I haven't ever done cupcake weddings before, because, well, I don't care for them.

Now I have a lady asking me to do one for her for 150 for this summer and wanting a price. I don't have a stand, so that would be a problem...

I think of cupcakes for a weddings as each being a serving (duh), and my servings of wedding cake start at $3.00. Sheet cakes are $2.75/sv.

I'm thinking of quoting her $2.75 minimum for basic decorations and if she says yes, then fine. If not, I won't miss it.

Am I missing anything?

And has anyone used the stand from cupcaketree.com that is...cardboard? Am I reading that right? It actually holds up??

No, quote her $3.00 each because they are equivalent to your wedding slices (it is for a wedding, is it not?) That's what I'd go with.

homecook- I think it would be worth it if she is willing to go with your price. I think cupcakes are sometimes more difficult because you will have so many of them. I haven't done any for a wedding yet but I would be up for the challenge. I haven't used the stand that you are referring to, the only cupcake stand I have is the trees. Maybe someone else can give some ideas. Good luck..
Faye

You could probably use the tall tier Wilton stand for cupcakes??? I'd probably do that rather than buy a special stand for just cupcakes, unless that is what the bride wants.

Definately charge at least $3/each depending on how much decoration you will be doing. Cupcakes take longer to bake (more messing around) and can take longer to decorate.

I read on here sometime ago that a cupcake was actually more than a standard wedding cake slice .... one-and-a-half or twice maybe? So if your wedding cake price is $3.00, then your cupcake price should be at least $4.00 I would think.

I also don't like doing cupcakes because they are more work. I price mine at $5.00 because I WANT them to go to Walmart!

There are some threads around here someone where someone did their own "homemade" cupcake stands, and they looked great. They were able to sorta "match the theme" I guess, like you would a cakeboard. I'll do some searching around for the threads. And I can't help with pricing, I'm bad at that, but I just assume 1 cupcake equals 1 serving; I mean, are they really going to cut them in half?

Here's what I was thinking about...

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-22674-cupcake.html+tree

Oh, gotcha. I guess if you have one of those price lists, it could help with the cost of the raw material, compared to if it was a cake, right? But, don't they cut wedding cake slices smaller than normal anyway?

Smaller than normal what? A wedding cake slice is traditionally a 4x2x1". So when we price our wedding cakes "per serving" or "per slice", it's based on this dimension.

All I'm suggesting is that you figure how much actual batter you will use for this order compared to how much batter used for a 3-tiered. I don't know for sure that it's different. I'm just sharing what I read on other threads.

I've seen lots of different lists that suggest serving size based on pan size; there are so many different ones. One will say serves 10, one will say serves 15. I just thought that wedding cake was traditionally cut smaller than a regular cake, like for a birthday, that's all.

I got this off here a while back. Looks pretty simple and if you don't get it back no big loss.
It's make of foam core board. You could work the supplies into your price.

http://www.k-boutique.com/cupcake_stand.pdf

Judi

Once I did 100 cake booties for a baby shower. They were then placed individually in a box AND then I had to tie a ribbon on each. I have no interest in EVER doing that again!!! And to think that I had cupcakes at my wedding!
Price them at $3.50 because you're in for a lot of work.
Any cake stand you have is fine for cupcakes, too. No need for incurring in more costs, unless the client wants to rent a stand you can use.
Let us know what you decide!
Marie

Cupcakes are more work than a basically decorated (rough iced) wedding cake for the same amount of people. Cupcakes are likely going to have a squirt of icing or a rough-ice, not something incredibly pretty no matter how well done, but to do a whole cake rough iced takes a lot less time than rough icing 108 cupcakes.. It also takes more time to bake the cupcakes as you can only do a limited number at a time and have to measure out each and every one with a scoop instead of just dumping the batter into the pan once along with the added materials cost of the paper or foils..

Granted, cupcakes and I haven't exactly found our marriage yet, so it's work in progress... OTOH, I don't mind doing mini cupcakes for tastings or bridal shows but they're still a PIT ...

What I charge is $3 for a smooth iced or fondant coated cake minimum... But for cupcakes, it is $1 each or $3.25/pp for 4 mini cupcakes (2 standard and two choice varieties), $3.50 for a standard cupcake (just a swirl of icing), and $5 for a "Texas Sized" cupcake..

they really are so much work, i did like 10 dozen once...with a buttercream rose on every one.

ugh

and i way way undercharged...felt like i was making roses forever!

I think cupcakes are so easy if done with a tube. I charge $1 each for squirted icing and fondant heart. Then the prices jump for more difficult decorations. I tell them to provide the stands and I don't set them up. I would charge extra for these things.

