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Ack!! Wedding cakes for $1.35/slice??

post #1 of 18
6/5/06 at 11:56am
Thread Starter 
Ok, I live in a fairly big town/city (about 200,000 people) in southern Indiana. When I got into cake decorating a few months ago, I called up one cake person and asked her price per slice for wedding cakes. She said $2/slice, which is what I was thinking I should charge. So that's what I'm telling people. But I had heard people getting 3 tier cakes for around $100 and couldn't believe it. So I just called a local bakery/donut shop with several stores in and around town. They said they start at $1.35! That's walmart's frozen-cake-icing-slapped-on-no-real-decoration price! So I thought, "ok, they're a big enough bakery (even though only one store does wedding cakes) they can do that." Then I called a small bakery that a lot of people seem to like and they said the same thing! I don't see how these places are making a profit. Granted the one is a donut place and they're always busy, and I know the other has other goodies they sell, but still. What I found kind of funny was their fondant cakes start at 2.50 for the big bakery and 3.00 (over double the price of their butter cream) for the small one and I was planning to charge about that price. So why so cheap on the buttercream ones?

I don't plan to drop my prices just yet, just thought I'd share what I found out. Kinda blew me away. I haven't gotten any orders for my $2/slice, but I've only had one person ask about prices so far too. So not too worried yet.
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post #2 of 18
6/5/06 at 12:29pm
A lot of times that is their base price, then they add a certain amount for decoration, a certain amount for fillings and flavors and anything else. At some of the places I've seen, you only get a plain cake for the base price. You might want to check and see what it is you get for that price.

And bakeries are cheaper a lot of the time because they buy everything in bulk and are tax exempt when they purchase. They also don't generally offer the amount of "custom" work that a wedding cake designer might offer. There are a lot of factors to be considered.
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post #3 of 18
6/5/06 at 1:33pm
I quoted a graduation cake for $1.00 a slice with $.25 per person for filling a couple of weeks ago. The lady was appalled when I then said that any decorations & etc. (figurines, diploma & graduation cap) would be additional. Needless to say - she didn't order the cake. It was going to be for 100 people. Granted, I live in a small town in Texas but I barely break even when I do a cake for those prices. I was only charging $2.00 extra for the graduation figure & etc. It costs me that much + shipping. On the other hand, the graduation book cake that is in my gallery was for $55.00. The lady that ordered it didn't even blink at the price.
"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles..." Isaiah 40:31
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"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles..." Isaiah 40:31
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post #4 of 18
6/5/06 at 1:39pm
[quote="K8-T"]A lot of times that is their base price, then they add a certain amount for decoration, a certain amount for fillings and flavors and anything else. At some of the places I've seen, you only get a plain cake for the base price. You might want to check and see what it is you get for that price.


Yeah...it would be interesting to take in a fairly nice picture of a cake from a nice website and see how much they would charge for it. I've thought of posing as a mother of the bride several times and just checking these "cheap" places out - to see how cheap they really are, when the rubber meets the road.
Everything's better with sugar on it!
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Everything's better with sugar on it!
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post #5 of 18
6/5/06 at 1:40pm
Hi!! I am from Southern Indiana too! What city are you in?

I would keep your prices the same as they are. People will pay your prices for the quality of work verses places that make mass amounts and don't takes as much time and effort in their cakes.
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post #6 of 18
6/5/06 at 1:47pm
Thread Starter 
See the bigger bakery I could kind of understand, and yeah I don't know what all that included, probably not much. But the smaller bakery really surprised me because their cake is pretty good (dense, moist, but with the thick icing it's all just too sweet for my liking). Plus I think the smaller bakery is just owned by one or two women and I thought it would be comparable to what I was charging.

What made me call was this weekend I saw the picture of a girl's wedding cake and she got it from there. It was a 3 tier heart cake (probably 12", 9" 6"), all white with some kind of red decoration (it was 1am and I didn't get a good look lol). And I asked out of curiosity how much it was and she said she got that and a grooms cake (don't know what it looked like) and she thought for a minute and said about $100. I figured she was way off and so I decided to call the place, that's why I was shocked when they said $1.35, cuz then she probably did get all of that for $100-120. No way I could or would do it for that price. Not worth my time and energy lol
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post #7 of 18
6/5/06 at 1:51pm
I am doing my first wedding cake in September and I am charging 125.00 for it. 3 tiers(6,8,10 inch square) white with purple and pink buttercream roses for 75 people. It works out to be 1.67 a slice. She was THRILLED!!! I on the other hand am SCARED to death to make the thing...LOL I am also delivering it to her church about 20 minutes away. This too scares the living daylights out of me!!
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post #8 of 18
6/6/06 at 2:06pm
When I was getting married there is no way I would have found a cake that cheap. Most places wanted 2.50 per person and up. And I mean they went WAY UP from there - we could have easily spent $500-600 on our wedding cake for 120 people. That was in Massachusetts.

