AOh kuuushi - I actually don't mind upsetting people - I wouldn't be doing any cake that I don't want to do - call it an age thing if you like but I've always been like that. Kathy

AGood Morning...

Barbara, your bird cage, would do it at least £65. If you are going to do a bit taller cake, like tiddy's, then more!!!

Kuuushi, three tiers, more than £350.

Hope all are well. Today's mission to make a dinosaur out of rice krispy. And then maybe get an order for two cakes for Saturday!!! Last minute cakes.....

AThanks bashini! :)

Days, I was gobsmacked when she sent me the pictures! I won't so anything remotely related to *** or drugs and she sent me both! Hahah!

Well I told her tuff tittys she's gonna have to choose something else!

AMorning Bashini, everyone else!

Well this time I'm close to your price, I gave her a price of £60, oddly enough I havn't heard from them since, I'm going to get my supplies this morning, which I told them, if I dont hear from her, then she's had it!

A4 hrs sleep is not good, I had Sarah all upset til 2 o'clock last night, her job is getting to her.

Then I started to think about me and cakes, am I'm charging too much? Or was I always overcharging so much that now my prices are as they should be and people dont like it now, who knows!!

ANanny, I saw on here a while back that you do not want to rely on Facebook orders as they think they can get everything cheaper band to focus more on your website.

Maybe that's where we're going wrong eh?

AAlso about Sarah, I get it. My job is getting me down too and it's not even the job it's the fecking people I have to work with. Tell her to give it all up and be a cake making duo!? :D

Nanny cook and co? Maybe? Hahaha

ATo be honest kuuushi I would say 85% of my orders come from talking to people in the Opticians where I work, I chat to customers too much in work, ha ha, funny that! I slip them my card or they take my phone number then ring me.

On FB its more, a friend of a friend thing.

Morning all

Haha Nanny cook and co I like it. I'm the same Kuuushi not a huge fan of the heat myself I think Alaska would suit me just fine.

Maisie have you heard from Leah if not she's just having to much fun to worry about giving mum a call.

Welcome to the thread Sarah I have PM you.

ABarbara, you simply cannot think like that. Please do not compare your cakes to someone else's. I know you are giving 100% or maybe more when you do your cakes and it shows. So don't ever think you are under charging!!! :)

I don't know much about cake prices but I definitely don't think you are over charging  Nanny I've never seen smoother cleaner looking cakes yours look more professional than most of the "professionals".

Maisie what size mix do you use in your giant cupcake tin, think I might give mine a try in the next week and take it into my nan's care home for the residents.Any tips on using it would be great baking time and temp etc,  I am going to use the homemade cake release recipe Petitecat posted to grease it.

AThanks all.

Doubt myself sometimes I guess. I think with me and after talking to all my fab new friends, and honestly I do class you as my friends, I realise like you said roxy that, yes my cakes are good, whereas before I charged what I though what they were worth, now,I realise I need to charge what I'm worth, and thats the difference.

Does that make sense or not?

On a positive note, my bird cage lady wants me to ho ahead with her cake. Yippee!!

Barbara - stick to your guns - honestly.  We all love a bargain for sure but when it comes to something that you cannot buy off the shelf, then you need to keep your nerve.  If I only had half your expertise I would be a happy lady.  As it is, I'm not that neat and my aim for this year is to get neater.  I love kuuushi's idea - the dynamic duo (but that's been used somewhere before!) - my daughter is very keen to get into this business - I have no idea what will happen when she graduates next year as a mechanical engineer!!!  Although some cakes are an engineering feat it's fair to say.  I think you cannot do everyone a cake for their price.  I plan to have a basic and a bespoke range.  Earlier this year I looked at buying an up and running business - not seriously but with a view to doing something in a couple of years.  I said to my husband that I thought their cakes were naff - his reply was quite pragmatic - he said that my trouble was I spent so long on my cakes that there was no profit left.  He's right to some extent.

Welcome Sarahmc34 - I only ever use the 1-2-2-2 ratio for my cakes - and something went wrong with mine last week....it was a bit dry.  Am trying to work out what went wrong :(

Kathy

That Makes perfect sense Nanny you just need to keep believing it and believing in yourself. I have to say I to consider you all my friends and have gained so much confidence with cakes since I started speaking to all you lovely people.

AI'm so with Roxy on that. I class you as my friends too and my confidence has shot up! Thank you all for that!

AKathy, a stern telling off from me here, lol.

Why would would you say that? Your no different to me!