Wow....I am so glad to see this post! I am doing a cupcake wedding the first weekend in June. Serving 300 (subject to be increased). There will be 5 flavors of cake, each with it's own color of icing and 5 different decorations to coordinate with the flavor of cake. I"m using silver foil liners and have found a supplier of cupcake cartons that each hold 12. Wedding cake prices for this area start at $2 per serving for buttercream icing and basic decor. My cake flavors are cherry chocolate (cherry cordial baked into fudge cake), tart lemon with lemon buttercream, pumpkin with ivory buttercream, white almond sour cream cake with almond buttercream, and a fifth flavor that is yet to be decided. The decor will be ribbon roses, royal pansies, gumpaste daisies, candy-melt initial G's, and gumpaste hearts with hand-painted gold "plaid" accents. All of my decorations will be made in advance. I will bake the cupcakes on Thursday evening and Friday and decorate as I go, delivering for a Saturday evening wedding.

I am way stressed over the pricing. This wedding is the daughter of a dear friend.....and though I am going way overboard with the details, I want to be somewhat in the ballpark of the local competition.

$4/per is out of the question. I think they'll wince at $3, but I really think that is unbelievably fair for the detail that I'm providing.

Any "small town" decorators out there with advice/opinions.

Oh yes~ The wedding is outdoors, and victorian in style. The bride has collected an eclectic grouping of antique serving plates that will be elevated at different heights to serve the cupcakes from.

Thanks for all the input!

I'm going to work on a quote for her tomorrow. She has a pretty stand she likes that she showed me (doesn't own it, though) and it's all CLEAR, clear bases, clear pillars between bases. No IDEA how or where to find one like that, or whether I should.

She wants more or less smooth iced cupcakes (not swirls) with a gumpaste or buttercream rose on about half of them.

Oy...

I was thinking I'd do $2.75 (my sheet cake price), but I'll have to really take a look at it tomorrow.

Fire away with more tips--I need all the help I can get on this one.

On cupcake stands...there's a decorater in Europe, I believe, who has great acrylic and glass stands. Her business is Maisie Fantaisie....and she has great ideas. She uses acrylic pillars and sits glass circles on them. I'd have to use some double-stick tape dots or something to feel secure with the set up...but it is gorgeous. Way nicer than the cheap cardboard set-up that some US suppliers market. But pricier also.

I've seen the cardboard ones in the Decorating store.

The tall Wilton stand would work and you could always use it again.

I had a Bride ask me once if I would do a pie at each table. I told her no.

Hmm, wonder if I could buy glass circles somewhere...hardware store...glass shop? Then I've seen them stacked on wine glasses, too, but who has that many wine glasses?

interesting...

I did briefly work up her order on my matrix, and it works out to $3.00 a serving being about where I need to be. If she says no; well, no loss.

I would like to shoot however came up with the cup cake wedding cakes. They are so much more work, and for some reason the brides seems to think they should be way cheaper because "there just cupcakes"
I would stick to the $3.00 per cupcake.



melody

okay, indydeb, I was going to say that exact same thing! I too personally find them tacky.
birthday party, yes
pig roast, yes
small church celebration, yes
casual celebration, yes
wedding, tacky.

just my 2 cents too.


melody

I can still remember the first day I every heard of it. My co-worker's daughter was getting married and say a picture in a magazine. She called all over trying to find someone to do it. The bakeries didn't know what she was talking about. Finally one said they would give it a shot. She hated it.

Heh

I agree with you guys, sorry to say...I find them tacky, too, and I swore I'd never do one. And this is for an evening wedding at one of our nicest venues... whatever

But I could use the $ this time, and she sent me actually a pic from an expensive web site where the cupcakes were like $10 ea, so $3 should be a bargain anyway. If not, well, I don't need the $ that bad...

Still....I'm SO not going to advertise that I *do* them now, lol!

She is going to think $3 is a bargin

I have seen cupcake towers executed here by other bakers in this area over the years (we own reception halls), and OMG, they look HORRIBLE.. They get the whipped on frosting (not even a piped frosting to give it the "cutesy" look.. They're spending thousnads on decorating an elaborate room, getting prime rib for their meal, and the worst is that every caterer on our list INCLUDES the price of the cutting in their per plate rate as a "freebie!" (like no extra charge for it!)..

Anyways, suffice to say I agree that they look horribly tacky as a guest going to a wedding, though they are slightly better than aluminum pan sheet cakes, but still... Ugh... It's the old "Charge what you need to so that you don't feel resentment the entire time you're up all night doing the work".. Especially since cupcakes don't exactly keep for that long before getting dried out..

Btw... it was Martha who first made cupcake wedding cakes popular, and when they did Martha Apprentice I think Sylvia Weinstock was talking with one of the groups and flat out said "they're tacky" or something to that effect and Martha took issue to it... The thing is, the best way to deter someone from having cupcake towers is to price them the same or higher than a wedding cake all-around whether it's for a kids party or wedding, they require the more work regardless of the event.

you go girl. That's all what I always think, but here I am considering doing one.

Strangely enough, she hasn't gotten back to me on her $475 cupcake order...

I charge the same for a plain cupcake, just a swirl of icing and no filling, as I do for a regular cake serving. If there is to be ANYTHING extra as far as decoration, I charge extra for that. Extra for filling. Extra if they want ribbon tied around each one, which is a complete pain! I HATE doing cupcake weddings. Usually by the time they realize what all those extras will add up to, they go back to wanting a normal cake!