I have a friend that is wanting these two cakes for her wedding. I am meeting with her to discuss pricing soon and I am not sure what to tell her.

The bride's cake will be all buttercream with a fruit filling. The flowers will be provided by the florist. The groom's cake will be chocolate buttercream covered in ganache with chocolate mousse filling and fondant details.

Also, I am not sure what sizes to make them. (I've never done a wedding cake before.) They are expecting approximately 130 guests at the wedding. The top tier of the bride's cake will not be served.

What would you charge for these two cakes? And what sizes would you make the tiers? TIA!!!

Have you ever done a stacked cake? I looked in your photos (great gallery btw ) but didn't see any stacked cakes. Anyway, they are both very basic designs so I'd say your base price for buttercream cakes. I don't charge anymore for fondant than buttercream. Both cost about the same for me to make so I don't see any need for a price difference although some charge more for fondant.

Hey mamawrobin, thanks for your reply! No I have not ever done a stacked cake before. The wedding is not until September, so I have a little while to practice. I also plan on using the SPS cake stacking system, so I am not too worried about stacking them.

Unfortunately I don't typically do cakes in general, just cupcakes, so I am pretty clueless on pricing of even a basic non-tiered cake.

I found this website that might help you determine what size cake you will need for 130 people. Hope it helps! http://www.weddingcakelady.com/servingdata.html

If I were you I'd watch some tutorials on youtube on stacking cakes. You're going to need to level your cakes. You can't just "eyeball" a cake to level it. You need to buy a level if you don't already have one. You can buy a little plastic one at wal-mart for under $5.00 or for under $25.00 you can buy a laser level. But you DO need a level. It's essential to successfully stackiing cakes that your layers be level.

Wilton's website has a great serving chart to help you determine what size cakes to make to get the amount of servings that you need.

Call some of the bakeries in your area and see what they charge for basic buttercream cake per serving and this will give you an ideal where to start with setting your prices.

Great idea on ordering the SPS. Wise decision

karmarie, thanks for that website. I actually have a chart like that and it does help, but I guess what I am really wanting to know is whether I assume that everyone will have a piece of the bride's cake so I should make it large enough for 130 people. Or do I assume that some people will only have groom's cake so I should make the bride's cake for a little less than 130. Or do I just make each cake big enough to feed 130 people. That sounds just as confusing as I feel!

You get a count to go by. They gave you 130. That's the size cake you make.

Does $3 a slice sound like too much/too little for each of these cakes?

Why don't you call bakeries in "your neck of the woods" to see what they charge to figure out your price point? Every area is different.

I eyeball level my cakes and they come out perfectly level.

Based on this post, i went out and bought a cheap, $1.50, level for a wedding cake i'm doing this weekend. I have always eyeballed the two tier cakes i've made, but I want to be 110% sure this one is perfect.

I really don't see anything 'basic' about these designs. On the bridal cake there's some intricate filigree at the top and on the grooms cake it looks like it's covered in chocolate ganache with fondant logos and a fondant or gum paste mosaic. Very time consuming--and not inexpensive ingredients. The bakery I worked for would probably charge around $3.75 per serving for the bridal cake and around $4 per serving for the groom's--and $1.25 per chocolate strawberry. You need to find out what other food is being served...is there going to be alcohol, etc. She's having 130 people but not everyone will eat cake...especially if they've been noshing on heavy appetizers and drinking champagne and such. For the brides cake you might look at figuring close to 110 - 120 and the groom's cake maybe 50- 75. If you figure 130 servings for each cake there's going to be a LOT of waste! If there is worry about having enough servings, an extra sheet cake (which we only charged $2 per serving) can take up the slack. I just know from experience that unless the cake is the star of the reception table (that is, no extra munchies except nuts and mints), there's no need to bake more cake than necessary. If there's been dancing and eating and drinking, by the time they cut the cake, some people have left or are too full for more than a bite. I went to a wedding recently where I was looking forward to the cake...there was a lovely buffet, champagne, booze, you name it, flowing. I waited, and waited and waited while the bride and her groom were schmoozing the tables and doing everything but cut the cake. Two hours later we (and quite a few others) had left--and they still hadn't cut the cake! grrrr. Good luck!

I think I'll try the level tip as well. I made a 3 tier for my daughter's birthday "eyeballing it" and it was pretty level but it definitely wasn't exactly level - and you couldn't really tell until it was too late and it was all together. Probably nobody noticed this but me because it was so slight - but I did notice it. It is definitely better to be sure.

Don't forget to charge for all of the servings they are acutally receiving, not just the number they need (including the servings in the anniversary tier).

I would charge $4/serving for the groom's cake, due to the extra expense of all that chocolate.