Price the Cake! - Page 5

I use Wilton - if I were doing that center concaved tier I'd use a 9", not an 8 to get that much curve!  

has anyone contacted swank to see what their final charge was?

  Anna that's horrible!!!  SO sorry that happened!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FromScratchSF 

 

 

Actually, now looking at it I think the serving amount was under-estimated.  All my cake is 2 flavors of cake, 3 different buttercream fillings, then ganached then fondant.  That's a 6 tiered cake, I think it's a 6x9x9x12x14x16 = 310 servings, even though the 9x9 was carved to be 6" in the middle, you still pay for the cake.  Base price @ $8/serving = $2,480

 

2 hours carving +double stack @ $25/hour = $50

Sugar bow w/ edible broach detail = $125

The monograms look pre-purchased so no charge, but if I were to make them with the amount of glitter in them it's be another $100

Stencil work on 2 tiers = $200 or so

Quilting on a 16" tier with pink candy pearls = $40

30 or so sugarpaste cosmos = $450

 

I estimate it would take at least 3 weeks prep time making and coloring all those cosmos

Bow would also need to be made in advance, takes less then an hour but I charge in hour increments, putting it on with additional "ribbon" around the tier, 1 hour

Center broach - could be 1/2 hour, could be more depending on how much detail I want to put into it

Baking cake - 4 hours

Tort/fill - another 3 hours

Carving - 2 hours (I'm a perfectionist)

Ganache/fondant - I'd allocate a full 8 hour day, but would probably take 10 with the concave double barrel

Stack & add final decorations, 6 hours

Make the bottom black separator disk for the cosmos - another hour

 

So for me, if I were to replicate that cake exact, (assuming the client did not want an upcharged flavor or filling) that actually puts me $3,445 plus delivery

I really appreciate that you took the time to price out how you work. I'll bet a lot of rookies wouldn't consider most of what you'd charge beyond the cake and frosting. 

As we can all see, there is a huge difference between a $350 cake and a $3500.

I see this topic becoming really helpful to all bakers and I hope that we keep doing it. Perhaps a separate forum if it become popular!

I'm glad!  I know a lot of people take a look at a cake and don't see all the little details until you do this for a while.  Any time a client sends me a photo I literally break down each and every element that would go into reproducing the cake, then make changes on how I'd do it.  You have to learn to look and see everything - even that extra 16" black disk at the very bottom of the source cake that is covered in black fondant then filled in with cosmos.  How many of you caught that extra detail?  

Quote:

Originally Posted by FromScratchSF 

 

 

Actually, now looking at it I think the serving amount was under-estimated.  All my cake is 2 flavors of cake, 3 different buttercream fillings, then ganached then fondant.  That's a 6 tiered cake, I think it's a 6x9x9x12x14x16 = 310 servings, even though the 9x9 was carved to be 6" in the middle, you still pay for the cake.  Base price @ $8/serving = $2,480

 

2 hours carving +double stack @ $25/hour = $50

Sugar bow w/ edible broach detail = $125

The monograms look pre-purchased so no charge, but if I were to make them with the amount of glitter in them it's be another $100

Stencil work on 2 tiers = $200 or so

Quilting on a 16" tier with pink candy pearls = $40

30 or so sugarpaste cosmos = $450

 

I estimate it would take at least 3 weeks prep time making and coloring all those cosmos

Bow would also need to be made in advance, takes less then an hour but I charge in hour increments, putting it on with additional "ribbon" around the tier, 1 hour

Center broach - could be 1/2 hour, could be more depending on how much detail I want to put into it

Baking cake - 4 hours

Tort/fill - another 3 hours

Carving - 2 hours (I'm a perfectionist)

Ganache/fondant - I'd allocate a full 8 hour day, but would probably take 10 with the concave double barrel

Stack & add final decorations, 6 hours

Make the bottom black separator disk for the cosmos - another hour

 

So for me, if I were to replicate that cake exact, (assuming the client did not want an upcharged flavor or filling) that actually puts me $3,445 plus delivery

wow --two hours to carve that?

it would be whittled to nothing if you cut on it for two hours

three weeks prep time to make a coupla dozen flowers--you could grow them from tiny seeds in that amount of time

three hours torte & fill if you stop for a two hour lunch

stack & add final decor 6 hours? the stencil is gonna take some time but you have to do the quilting when you did the fondant--it's a bow some pearls and the stencil--if you free handed the black decor it couldn't take six hours

that's a very fine cake and i'm not taking a drop from it--it's gorgeous and not be taken lightly

but dang you've got bucketfuls of extra time built into that schedule

you could do that much more efficiently than that

Quote:

Originally Posted by ellavanilla 

has anyone contacted swank to see what their final charge was?

no but i checked their web page and fondant is $5.50 per

their cakes include two hours of decorating time additional is fifty bucks an hour

so in two hours they could do the pearls and bow and some of the stenciling at least

the flowers & topper & sculpted tier are additional

how long would the stencil take?

K8, you bring up an excellent point - the time I allocate in my schedule to do anything is padded for more then I think it will take.  Experience has taught me that when working with employees, answering phones, dealing with outside kitchen staff, answering emails etc, sometimes a simple task can take forever.  At any rate, my time tables are always padded with the goal of it taking less time to do.  If I only made an american buttercream, the cake was one flavor, I didn't bother with ganache, and I made "close enough" cosmos. I have no doubt it would go a lot faster.  

I would start the cosmos 3 weeks in advance.  I wouldn't be working on them 8 hours a day for 3 weeks, sorry if you got that impression!    

I would totally give myself 2 hours to carve that double-barrel.  It's so high on the cake and such a focal point it would have to be perfect.  Taking it off is easy - putting it back on, not so much - and ganaching something like that could potentially take forever.  In fact of all the details that's the one I'd be the most shaky about based on my skillset.  I have no doubt others could bang that out faster.

K8, would would your time table be and what would you price it as?  Did you already post that and I missed it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyViola 

 

 

Here is the note I wrote on my cake page: https://www.facebook.com/notes/violas-custom-cakes/cake-pricing-explained/492430020803655

 

 

Feel free to use/copy/modify it. I actually modify it from time to time myself and will probably add more to it. I made it because I got tired of justifying my prices to people. I still think my prices are cheap for what I do. And you wouldn't believe the numbers of customer complain to me that they got a cake from xyz cake shop and were sorely disappointed. You get what you pay for.

I shared this on my FB page because it freakin' rocks!! Thank you for sharing!

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyViola 

FromScratch, you are so right about using a 9 inch instead of 8 inch. I didn't even think about going larger for the concave shape. But see, that's why you get to charge $3500 .

Correction - in LA LA land I'd quote $3,500 - but I'd probably never make that cake.  I'd change so much of that design I really don't know what I'd come up with, but my design aesthetic is "less is more", so I'd probably drop several details, especially the diamond quilting and hot pink.  I also stop my cakes at 5 tiers.  They are just too heavy to try and get around in this city.  The cake as pictured would be, what, 25 pounds or more of ganache alone?  Ug.  No bueno.  I couldn't even get it in and out of my walk-in!