Hello,

I've only made 4 'real cakes' so far; 2 for family and 2 for friends. Some of my friends are now inquiring if I would make them cakes for (insert special occasion here). I don't plan on charging a lot, they are my friends after all and I'm not a professional, but these cakes cost me quite a bit and take a ton of time. I need to charge something! I'm not trying to undercut the local baker, but I have fallen in love with cake art and I would be thrilled to create these for my friends and family!

I have absolutely no basis for comparison and couldn't say if a local baker would charge $10 or $1000. I just wish I had a vague idea of what others would charge for these cakes. I realize they are far from perfect, and I am just a newbie, but any input would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm sorry the pictures are terrible!

1) My little girl's 2nd birthday Pond Cake is the second cake I've ever made.

The pond cake is chocolate bottom and yellow top. BC crumb coat and MM Fondant. Airbrushed. I hand sculpted a bunch of ladybugs, turtle, frog etc. Everything on this cake is edible except for the wire holding up the dragonfly.

2) The Beach/Town/Fitness cake is my second. It represents the town we live in - the ocean, water tower and the island people walk around. My friend Alyssa atop is a personal trainer. The beach cake has an 8" devils food cake filled with raspberry filling and white chocolate shavings. Crumb coated with BC, covered in MM fondant and painted waves in BC. The top tier I think must be 4"... It's golden butter filled with lemon, bc crumb and MM fondant covered.

3) The last for another friend's birthday. Pisces sculpted cake. My forth cake and first sculpted cake.

I don't know how much these fish feed. They were baked in a 12x18 pan. Cut into 4 shapes and stacked them 2 high, then carved. The heads measure about 4 inches high at the peak. They are BC filled, crumb coated and covered in MM. Airbrushed,  gold spray painted. The flowers and dorsal fins are gumpaste. The rest fondant.

Thank you!

Renee

Hobbyhoarder

No prices to offer, but I will request this: if you want to give your friends and family a break, that's great. But don't let it extend to friends of friends and relatives you wouldn't talk to until they need something. That's when you'll be the undercutter, and will piss off the established businesses. And remember that you said it yourself: they cost you quite a bit, and they took a lot of time. They all cost us quite a bit and they take a lot of time, and that's why we charge a lot. Have fun!

Just so you know, I find it VERY difficult to believe that these are your first cakes.  Fondant application, airbrushing, figure modeling, and cake carving are skills that one acquires over time....sometimes lots of time.  SOOOO either you've practiced a lot on your own before doing these cakes OR you are a cake prodigy.  Or, at the very least, a fairly talented crafter.

And you should be charging full price for these.  These are not average cakes.  They are not perfection, but they are pretty darn good.

So no price help from me...you should look on local caker's websites with similar skill and get an idea of what they are charging.  Don't copy, but go with what feels like enough for you get the job done.  Time is valuable and you are far from "just practicing."

This is meant to be a little snarky, but mostly to serve as an ego-boost, if that's what you are looking for.

If you knew me and my sometimes sarcastic personality, you wouldn't take offense or think I am being mean.  I am writing this with a smile on my face, so please take it as such.

AVery well said Bees!

AWow. I'm no expert (I don't decorate, just bake), but those cakes are incredible for a beginner.

i love your cakes and i think you should be in the 'start at $8' a serving for sculptures which the fish are technically 2-d but i mean really 3-d so but they are super well done--such action in there-- i mean they have no structural doweling though so $7 to $8 per serving--

but they should garner a minumum of about $200 give or take a few regardless of servings imo

the other two cakes are basically two tiers with excellent decor so base price on fondant cakes in your area should be fairly easy to ascertain by checking some websites in the area--you should be in at least the $4 - $5 range--then the green cake could go at $5 per--lots of nice decor but not over the top as far as time goes--then the weight insanity one should have an upcharge for the modeling and the painting--when pricing you might want to give it as one price rather than phrase it the way i did--i said so much plus upcharge just to give you the information--but i'd recommend just saying 'blabla price'

i would also recommend that you just over price the regular bakeries/cakeries in your area (unless you are in new york or somewhere extreme) because your work is excellent

your bloopers are better than most peeps regular stuff

there is a certain amount of decor 'granted' with the base per serving price--the certain amount is determined by the amount of time necessary so the weight insanity cake takes a lot more time than the green one--maybe an hour of decor is included give or take--and while it might have taken you much longer due to being new you wouldn't charge for the real length of time at this point you just work at getting faster

you are really good and you are not the first caker to be able to just pick it up and fly sky high

nor the first one to be doubted  (ahem...)

rare talent but it does happen

but i mean you still have the regular learning curves ahead

artistry is not one of them ;)

wow cool--really really good stuff--how awesome

I say don't ask us, just charge what you want to charge.  

renee, your work is beautiful

you should consider competing if you like that kind of thing

i think there's a big cake thing in maryland or somewhere over east there somewhere every year

just a thought

you'd be a force to reckon with!