In fact, this post had my curiousity piqued and I did some research online. Even cake studios in places like rural Iowa charged over 2.00 a slice depending on the style of the cake. I really think you are selling yourself short if you do a wedding cake for less. Maybe a bakery that has the ability to whip out cakes in an "assembly line" way could do it for 100 bucks, but I don't know of many private bakers who would find that cost-effective. And professional wedding cake shops will never do it for anywhere NEAR that price!
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post #9 of 18
6/7/06 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennifer293

I am doing my first wedding cake in September and I am charging 125.00 for it. 3 tiers(6,8,10 inch square) white with purple and pink buttercream roses for 75 people. It works out to be 1.67 a slice. She was THRILLED!!! I on the other hand am SCARED to death to make the thing...LOL I am also delivering it to her church about 20 minutes away. This too scares the living daylights out of me!!



I took a wedding cake three hours away a couple of weekends ago...I was VERY scared too, but this is the trick:

Put each layer in a box that's quite a bit bigger than the layer. For example, for an 8 inch layer....use a 12" box fitted with a 12" cake board (this will keep it stable). Put a square of non-stick rubber shelf liner, and then set the 8" cake on it's board on top. Tape the box so that it is almost closed, but not quite. It worked perfectly!
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post #10 of 18
6/8/06 at 6:16am
thanks for the advice!!! I will definitely do that!!
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post #11 of 18
6/8/06 at 2:35pm
I live in Nashville. There is a lady here who is very popular. She charges $9.00 a slice, with a minimum order of 100 slices. Now, that's a lady with a very good reputation, she does celebrity weddings. BUT! Don't we all hope to one day do that? I know I do....... hope. I can't do it yet.

I think probably the ladies you speak of, who are doing cakes for that low price are like so many others, undercharging, and not making much money.

I think it all depends on the quality of your work, your confidence level (and I think this is the big thing, because not only do you have to be confident that your work is good, you also have to be confident enough to charge a good price without blinking, or offerring one of those silent, don't-realize-your-offerring-it, apologies.) and, to some extent, your area.

We've all got to start somewhere. We can't all charge what Colette charges when we are starting out. I've found that you start at a rate you're comfortable with. Do you want to make decent money, or just get your name out there? Then, as your business grows, and your demand increases, you up your prices. When you are overbooked, it is time to raise your prices. Eventually, you are at the price you want to be (hey, maybe it's 9.00 a serving) and you have as much work as you want to have.

There you go, my two cents.
Home and Garden Party Designer
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Home and Garden Party Designer
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post #12 of 18
6/11/06 at 4:17pm
I haven't done any wedding cakes personally, but my three tier stacked white cake with Italian buttercream and fondant with fondant ribbon roses for 115 people cost about $3.50 a person plus delivery and all that extra stuff (about $400-425 total). I thought that was a good price from someone who only takes on one order a weekend and it was beautiful!

Michelle
No longer baking and caking. Medical transcriptionist and Thirty-One Gifts independent consultant.
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No longer baking and caking. Medical transcriptionist and Thirty-One Gifts independent consultant.
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post #13 of 18
6/11/06 at 4:22pm
I've heard on this site many times to not compare yourself with walmart and don't be afraid to charge more than they do.

Your cakes are more personal, one-of-a-kind and heck of a lot better than walmart, not just a plain-jane kinda thing that was slapped together.

I had someone turn down a full size sheet cake from me b/c they'd already checked with walmart. They told me walmart only charges $40 for a full sheet cake, they were kinda rude and told me they were just gonna go with walmart. I politely said thank you and we each hung up.
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post #14 of 18
6/11/06 at 4:33pm
The key is to cover your costs....and make a profit.

It is up to each of us to decide what our time is worth.

True...if you price your cakes higher you may not get as much business..but why make something..put your heart a soul into it and not make any money at it?

I watched a gal at my local bakery(Supermarket bakery) drag a huge pail of "buttercream" out of her storage closet, open it and plop a nice big pile of it on top of a cake she was frosting. The woman standing next to me said "OMG...no wonder their cakes taste like S...".. icon_surprised.gif ....I kept my mouth shut..handed her one of my cards..went to the next aisle and had a good laugh.

What DO people think they are going to get at those prices?
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post #15 of 18
6/11/06 at 4:42pm
Laughing my butt off at IHATEFONDANTS last response. I had sort of a similiar experience at the big cheap chain grocery store. I saw them taking the frozen blocks of cakes out of the cardboard boxes and blobbing bucket icing on them. Then to make it really special, they airbrushed the cake with colors that looked like they came from Kmart, pre Martha Stewart. Yea, I could hear the prices falling on that one. icon_lol.gif
You look marvelous!!!!
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You look marvelous!!!!
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