AI do cakes as a side hobby though the hobby is growing and growing. I have a Facebook page I recently made to show my cakes. My question is this. Thursday evening someone emailed me abou a smash cake they need made for Saturday am and only want to spend around $10. As many of you understand, I put a lot of time and effort into the cakes, making the fondant getting each detail just right. I take pride in that and I am offended that someone thinks I would be able to do one at such a short notice and pay only $10 for it! How would you tactfully respond to this? I'm utterly speechless.

You can phrase it one of several ways.

1. I'm sorry, but smash cakes are only available when I make the main birthday cake and for that I charge a minimum of ______.

2. I have a minimum price for my cakes and I can make this for you, but it would cost _____. (Enter a number that fully accounts for the actual time and effort you would put into making this ridiculously small cake.)

3. I'm sorry, but I am fully booked for Saturday.

4. I only accept orders with a minimum of 1 weeks notice.

HTH

There is NO tactful answer LOL

$10???   (((((speechless)))))     I am a firm believer in using instances like this to EDUCATE the consumer - by simply saying... I am booked....  or..... I need a minimum of weeks notice   - we are sort of validating the $10 option - when in reality - $10 will NEVER be enough !  and they need to know this.

You need to tell them that $10 would not even cover your ingredients let alone ANY of your time - do a quick calculation in your head to figure out what you think a more realistic figure might be - lets just use $60 as a hypothetical - THEN you need to ask yourself IF you are happy to spend time shopping for ingredients, making, baking, decorating, cleaning for THIS SMALL AMOUNT  - if you start to think ... mmmm maybe NOT!

Thats where your minimum price comes in - you need to set the bar at the rate that it becomes worth your while to spend time working.   Larger enterprises will often have a much smaller minimum order.
I see people spending an entire day in their kitchen and they walk away with twenty bucks for their effort - MADNESS!   I would rather spend time playing with my grandaughter!!   Nobody LOVES cake decorating THAT much and if you do - and practice this for too long - you soon WON"T !!!

PS.... Smash cakes have only just started gaining popularity here - 99% of the time they are just for a Photoshoot - and they are rarely fondant covered - mostly a really soft type of buttercream - ie. something that will quickly and easily be 'destroyed' and make a load of MESS! hehe