Hi all,
This was my first cake I made from fondant. It seems to take me forever (probably about 3 days). This didn't include the planning and ordering molds and materials to work with fondant. I really wasn't even planning on making fondant cakes because I don't really like how they taste, but a friend asked me to make one. The last couple of times I've made her a buttercream decorated cake and then cupcakes and I didn't charge her for the cup cakes and she took us out to dinner for the buttercream cake. This time since she had a specific theme in mind, she said she would pay me. I just have no clue as to what to charge her, but it did take a lot of time and cost. The topper is a plastic genie lamp I ordered online. What do you think? Thanks for your input!
Charlene
As soon as I take a knife to a cake to carve shapes the price starts at $175. I doubt that you'll be able to charge what you should efor this cake because your friend won't be expecting a realistic price if she's used to paying next to nothing. I'd figure out your expenses for the cake, add an hourly wage to it and see what that comes to. Don't forget your time to shop for ingredients, cost of utilities, gas for your car, etc. When you have a decent idea of what you should REALLY charge, you can decide whether to give her a discount or not. If you do, make sure to tell her that it's a discounted price, but you can't afford to keep doing that! If she's a real friend she will understand. Just remember that the worst customers are firends and family who expect you to do everything for free or close to it.
Beautiful!!! Hard to believe it's your first try with fondant. It's hard to get what it's worth because people don't realize how much money and work goes into something like this.
AThank you everyone. I bought pillow pans for this. Each pillow uses two pans of cake. The bottom pillow is 10 inches and the top is 6.75. I used americolor spray paint. When I made my first embellishments and sprayed them they dried and were so hard I couldn't put some of them on the cake because they weren't pliable, so I had to remake some of them put them on the cake then I sprayed the paint in a small bowl and painted them on the cake. I made marshmallow fondant but it was too saggy so I had to buy some rolled fondant and add to it. The bottom was choc with mint buttercream filling and the top was choc with orange buttercream. My first top pillow didn't turn out and I had to take it off, make more cake, recrumb coat it and put new fondant on it. Thanks for all your input on this. Charlene
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Hi all,
This was my first cake I made from fondant. It seems to take me forever (probably about 3 days). This didn't include the planning and ordering molds and materials to work with fondant. I really wasn't even planning on making fondant cakes because I don't really like how they taste, but a friend asked me to make one. The last couple of times I've made her a buttercream decorated cake and then cupcakes and I didn't charge her for the cup cakes and she took us out to dinner for the buttercream cake. This time since she had a specific theme in mind, she said she would pay me. I just have no clue as to what to charge her, but it did take a lot of time and cost. [Part of your learning curve.] The topper is a plastic genie lamp I ordered online. What do you think? Thanks for your input!
Charlene
Beautiful and professional presentation, Charlene. With that said, personally, I would think of this particular cake as part of custom cake/design training. Since you did not give your friend any idea of the possible cost and time involved (you may not have known yourself), I would suggest that you recover your COST for the materials and supplies only. [Even the reimbursement for supplies and ingredients may be shocking to your friend.] A good way to look at this is that the time involvement was part of your learning curve. Now that you know what is involved with this type of custom cake, in the future, you can provide a meaningful estimate for a cake this detailed.
Tell your friend that if anyone asks how much she paid for this gorgeous custom cake, she should tell them "it has a value of $500". Nothing more, nothing less.
I just made 15 dozen mini-cupcakes over a 3 day period to see how long it would take, and what ingredients and supplies would cost. I did this simply for practice. (Gave them all away.) Now, IF anyone asks, (or if I'm dumb enough to volunteer) to make this many cupcakes, I will KNOW what I am getting into for cost and time involvement.
Great Job ! Looks very professional , I'm sure it was a great learning experience.
DCharlene - nice work!
I'd like to say thank you, specifically to Kara, howsweet and Apti for such detailed, encouraging and patient answers. This is the Cake Central I joined years ago.
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