The latest issue of bake magazine has an interesting article on pricing. The article is linked below, you can double-click on the page to see the article in text only format.

http://www.nxtbook.com/sosland/bake/2012_04_01/index.php?startid=0#/20

I really enjoyed that, thanks. My favorite quote in the article:

They may say, But I love that pastry, and Id pay more for it which is nice to hear, but Im never convinced.

I also leafed thru the other pages and found another article on Extreme Retail Cakes that quoted one of our local stars, Susan Carberry.

Me again. (Good magazine!) I found another article, Cost-Effective Production (p. 54-55) that talks about using fondant at a piping consistency for string work. I've never heard of that before. Have you ever done it?

"...Ask these questions about the customer: Will they notice? Will they care? Will they pay the difference? says Norman Davis, owner of The Sweet Life in Annondale, VA. Some cake artists say, I dont want to do it that way. Its cheating. Well, spend the extra time on that cake, and you will be lucky if you get $3 an hour. Davis also judges for the National Capital Area Cake Show in Washington, DC.

Both Davis and Brooks advocate using fondant at a piping consistency, as opposed to royal icing, for stringing on cakes for retail clients. For starters, the fondant is much easier to work with than royal icing. Also, royal icing has a very limited shelf life. Brooks says that replacing it with fondant saves time and simplifies the challenging task. In addition, the difference in appearance is arguably indiscernible from royal icing...."

I'm going to read some more, so I may be back.

Thanks for the link Jason. So much good stuff packed in that magazine. I'm so going to start experimenting with piping-consistency fondant. I believe someone here tried it in one of the pics in the galleries. I wonder how long it would take for the fondant to set though.

Apti, you can melt down regular solid fondant so it is pourable. I have several UK cake books showing that technique. I think they mostly do it for icing cupcakes. And of course there is also poured fondant which can get hard as it sets.

Annandale is right down the road from me. If that guy piped string work in liquid gold, they would still buy it.

Thanks for the link. That magazine is a gold mine of information!