I DO have my prices on my website, along with all of my flavors, etc. I get an email today, that was sent from the contact page on my website. She's asking me to send her prices and flavors. There are 2 tabs at the top. One says "Prices", one says "menu". Even if you give it to them, they don't get it.

i LOVE your blog indey!!im going to start refering it to my customers..lol..discreetly of course..hahah

Back in the day when most of the kids birthday cakes were character pans it was pretty cut and dry and the cost was about $20-$25. But now I have them emailing me pictures of the outfit jr. or princess is wearing at the party so I can get the colors and design just so. Okay whatever. But I seriously had one lady email 75 emails over a 3 month period about her daughter's 1st birthday cake, another elaborate extravaganza of 3 tiers and whatnot but she only wanted it to serve 15 people and didn't understand 3 tiers = 75 servings and the price would be xxxx and yada, yada, yada. My kids can understand this concept.

im gettting alot of ppl who surf the web and find an extravagant cake that they want replicated..i dont mind doing that but im thinking that because im small town..they want me to do it at walmart prices..my time is valuable and from my point of view is you would have never called me if you wanted an ordinary cheap cake so dont expect an ordinary cheap price

I FEEL your pain on the small town thing! I live in a town of 500, but cater to many surrounding metro areas. But the people that are local to me... there are some that understand the value in what they're getting the others just think that's waaaay too much money for a cake in a small town. Sorry. I don't offer geographical discounts.

When I first started in the cake biz, I almost gave cakes away. Then I started valuing my time (and an eventual paycheck) and started charging more and more. I would get calls everyday asking about a cake on my website and when I told them the price... 'click'! Putting my prices on my website was the best thing I ever did.

I have been haggled by the best and I refuse to lower my price unless the client wants to decrease the number of servings or the complexity of the cake.

When my brides begin to balk at price I remind them how many people they are serving and then say "If you took 400 of your closest friends to [insert name of really cheap sit-down restaurant chain] and bought them all dessert, how much do you think it would cost you? Your cake will certainly be more delicious and visually impressive than a hot fudge brownie!"

People magazine recently did a story on Buddy and Carlo's Bakery. Some of his cakes sell for upwards of $65,000!!!

Seriously, I have had rectal exams that were more pleasant than some of the meetings I have had with some brides. I had a bride call couple months ago, she had gotten my name from the florist and wanted to set up a meeting, her wedding was in a month. In our phone conversation she says "The cake is really not that big of a deal for me, I just want something really simply, I really don't want a design on the cake, the topper I purchased is to be the most spectacular thing about the cake. I really don't think it will take more than a few minutes to get the details ironed out" Okay whatever. So she comes out the next afternoon, fiancee in tow. And this is where is goes terribly wrong.

The samples are made, photo albums laid out, brides magazines for back up. We take our seats and I swear to you when she started talking I truly thought I had mixed up appointments, I actually got up and double checked my schedule. This could not possibly be the same woman I had a conversation with the day before. Here is bubblehead bridezilla before me and the cake that hadn't been very important 24 hours earlier suddenly became the axis on which the world was turning. She brought in the bride and groom topper (nothing that I haven't seen before) and I had to xerox the detail of the dress on the topper do I could replicate the design. No biggie, but then she had to slowly explain to me that she wanted that design on the cake from top to bottom but not to far apart but not to close and most assuredly not all going in the same direction. Then came the part of the meeting about size and shape and cost, I'll just let you use your imagination on how that went.

So after more than 2 1/2 hours of deliberations I was finally released to go on my merry way, one eye twitching and the other one rolling around. I wondered then what was keeping me from getting a job at the Dollar Store?

Seriously I just finished my second wedding cake... as I am very new to the decorating, and it was for a girl I work with, I offered to do it at cost.... she brings me a picture of the cake she wants straight off the publix webpage color and all. Ok no problem I figure around "$75 but let me go check prices and and get u a full cost up" she says np thats awesome cause she priced it with publix and it was $425!! One week later I bring her a DETAILED (no round on cost or taxes include) cost list and tell her its going to be 101.45 (not charging for colorings, dowels, boards, ect. or OH YEAH LABOR!!) and she FREAKS out!!!! She just doesnt "understand how the price went up that much" and goes on to say "I guess I just wont have a cake then cause the $75 is all I have got" . Me being the push over I am say no biggie I'll see where I can cut some the cost back. so I finish the cake and deliver it and she LUVS it and tasted AWESOME. Two days later I find out she is still fussing about the cost because my BEST friend (who doesnt do cakes at all) offered to do 200 cupcakes for $40.... yeah that was a slap in the face!

Thanks indydebi. If I ever get too old and crippled to do cakes I may take my storytelling on the road, since they told me I'm not nice enough to work at the Dollar Store

I read your blog and loved it. Gotta love someone who tells it like it is.