I have been approached to do a wedding cake for a client. This would be my first wedding cake to do. It will be a four tier, fondant covered cake plus the grooms cake. Can I just charge a base cost of $1.50 a serving or is this too much or two little? The cake itself will be rounds with different disigns on the sides of each tier. The grooms cake is a 12x18 double layer strawberry cake with a musical score on top, basketweave on the sides. What do you all think? I have a wedding matrix, but haven't put it all in there yet. Also, how do I price if I make the roses and calla lillies for the cake as well?

I think you'll regret charging less than $2 a serving for a fondant covered cake. Remember, the cost of frosting & fondant will be almost twice as much as frosting alone in terms of ingredients cost. And you'll also spend all that extra time preparing it.

Yep! $1.50/serving is DEFINITELY not enough for a fondant covered cake with different designs AND a groom's cake with a musical score.

I don't do fondant cakes but I do know (from reading threads on CC) that $4.00/serving is about an average cost.

GOOD LUCK!! Post a Pic!

Beth in KY

I would suggest a per slice charge... the best thing to do is call around to your local bakeries, including chains and find out what there per slice price is.. and go from there.. you can always go above the chains as their stuff isn't usually as fresh, but keep it comparable to large bakeries that privately owned... once you get going hot and heavy, you can charge more than theirs.... just my thoughts... I would come up with a pricing matrix for generic wedding cakes per slice and then prices for detailed cakes starting at lite detail, medium, heavy. I have also heard of a baker charging per flower.. so it is up to you on that! For the grooms cake, just come up with a flat price on the sheet.. in fact you could overshoot the price to your bride and then throw in the price for you wedding cake per slice.. and give her a knock off price of the sheet for bundling her cake order If you are filling with strawberry keep that in mind too. Good luck.. I have done 2 cakes myself and feel like no matter what I would have charged, I was still working way more than I would have been paid for.. they were both family weddings so they were gifts though.

Heaven's, that's a lot of work! Just because it's your first, does not necessarily mean it has to be cheap! $1.50 for fondant and handmade flowers is a crazy price - you should be thinking of at least $3.00 per serving for the cakes, plus extra charges for the flowers, I personally estimate the time it'll take me to do the flowers, and then charge materials plus $10 per hour. Your groom's cake you can charge cheaper, your normal sheet cake price is probably OK. Don't sell yourself short - wedding cakes are stressful and a lot of work - even the simple ones (which yours doesn't sound like it will be!)

please don't charge less than $2 per slice. Fondant cakes should be $1 more anyway.
I love making wedding cakes because it's a good time to charge more per slice. Average that I've seen in my area for fondant wedding cakes is between $5-$7.00/per slice.

My All-Buttercream weddings are $2.25/person so you are definitely underpricing it at $1.50! Do you know that the local bakery price ranges are? This would give you an idea of the "going rates" in the area.