Maybe between the pair of us we lack abit of confidence. Certainly thats the case with me, but tbh, now since being on here, you guys have help tremendously with help, encouragement etc, oh listen to me, bet you guys think, nanny gone off on one again??

Nanny I posted this on th ukbc forum yesterday but not sure if  you saw it :)

As I said before my cage is £65 and you wouldn't believe the amount of "How much?!" I get. I get far more no's than yes's but its the yes customers you are aiming for 

Also as I explained to Kuuushi, I get all my stuff wholesale, ingredients and cakey bits so that keeps my costs down, added to the fact that I am a ninja and do manage to do the cakes quite fast  this is also something you need to take into account.

What I tend to do if its a new design (like the golf bag) is cost it all up and add my profit. Do it for the given price and then once ive done it I know exactly how much time etc went into it and adjust accordingly. For anyone now wanting said bag the price was £50 more than the original customer had it for 

Your cakes are fab nanny! Hey I have several self hypnosis cds here and one is confidence...let me know if you would like one 

ASee Barbara, there are people who do appreciate what we do!!! Well done!!!

Tiddy,, that is lovely!!! Did you write it?

AMorning cakey peeps :-)

I think it was dad bakes cakes M4rvel,I'll check in a bit and post it here. I feel like asking him how it makes any sense to charge £2.50 extra to add an extra tier to a cake!?

Nanny, don't you dare go doubting yourself when you've just got round to realising that you're really good! I wrote this on the 'what to charge' thread that you posted on yesterday, and I think most of it applies here

ot just wedding cakes! A cake doesn't cost more just because it has an extra word in front of it.

People are just generally more willing to pay properly for a wedding cake than they are for little johnny's birthday cake, but that doesn't mean you should try and price low to get their business.

However low your prices, I can guarantee someone will tell you you're too expensive so there really is absolutely no point working at less than minimum wage. It really does no one any favours. You may as well price yourself at a point that makes sense now, because if you price low now you will have a really hard time trying to increase it later.

Nanny's cake is a case in point. My price for that came in at about £830. That price is fine for me where I am, but even if I'd dropped it by nearly £100 the bride still wouldn't have gone for it. Better to keep prices at a point that is fair for your market, skill and will earn you money rather than kill yourself working for nothing trying to please people who will think any amount is too much icon_smile.gif

How long is leah away for maisie? Do you hear from her whilst she's gone?

Light all night eh mb? That sounds great for me, as a person who runs and jumps into bed when I turn the light off :-D

AHi all

I'm not going to try to catch up because that would be impossible ! Hope everyone ok though? By jumping in I hopefully won't take long to get up to speed with all your busy lives !

I haven't had time to pop on at all lately but I'm confused, are you all on here or the other new thread ??

I'm in the middle of doing a ballerina themed cake atm, was going to try quilting with my stitching tool bit my choc cake doesn't come out very tall for some reason so not sure if sides would be too short ! Has anyone tried the lindy smiths choc cake from her book ??

Hi Jo how did the camping with the family go? I have tried the choc cake from Lindy book but it didn't rise much that's why I was asking yesterday for a chocolate sponge recipe, my family like the Lindy one but prefare a sponge one and mine is to soft to cover in SP.

Do your rise well Tiddy or am I doing something wrong?

3" Roxy  What type of oven are you using? Mine is an electric fan and I have to turn it right down for the chocolate cake. I cant remember off the top of my head but I think she says 160/150 but yesterday I did a 10" choc and turned it down to 130. Was in for 2 hours, 3" deep no dome at all. 

I do shout at everyone not to go near the oven mind as one of them opened the door before and sunk is not the word, so dont be tempted to peek 

Ive tried the Paul Bradford choc cake and just could not get it to work for me. This one is the one i will always use now. Talking of PB, ive just been on and he has a new course for this! So gotta have a go (been looking for a good use of the airbrush)

haven't been on there for a while now (which is silly as i have membership)

AI have an order soon for a white choc cake. I was going to do sponge with white choc around. But I think I'm going to try the white mud cake gray posted!

Jo - we are on both forums.  There is such a magnetic force pulling me on to CC!!  I do try to post stuff on the other one too - we need to boost the posts.  I think it's easier to chat on there though - or is it just me???  On here, it's seen by half the world! Lol.

Kathy

I think everyone feels the same CC is the place for chat but the other ones good for finding things oh and ranting and possible meet ups 

My oven is an electric fan oven also Tiddy but I split the mixture between two tins like I do with my sponge recipe will do it in one tine next time instead thanks.

That cake is cool when are you going to give it a try, I want to try a car or landrover or something for my brother in march so will be coming to you for tips