Customer wants a cake like this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_U56yhynHDXY/S9ZMReDsyLI/AAAAAAAAA98/R8gR8zn-OIk/s1600/Rich+chocolate+cake+decorated+with+white+Belgian+chocolate+curls,+tied+with+golden+organza+ribbon+and+topped+with+blueberries,+blackberries+and+raspberries..jpg

The rolled chocolate is something I've never done before.

How long does this technique usually take if say you make at least 200 for a 3 tier cake, and would that even be enough. I've seen the tutorial, but she doesn't really say how long it takes.

I'm thinking about charging $85 for a 3 tier cake 6",10", 14" including labor and supplies. Too much, or too little?

Thanks in advance!

Yes $85 but just for the 6". You're way underpriced, I would say no less than $600.

*Choke* $85 is WAAAAAAAAY to low!

You're looking at cake to serve between 103 and 128 with fresh EXPENSIVE fruit! At $85 you are planning to charge $0.73 a serving! You CAN'T MAKE IT FOR THAT!

I'm not sure of the pricing of fruit where you are but, we pay about $4.00 for 5 ounces of raspberries here.

Even at $3.00 a serving you are only talking between $309. and $384. and that's just the cake, that doesn't include the fruit and the white chocolate cigarellos. Not only are they gonna cost ya some bucks, I'm guessing there's gonna be a learning curve that goes with them. I see lots of hours in making those bad boys.

Even my hubby said at least $500. - and all I told him was the sizes of the tiers and how many it would serve.

You need to sit down and figure out your out of pocket cost. Including ingredients, boards, supports, frosting behind chocolate, cost of chocolate and fruit. Determine your baking time, icing time and time you think it will take to make the choc rollsx2 and decorating and construction time. Pay yourself at least $10 an hour for ALL of your time, add that to your out of pocket expenses and I think that will give you a minimum price. This is a big cake and a lot of work don't do it for less than you are worth

I agree with everybody here. I would also suggest you invest in Cake Boss software. You can plug in all the information on ingredients and labor and it will tell you how much it cost to make. At $85 for the whole cake and not just maybe a little 6" thing without the fruit, you are way underpricing yourself.

I also think those cigarellos can be purchased. I was just reading about this in a book somewhere. I cannot remember which one. If I come across it again, I'll post it here.

Do yourself a favor and do not agree to do this cake for that little bit of money. Where I used to work we would do a BC covered cake with a little bit of fondant accent for decoration (mainly little dots) and writing for a 10" cake was $100. This is just to give you an idea of how low you are selling yourself.

You can buy the chocolate cigarellos pre-made but not for the price you were thinking about. http://www.pastrychef.com/CHOCOLATE-CIGARETTES_p_701.html Those were 8 inched tall so you can cut them in half for 4 inch cake.

I agree with everyone on everything they said about the price. Would love to know though where you saw the tutorial on making them yourself? I would like to watch it. Thanks!!

I don't think that price will even cover your costs. You need to figure out your costs first and go from there, last thing you want to do is loose money making a cake,

Maria, im not the OP but there is a great YouTube video on how to make these. I just googled 'Chocolate cigarettes youtube' and it was the first or second one. He makes them look a lot easier than I think they are but I haven't tried them yet. They are really pretty though.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-694973.html

Have you seen this thread about pricing?

Your NUTS!!!

There is no way you should even think about maing this cake for $85!! The Fruit alone on that cake is about $30 + $150 for the Cigarillo's wether you buy them or do them by hand + Ribbon $5 + Cake Drum $5+ 6hrs of baking/decvorating time $60 + $30 in ingrediants. That alone is $280 and thats a rough estimate not including any profit!!

Sillywabbitz, thanks for the youtube info. I'm going to check it out now.

based on the circumference of 6, 10 & 14" tiers, and assuming you roll each roll about 1/3" thick, you will need about 300, not 200. And if you roll them smaller, say 1/4" thick, you'll need closer to 400 rolls. Though I'd make extra in case some break during the process.

Do you mean $85 EXTRA for the white chocolate? That's still too low, those are a pain to make.

Sorry, I meant $85 for the white chocolate work, not the whole cake. I'm not insane! I've never made the cigarellos before.

Here is the Tutorial, Maria46
http://cakecentral.com/articles/133/how-to-make-chocolate-cigarellos-natis-way

wow $85 , $85 just to buy the chocolate those things are hard to make and they also take time. chocolate is very delicate. you have to charge waaaaaaay more. but I wish you good luck