Thank you AZCouture - I don't EVER intend on doing this professionally. I just want to do it for friends and my family. But as a perfectionist artist, I just can't wrap my head around doing something artistic while not aspiring to do it to the best of my capacity and ability. :)

Thank you Mizlila and Norasmom

K8Memphis - Thanks a ton. I love that you love my sun virus pollen blob. *blush*...  I am just north of Boston and we have a baker here in town who was on some cake bake off show (TLC?)... She came in second. One of her employees works as a hygienist at my dentist office and said my pond cake would fetch about $500-$600 at Amanda's Shop, due to all of the hand sculpting. I think she's pretty pr icy for this town but a lot of people I know go there and she has some pretty cool classes I intend to take one day. I would love to one day enter a contest or two. Something about designing a theme and executing it is so friggin exciting to me. Renee's Pisces cake was almost to my vision, except the sun blob, and I would do the fins slightly different if I could go back for a redo. And I would like to try piping gel for water! So thank you for the kind words. I make some pretty cool stuff in the future!

Beesknees.... No worries. I appreciate the skepticism. Only one person in the cake world (at my dentist) has ever seen one of my cakes, besides you guys here, now. So any feedback I get is great!

AOk, seriously amazing cakes. In dying of jealousy. I've had my KopyCake airbrush for over a year. I've used it twice and didn't like the results either time.

Seriously amazing work.

I'm in Charleston. Oh no baby is coming have to finish when it's my t. Yen for phone again!

I agree that I would be somewhere around $200 for the fish.  

Well I am really, really impressed with you and you REALLY should consider doing this.  So what if you have a Challenge champ in your area.  You probably wouldn't be charging as much, so you could get her "scraps" of people who appreciate the hard work but don't want to pay AS MUCH for one of her cakes, but would gladly pay your prices.  Which would be competitive...not bargain basement.

I get the kiddos thing.  I have 4 boys (11, 8, 6, & 2).  It is hard but it can be done.  I still consider my biz a fairly well-paid hobby but am going throught the planning stages of taking it truly part- to full-time from my home.  It will be a couple of years.  The 2 yr old is likely to go to pre-school 1/2 days when he turns 3 next january...or we may be waiting till the fall of next year.  But the gears are turning.......

Regardless of what you decide. you are truly blessed with natural talent that should not go under-appreciated.

And by your name "hobby hoarder", it sounds like you are like me.....creative in many ways.  So many ways that it's hard to focus on a true passion!

I have given up my scrapbooking dreams and cardmaking dreams.....have lots of stuff that i should really sell.  But I am going to keep it "just in case".  This caking seems to be the best paying out of all the things I've considered doing from home.  It's also the most time-consuming, but rewarding, too.

Good Luck!  And be sure to post often!

and the cool thing about competing (if you even like to compete) is that in the cake world you can work on the cake for a year because you work on dummies usually so it can sit on a shelf 90% of the time

and it's fun to rub elbows with all the other cakers etc!

just a thought~

********** dot com is great place for dummies~

of course you might to make your own ;)

hotwirefoamfactory dot com

AWow I hope to be as good as you!

If anyone were to see my first cake, it was sad... Very sad!

AI think your cakes are AMAZING! I too am a relatively new to caking self taught/you tube taught cake artist with little kids living in a Boston suburb :). You clearly have an amazing talent. There are bakeries in Brookline and Newton that would easily charge $200+ for those cakes and would get it. I don't think you will run in to much of a problem just accepting money for cakes from friends and family, but MA does have laws around residential kitchens. Every town is different with different expectations, but I had to go through a lot of red tape and have my kitchen inspected by the board of health every 6 months. I also can only sell foods that don't need refrigeration, and if it has dairy in it, like buttercream, or a filling like raspberry jam, it needs to be tested by a lab to make sure it is at a safe pH to be left out of the fridge. I started out just baking birthday cakes for my kids and it has turned in to a nice little side business, but all of my cakes are done after the kids go to sleep and a lot of the sculpting work takes me FOREVER, so I know what you mean about limited time.

However you decide to use or talent, make sure you use it, because I think you could be a serious player in the cake world if you wanted to be.