I was asked to try to duplicate this cake that was made by "cake boss". It will feed 150 people. I'm only having her reimburse me for the cost of supplies. However, I'm curious what "He" would charge and what a legal home bake would charge for this cake. Thanks for your ball park estimates.
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Hello, if they wanted this exact same cake with the huge mask and all you would need to break each item down and thats how you get your cost. Cost of flower, there are about 20 on cake, price how much you charger for each flower, i do $3 o rmore. Then you have 2 giant pinapple heads, consider your rice krispies, modeling chocolate and time it will take to make these 2, i would price them as $60. Then you have little heads-6 of them, i would charge $20 a piece. Then you have your sheet cake to feed 150, that would be $200 plus the details on it. The mask itself will take forever so i would charge $100 for that, grand total being around $600, and that is on the cheap side... im sure cake boss charges several thousands..

When your pricing stuff out take each item on the cake indivisually and price the pieces out with your time

Wow $600???? With all that detail work to go into it?? OUCH! Wedding cakes cost more than that lol

true! LOL, $600 on the very cheap side. I took into consideration that the only cake is sheet cake, the rest is made out of foam or krispies.., I also assumed client would supply torches and i didnt account for cost of board. Also its hard to price out a cake for someone else. Everyone has different prices they charge for different things according to ability and location. The hardest part on this is the large mask...in my opinion. Im sure alot of other people on here would charge 1000 and up, so its whatever your comfortable with and how long you think it would take you. Delivery also would be alot for this cake because of size...

Don't forget the cost of the board and tiki torches and the bamboo border. Do you already have the pans,cutters for the flowers and the bamboo mold? If not add that total cost including shipping to the cost of the cake. $200 for a custom sheet cake that feed 150 is considered extremely low in my area. No decorations just baked and frosted would be $300 to me.

I agree with Shanny's layout of the work but start with your base pricing for a cake that feeds 150 people and add up from there. Do you have a price per hour you pay yourself? If not you need to figure one out. Also over estimate your time a bit. It always takes longer than we think to make things like the pineapple heads

It's an awesome cake but for me I'm a little slow so I would need to be really careful in estimating my time. My gut says at least $800.

That's about what I thought the cost would be. I'm only charging for the supplies though. I could have made a fortune if I charged the actual cost of the cake,

I hope you really really love this person because that cake is a TON of work and I would seriously resent doing it at cost If it's not a loved one I would actually back out and just tell them after evaluating the amount of work you can not do it at cost.

For some of us who have less experience, taking on something like this is an opportunity to get outside of our comfort zone without having to invest lots of our own $$$. I don't know where this baker is experience wise but for me I'm always looking for an opportunity to do something I haven't before and won't charge full price for something I've never attempted before and not sure how it will turn out. And that cake.................wow, that's really an undertaking for anyone. Good luck. Hope you'll post your finished product. I'm sure you'll do a great job.

Thanks all. I have a bad habit of saying, sure, whatever you want and then saying, sh*t, that's what you want???! I used to do a lot of cakes, but when I moved to Florida, I started doing only a couple a year, as I don't think I can legally do it from my own kitchen, so that is why I do it for cost. I'm changing a few things, as I think they did sort of a sloppy job on it. The flowers, all sugar paste are hibiscus, orchids, antheriums and plumerias. (flowers you would find in Hawaii). Also, the volcano could have been nicer I thought, and I will be making it from cake. Only the little tiki's will be cereal treats. The mask on top will be elevated over the volcano instead of in front of the volcano w/o the hole on the middle. It will be cake as well. I'm a little concerned about having to drive this beast 4 hours to the location site, so I need to plan my structure well. Any suggestions are welcome. You ladies are the best, thank you.

o my! you are making the volcano and other toppers out of cake! That would just up my price by soo much.... especially for doing this at cost, i would make it as easy on yourself as possible and make only the sheets out of cake, especially with transporting that far. My hats are off to you!! and good luck.

On transportation, make sure the board fits in your car and check your height

Good luck to you!! I remember that cake the reason for the hole was someone blew fire thru it. And I agree some of there cakes could be better than what they are esp. for the $$.