Ok, I actually replicated one of the cakes from this book, which was probably the least complex. It was the hand painted homage to linoleum cake and each layer took me about three hours to hand paint. I agree that it really isn't complicated, but time consuming. To be honest, there is not a whole lot you can do ahead of time. You can make the chalice, pearls and perhaps the Ursala's at the base in advance. This cake has a lot of detailed piping work and then she goes back and paints it all by hand. In fact, I am sure most of us would airbrush the color on first and then proceed with the piping, etc...but she doesn't. She does it all by hand. In my opinion, for what it is worth, do not charge anything less then $10,000. I would even go so far as to do a dummy cake before hand for practice. I know for myself, it always takes more time then I think when I am attempting something for the first time. Good luck.....this sounds like a great opportunity.
post #46 of 156
7/16/07 at 7:48am
