I have me first real possible cake order. She called with a simple frosted cake in mind for her daughters birthday that has now morphed into some extravagant fondant covered cake with stars and petit four presents shooting off the top and twinkling christmas lights around the edge. I am not super skilled in fondant so I wans thankful when she said she didn't like it and preferred not to have much on the cake. The next day I received a bunch of pics she found online and all the cakes are completely covered in fondant. She has said a few times that she watches all the cake shows with her kids and raves about the cakes around them all the time so she thinks they want more than a normal child should care for. Other decorators have told her upwards of over $350 for a 2 tiered 8" and 10" round cake or they just don't have the time. She knew I was going to give her a better deal since I am so new (and I may be her last resort). Now I think I am being taken advantage of.

Question: How do I explain to this lady (that was a referral of a good friend) that I am probably not the best fit for what she is expecting for her daughters cake?

Oh and by the way...Her daughter is 5 yrs old!!! I wanted to (but didn't) tell her she is creating little cake snobs in her kids! (we can't be those until we are much older than 5 yrs old)

My response that puts them on alert as far as pricing:

"Oh I LUV Ace of Cakes, too! Did you know...?" (she said in a conspiratorial whisper), "That he has a $1000 minimum on his cakes? And I'm tellin' ya, the cakes you see on his show are no where NEAR a lousy thousand dollar cake. The good news is that I'm not QUITE that expensive .... Now, what were you looking for?"

indy... you are my hero!

indydeb, you're hysterical...

Yeah, she is trying to take advantage of you. And I'm sure I'll hear the rude comment, BUT if you don't feel you aren't expierenced enough to do the cake, don't. And if you feel you can do the cake, you charge FULL PRICE! There is no such thing in my book as "Not enough expierence" prices. And I TOTALLY respect you for recongizing this may be beyond you. I think how you asked the question, is how I would tell the lady. "I don't think I'm a good fit for what you want. I would hate for you to be dissapointed and I you should find another person to do your cake". And if she insist, stand firm and say, I'm sorry but no.

10,000% agree w/ LaBellaFlor.

Heh heh....send those snobs MY way. That's who I want.

And I'll slap the cheap right outta them!

I agree with LaBellaFlor - if you think you can make the cake, do it and get paid for it! If you can't do it, then just say "I'm new to this and I don't think I'll be able to meet your expectations, so I'd prefer not to make the cake". Then tell her to come back for her 6th bday, because you'll be rocking and rolling by then for sure. =o)

You want the...cake snobs?

Yes, LaBella's got it. Just say no sorry. Simple cake yes--fa la la la la la la la la--nope. But even if she backs off--she's not gonna get what she wants so I'd totally back out of this deal.

Besides, trust me, petit fours are a b*tch!--You don't want to do those for money the first time. They are heart breakers! Yes I know they look like harmless innocent teeny tiny cutie pie little cakelettess. Huh ugh!! They are dangerous relentless enemies of the state ~ your state of mind that is.

Lol at Mike....yeah, I have no room to laugh, actually. Oh man....good times, well erm, no not really. But I can pretend they were!

You guys are awesome! I think I will be backing out of this deal. She can head herslf down to the local QFC.

And we are sorry about getting off track from your topic with Mike's & Jaime's Pabst hay days!. (insert the finger wagging smiley)