Has anyone looked at the decorator's other work? It's really not ALL terrible. Yes, there are some cakes that need help, and yes, the $340 wedding cake was a hot mess, but in all fairness, she does have some decent cakes on her website.
I too feel bad for the bride. It's such a huge part of the ceremony, and hopefully she got her refund.
AI'm got an order for a 9 by 13 jersey shirt cake. It's my first jersey shirt cake and am wondering what is appropriate to charge? It has oreo buttercream frosting in the middle. I'm also in Canada so......
Funny that last cake looks nothing like the original!! The only way you could do a cake that cheap is to do most of the layers in stryofoam and maybe 1 layer of real cake. Still just the fondant and decoration would come out pretty pricey! Big Fat Liar! That's what I think! :-)
LOLOL I'm so glad I ran across this thread today. I needed this laugh. I haven't read through all of them quite yet, only on page 3, but I must say you all have me dying laughing. Thank you CC community for brightening my Saturday
OH! (my bad!) I assumed that you meant the first cake, because who would ever want to to recreate the second? I'm sorry!
I am guessing here, in my educated way, but the pictures are hard to decipher size, since they are taken all wonky, and the cakes aren't centered properly. I am thinking there is a good possibility that it is a 4" square, 8" square, 12" round and 14" square, which is 194 servings, and would be $3.50 each for a total cost of $679. ($1 off from exactly twice the amount charged, interestingly enough )
I was thinking the same thing just about. Just saw the actual $340 cake and whether it's done poorly or not that's too cheap it seems large enough to be at least $600 AND the pics they cut into they're two flavors (no way)...maybe that's why there's a few mishaps. Maybe the baker really underestimated her time, got tired and figured "screw it, they're not paying anything" and did her best to finish IJS.
The first thing I noticed also was the bride did post "she" made the changes for the final design of the cake so the hot pink, etc. was her idea I suppose.
If someone has mentioned any of my statement, I'm not done reading through this thread yet, sorry.
AOkay I obviously have my pricing all wrong. I am just starting out with this whole paied cake thing. (Less than a year) I live in a pretty small town in Missouri and ppl just do not want to pay alot for a cake. This is the first and only wedding cake I have made. I did it as a favor for a girl I work with. I charged her $300 , after ingredients I only made about $80-90 profit. Keep in mind I have another full time job but would eventually love to do this full time. Can you all give me an idea of what you would charge? It is a 14, 12, 10, 8 and each teir was 6 inches tall. It served 200 ppl [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3072923/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
AWhen you say 6", do you mean that each tier had 6 layers?
Did she provide the banding?
For me, that cake is 194 servings x $4.50 = $873. That's before charging for pin tucking, tax, or delivery.
ASorry I shouldve been more specific. When I said 6" I meant two 3"layers per tier. She did not supply anything before hand. I bought everything ribbon, banding, broach, and all cake supplies. I did however get my fondant on sale so that saved me $30.
Original message sent by DeliciousDesserts
When you say 6", do you mean that each tier had 6 layers?
Did she provide the banding?
For me, that cake is 194 servings x $4.50 = $873. That's before charging for pin tucking, tax, or delivery.
AIn that case, I don't know how you could have made $80-90 profit. Crystal banding is expensive. Did you add cost of structure support, buttercream, frosting, fondant, pearls, cake boards, cake drums? If you are legal, did you add the yearly expenditures of license & insurance?
Don't mean to be kicking sand, but that's a high cake to liking ratio. I'm assuming you mean 3" cake, filling, & 3" cake. In my opinion, way to much cake & not enough filling.
You are WAY UNDER PRICING! When you say that you had an $80 to $90 profit I'm wondering if you included the cost of your gas and electric AND your work? I bet not! People always complain about the cost but the want massive cakes that look beautiful!
When you work hard to produce the "Edible Art" that we do, it deserves some merit! You deserve to get paid for your time and your creativity! If anyone asks why your prices have increased, tell them that the other cake was done as a favor and was just covering your costs.
You go Girl!
$300 for that cake? Oh no, I think you way undercharged for your work. I know it's hard to consider everything that goes into making the cake when you are first starting out. I had the hardest time justifying my prices, but then once I found out how many hours alone it takes to make a cake, I raised my prices a little bit.
All that being said, for being a newbie to the cake world, I think the cake you made was very good! Keep it up, just raise your prices a little bit!
AProfit is what you make after all expenses, which includes wages. How many hours work went in to this? Would you normally work for less than minimum wage?
AThank you ladies for all ypur feed back. This cake was done as a favor...I knew the price was on the low side but was unsure just how low. I have not gone legal yet but fully intend on it. That is one of the main reasons I wanted to ask different opinions. The banding is not crystal it was actually a plastic silver beaded "look alike" $9 a roll. The ribbon was clearance. I have a friend that mnages a pizza place that gives me left over pizza boxes (which are safe for cakes) to use for my cake boards and drums. I didnt include utilities used in the process and I had about 7hrs total invested in the cake. And the truth is I was scared to dead I was totally going to screw it up with it being my first cake. Lessons learned though...Thank you all for your words of wisdom and encouragement. :)
Original message sent by amyswtcks
$300 for that cake? Oh no, I think you way undercharged for your work. I know it's hard to consider everything that goes into making the cake when you are first starting out. I had the hardest time justifying my prices, but then once I found out how many hours alone it takes to make a cake, I raised my prices a little bit.
All that being said, for being a newbie to the cake world, I think the cake you made was very good! Keep it up, just raise your prices a little bit!
A
Original message sent by Izzy Sweet
In the program that I have made for myself I would charge $1,165.00 .. I am no where near doing something like that yet but that is what my spreadsheet is telling me...Who ever is doing that for $350 is crazy... I am in Ontario Canada by the way
I really need to know about this spreadsheet you speak of....I would LOVE something like that that tells me what to charge...I'm so bad at it, I literally just charged someone 65$ for a cake that cost me 67.50. ( not including the two days I Spent on it) To make. Can you enlighten me? Please:)
Here is the link to the cake that was found that does not look like the wedding cake in the picture.
http://www.lasphotography01.com/p359134276/h5129a562#h5129ace2
I hope they loved the cake regardless.
This is not the same cake! I was getting worried, that someone out there can actually make this cake for that price. after seeing this I feel better.
AI am thinking I'm too cheap. I am still working on my fee scale. I hope I can figure it out. This is a gorgeous cake. Even on what I charge per slice its almost 900.00. I know cake makers here that charge quite a bit more than I do. My thing is figuring out how to charge for the extras & the bling. I want to be competitive but I also want to be affordable. Sw oklahoma is not exactly overrun with people who can just afford anything. I know I'm talented. I constantly undercut myself tho. I need to stop it.
I just got the software program for The Cake Boss Cloud. I am hoping that it will help solve my pricing problems. I am also under pricing for the work I do! I'm still a bit confused and still setting it up, but I will let you know once I finish inputting all the info. I don't live in the US so I have to change all the pricing - pain in the bu**!
Good luck and don't stop believing in yourself!
Well this thread was entertaining! I loved the cost breakdowns, it was very eye opening! I had a few heart palpitations when I was looking at the bad cake photos though!
No it doesn't! I don't think there is a program that can do that yet - just have to Google cakes in your local area and see what they charge!
How much would someone charge for this cake, I'ts a vanilla cake, with cream cheese icing filling.
SHOCKED that it was priced at $300+ Over here in Lancashire (England) I'd never get an order again!
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