Sorry for asking this dreaded question, but in my defense, I've never asked it before.

Customer wants something like this:





only in cake form. I think there are 36 cupcakes hiding under there. Buttercream frosting. Could someone please tell me what cake size this would be?

She added that she "doesn't want the cake to be really pricey." So what do you think she expects me to charge for each of the 10 fondant toppers?

I would ask how many people she wants to serve and then do a square cake sized appropriately. You could consider doing a 1 layer cake instead of 2 layers to make it larger without costing much more. As far as the price, figure out the size first. The fondant pieces add up, so unless someone has a different idea, it may be more than she wants to spend.

bakerliz is right - how many does it need to serve, you can't start pricing until you can answer that? Doing a singler layer is a great idea to cut the cost! Just because she doesn't WANT it to be pricey doesn't meant that it won't be. Don't undersell your self.

I would charge $2.00-$2.50 per serving plus $3-$6 for each of the fondant pieces! Those are time consuming!

Maybe you can do the basic cake and let HER come up with candy versions of the make up. The birthday girl would rather have pretend edible makeup and candy necklaces and rings than fondant 'fakes'.

mommachris

If she doesn't want a pricey cake, maybe she should find something that doesn't have all those pieces! I charge per slice + decos for something like that. Charge what you think is fair and if she doesn't want to spend that much, she doesn't have to book the cake. You never know what someones idea of pricey is.... Maybe she think pricey is $10/slice, maybe she thinks its $2 lol. And if she doesn't like the price, offer a simpler version at a lower price. Definitely don't undersell yourself.