I was just wondering what others charge to do a FBCT. Do you charge extra, above and beyond your normal cake price to do this? I have a cake coming up this week and do not know if i should be charging extra for this or not. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated.
What is a FBCT? If it is fondant I charge based on what your fondant costs per pound, mulltiply that by three and add that one based on how much you are using. As far as gum paste flowers, if they are simple I wouldn't charge any more than I do for butterceam. If they are more elaborate, I look up on sugarcraft.com to see how much they charge for their pre made flowers. hope this helps.
A FBCT is a frozen buttercream transfer and I don't charge extra for them. I may if it was really involved but normally I don't.
the cake is going to be a 1/4 sheet cake with the majority of the top being a frozen buttercream transfer. I was just wondering if anyone does charge extra or not because i know it will take a good amount of time to do. I have only been doing cakes since April and i know that i am still kind of slow going with decorating but i just want to make sure i do a great job.
I charge extra depending on the siize of the transfer..some of my cakes, the whole top is a FBCT for the 1/4 sheet i add $10 and for smaller FBCT i add $5
I do them as part of the cake. I consider this pretty basic decorating, especially if you are doing childrens cakes, you have to remember people don't want to be nickeled and dimed to death, they get that enough in other areas of thier lives, i try to make this area as smiple as possible. But then again i feel i charge enough for a basic cake to include this in my basic charge.
cakemommy, i charge $35 for a 1/4 sheet with berry filling. The price lowers for buttercream filling and again for no filling. This will be this costumers second order from me (and his mom has ordered 3 or 4 cakes from me in the last 2 months). Anyway, i have heard that they both think i am not charging enough for my cakes considering the designs. They have ordered 8 inch rounds in the past and i include 2 layers of filling in a 3 inch deep cake. I was charging $20 for this and was considering raising it to $23 with buttercream filling and $26 for berry, cream or mousse filling. Does that seem about right or too much? Pricing is always such a hard thing to decide. I don't know how many times i have played around with pricing to try to "get it right" for what i am doing.
Well, no one can tell you what to charge but it's best based on what bakeries in your area (not Walmart or other grocery stores) charge for cakes. Research this a bit and then base your prices on that. I know it may be tempting to raise your price for a particular cake b/c the customer doesn't feel like your charging enough, but don't get sucked into that. Decide your prices, what's fair to you and your customers. I had to sit down and set all my prices based on others in the area b/c I noticed I would charge different people different $$ when I first got started. I just don't think that's professional.
Now about the BCT, like Peg818 I consider it part of basic decorating unless it's really large. I know you said it would be the size of a 1/4 sheet but what is the transfer of? If you feel it would be labor intensive then I would assume $5-10 would be reasonable.
Good luck!
My husband has been telling me to make out a sheet with my basic prices on it for different size cakes and then the additionals like fillings, transfers, and flowers and what not!
He says that anyone can go to a grocery store and buy a "conveyer belt" cake with whipped cream frosting slapped on it but to get a homemade cake with real buttercream and a design that has a personal touch like no other on it is worth the price! If people want that in a cake then they will pay for it!
If you take care of your customer and give them exactly what they want then you charge what you feel is necessary!
Amy
my big mistake also i think is giving a price when the customer orders and then later when i start sketching out what i want to actually do on the cake to make it look like a one of a kind, i discover that i need to buy certain things to put on top or that the time involved is going to be more than i thought origanally. Maybe i should always tell them that i will get back to them the next day (as far as price goes) after i have had a chance to come up with some design options for them. Maybe then the decision will be up to them to decide if they want to go with the more elaborate option or just keep it more simple. This just seems kind of complicated. I don't know if i want to call up my local bakery everytime i do a cake either to ask them what they would charge for the same thing i would do.
Sweetdreams--I used to do the same thing but now I do call the person later or the next day. I try to give them a cheaper option and a more expensive one depending on the style. So I give myself time to look around on the internet, get ideas and plan things. I had several times that people got great deals b/c my ideas came after talking with them!
Thanks mamafrogcakes, i think that is what i will do. it seems like that will work out better for everyone. They will get to choose what option to go with and i will have had time to think of the exact designs i will offer them and what it will cost me to do them.
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