Hello everyone, i'll start by saying that I'm a recent graduate of the French Pastry School and that I have a pretty substantial skill level as far as cake decorating goes however I'm brand new to the world of making cakes/cupcakes for an event and being paid for it.

I have been asked to do the cakes for a wedding in October and I am currently working on the pricing and i have to say I don't even know where to start, I need help!  She needs this information soon in order to finalize her wedding budget.  Here's a description of what I'm making:

The wedding is for 225 people and the cakes consist of a grooms cake, cupcakes, and a small cake to go on top of the cupcake display.

The grooms cake will be a square cake topped with a tire constructed from rice krispie treats and covered and decorated in fondant to look like a real tire.  The base will be decorated with chocolate frosting and made to look like mud. 

She wants 225 cupcakes.  There will be a mixture of pumpkin, chocolate, and vanilla. Frosted with cream cheese buttercream in fall colors and decorated with fall leaves made from fondant.

The cake on top of the cupcake display will be 8" round, 4 layers tall, and covered with fondant and decorated with fondant leaves.

Like I said I'm new to all of this and any information will be much appreciated.  I would like to know what you would charge for these things if you were the one making them.

Thanks a lot!!

For this urgent quote: call around for your local price range for custom decorated cupcakes.  Pick whichever price you like best. Use that price also as a ":per serving" size for the cake on top.  The tire thingy should get an extra charge for "pain in the a$$$".

Fondant leaves can be simple or over-the-top fancy with individual painted spots.  Do something in the middle for this order.

Whenever you make decorated cakes, you can track the cost of ingredients and the number of hours it took to make. Using even a reasonable hourly wage gets the price up there pretty quick.