filling in the blanks there -- you can make a pretty penny if peeps know you can deliver within a couple days for an easy order -- but there's no wrong way necessarily --

but of course you need to be able to say No too -- very important -- 

hope it goes great for you -- keep your prices up -- you'll do wonderful!

they will even go lower and say well we really only need 6 servings or something -- and like no nobody's gonna do a guitar cake for 6 servings -- pitiful and you can avoid it with a minimum price like that -- 

don't be afraid to say -- 
oh that will be $1200 

try to get over the idea that things can really add up -- take it in stride

When you're pricing, use a little common sense also.  I had a coworker who ordered her son's birthday cake from a bakery (knowing full well that I did cakes) and she had them put 4 plain fondant stars on the 1/4 sheet cake (among other things). They charged her $5 for each star.  Really?  That seemed a little excessive.  I can see charging extra but come on.