Explaining The Cost Of A Fake Cake To A Client.
Decorating By Dreme Updated 30 Sep 2011 , 1:58am by tracycakes
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-705829-explain.html+cost+dummy
http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-about-dummies-yes-still-cakes.html
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-627444-explain.html+cost+dummy
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-383533-explain.html+cost+dummy
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-122161-explain.html+cost+dummy
(Love Indy's replies to this topic. There is a lot of great info in these posts.)
I do not do fake cakes as they come out just as pricey as real. I have had a couple scares recently - delivered a cake to a yacht and the water was down on the lake so the ramp to get down to the floating dock was extreme steep decline, skinny, nightmarish, SCARY SCARY SCARY! Also had a cake cutter ask me what would happen if she dropped the cake. mmmmm, ya might wanna run from me if you do that. LOL. Anyway it has got me thinking about icing a dummy cake in that washable icing and keeping some shortening icing on hand to where in the worst crisis that will *HOPEFULLY NEVER HAPPEN* I could quickly decorate the dummy cake however need be and grab sheet cakes from costco and of course the person would end up with a refund but at least I'll have a OMG crisis plan to where they would have SOME cake vs. no cake. HOPE I NEVER, EVER, EVER need to. But that ramp last saturday made me think really hard about cake emergencies of the worst kind. (By the grace of god and a helpful strong guy we got that cake delivered successfully but not only was the ramp bad the long skinny floating dock seemed to go on forever and the plank from the dock to the boat was even worse, no rails, nothing just a SKINNY plank. Seriously CRAZY. Worst delivery senario I've dealt with yet and it was a 4 tier POUND cake!!! HEAVY!!)
I don't get all technical and wordy. I just say I have to order styrofoam, pay for shipping, and sometimes the decorating takes even longer because they slip around. That's about it.
Does the grocery store or any other kind of store 'explain' why their prices are what they are? NO...they just are "the price" So your price should be just that.......that is the price....no explanation necessary.
What Maria said. foam dummies cost you as much as cake does. Decorating cost is the same. And they are more difficult and time consuming to do because the are lightweight and move around a lot when you're decorating them.
If she doesn't get it and persists, tell the customer to imaging placing a big rock on their table and painting a design on it. Easy, right? Now place a balloon on the table and paint the same design on it...keeping in mind that you can't hold it in place because your fingers would mess up what you've already painted.
I charge 75% of regular cost for dummy layers. I tell them the cost of styrofoam is comparable to the costs of the cake inside and that the decoration time is where most of their cost comes into play anyway. And then they have to throw it away - at least with real cake they could put it into the freezer and eat it for a month. I have only had one or 2 people take me up on dummy layers 
Anyway it has got me thinking about icing a dummy cake in that washable icing and keeping some shortening icing on hand to where in the worst crisis that will *HOPEFULLY NEVER HAPPEN* I could quickly decorate the dummy cake however need be and grab sheet cakes from costco and of course the person would end up with a refund but at least I'll have a OMG crisis plan to where they would have SOME cake vs. no cake. HOPE I NEVER, EVER, EVER need to. But that ramp last saturday made me think really hard about cake emergencies of the worst kind.
I'm a hobby baker and have enormous respect for those of you who go thru all the stress of baking cakes for money. IF I were a commercial baker, I'd think that idea is excellent, Katiebelle74!
Artscallion--great explanation! Anybody would get that mental picture.
Does the grocery store or any other kind of store 'explain' why their prices are what they are? NO...they just are "the price" So your price should be just that.......that is the price....no explanation necessary.
Well put. 
You do not owe your customers explanations about the costs...just have a pricing list either on your website or on paper. You can give them a few details if you'd like, but if they continue, just tell them that is your prices. 
I had a mother call me and ask about fake cakes. I said, "Are you asking because you THINK they're cheaper?" I get a hesitant, drawn out "yes?" I explain the cost process. She said, "I figured you got them cheaper because you bought in bulk."
I said, "Buying in bulk means I'd have to buy hundreds or even 1000 fake cakes to get enough of a discount to make it cost effective. Since I only use 3 or 4 fake cake rounds a year, you can understand why I can't afford to spend this much money under the pretense of "saving" money for the 3 or 4 times I MIGHT need one. Plus I just don't have the storage space for a truckload of styrofoam cake rounds."
She went elsewhere. Didn't bother me a bit.
edited to add: I also reminded her that I buy my cake ingredients in bulk so styrofoam or cake .... the perceived buying-advantage was a wash!
I charge 75% of regular cost for dummy layers. I tell them the cost of styrofoam is comparable to the costs of the cake inside and that the decoration time is where most of their cost comes into play anyway. And then they have to throw it away - at least with real cake they could put it into the freezer and eat it for a month. I have only had one or 2 people take me up on dummy layers
Ditto except I've only had 1 person take me up on a dummy layer and that was for a 6 tier cake wedding cake that they just wanted the extra height.
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