How much should this cost?

[landofoz]

A friend asked if I would make her sister's cake.  It's a pretty basic cake, white with buttercream and fondant.  The cake is too be ivory colored, with a tangerine ribbon, and lime green calla lilies and round, not square.  Here is the example cake:


How much would you charge for that?

(a few details, it needs to feed at least 200 people, and they don't make fresh calla lilies in that color, so it would have to be silk ones or I make them from gum paste/fondant)

[Tina]

They do have lime green callas, someplace. Will the cake shown feed 200?
I have no idea what to charge for something like this. Did they come to you looking for a deal? As a friend? Or because you could be trusted to get it right?
I would look up online what the going rate for cakes are. I haven't a clue.

[Jessica]

Cakes are expensive.  People pay hundreds of dollars for them.  With that said, I have no idea how much to charge for that.  It is a pretty cake though.

[landofoz]

Well, it would probably need another layer to make me happy - I think that what is shown would serve around 175-200-ish.  But the cake I made for my sister was HUGE and it only fed around 75 folks - 'cause they kept coming back for more.

Back from googling prices:    Those puppies cost a LOT!     I'm going to have to figure out my costs and then go from there...  Jimminee Krickets!

[Penny]

I was just going to say Sarah....figure out your cost of buying all the supplies and your time, you should have a rough idea as to how long, and charge from there,

[landofoz]

Okay, see if this makes sense or is reasonable:

It will cost me $17.00 to make one batch of cake, buttercream frosting, and fondant.  
I have to make 6 batches just to make this cake.  
So that is $102.00 in ingredients alone, if my prices are right.  So I'm thinking round that up to $120 to cover my bases.

Plus I will have to buy supports, trays, liners, dyes, etc.  So that is probably another $50.00.

It's going to take me about a half day to a day just to bake all that cake.  Around 10-15 hours to decorate it (I'm very slow).

Total out of pocket cost is going to be $170.00.  (and that is if I don't buy fake flowers.  If buying fake ones, I need to add about $40-50 to that total)

What should I charge for labor??

[Penny]

You could call and ask a bakery what they charge per hour, and present it to the one who wants the cakes baked, plus you need to add a little for the power that will be used by your oven to make them.

So if you are at $170.00 for whats needed, and thats not including the cost of the flowers, and your labour, my guess is that you are not too far off 300.00 for the cake, if not more, depending on how slow or fast you work.

Sarah might be able to give you a good estimate too.

[Tina]

How much do you get paid for your hours at work? That would be a fair price. Because in all of that you are leaving out other overhead; equipment wear and tear, fuel for baking, etc.

[Tina]

We are thinking a like, Penny.

[Penny]

We are thinking a like, Penny.

We are 

[Triss]

Based on what I looked up for prices, $300 is very low... take a look at this

http://www.costhelper.com/cost/wedding/cake.html

[landofoz]

Well, I make $10/hour subbing and if you want to include the time to actually make the cakes, frostings, assemble, and decorate - it's going to be around 20-25 hours.  Does a $400 cake just sound outrageous?

[bestofour]

$400.00 is extremely reasonable for that cake.

[Triss]

Sounds reasonable to me especially with some of the prices of cakes I saw today... some were closer to 1000 than 400.  WOW!

[bestofour]

Johnny and I got married in 1998 and our cake was $460.00 or something like that back then.  That's a really good price.

[landofoz]

My wedding cake was $100.  Then again, we needed enough to feed 75 people - and only had maybe 45 at the wedding. 

[Dianna]

Our cake was $125. Bought it from Walmart. We had an informal wedding, though...

[barleychown]

If they want a show cake big enough to feed everyone...they need to pay for it.

Maybe present the option of a smaller show cake with a sheet cake or two made of the same to serve, too...as a cost cutting option.

Can you give me a breakdown of materials cost? I'm not coming close to your figure, but I very well could be missing things.

[Dianna]

Here is a picture of our wedding cake. Picture is clickable...

[Triss]

That is beautiful Dianna.

[Bonnie]

It was a pretty cake and Dianne was a beautiful bride.

[landofoz]

Sarah, I was requested to make a White Almond Sour Cream wedding cake with buttercream frosting and a layer of fondant atop.  But you said materials, so I'm assuming you didn't mean ingredients?  Here goes:
Supports x12: $4
Cake Board x4: $10
Filigree Foil: $8
Boxes x4: $12
Dyes x3: $15

Let me know if you have any other questions.  I'm dying to know what you think!  I need all the help I can get!!

[landofoz]

Dianna, your cake is lovely!

[Penny]

Thats so nice Dianna.

You will probably have to give them a complete breakk down of the cost for the cake Sarah, but the prices being thrown out there seem more then reasonable.

[barleychown]

Sarah, I was requested to make a White Almond Sour Cream wedding cake with buttercream frosting and a layer of fondant atop.  But you said materials, so I'm assuming you didn't mean ingredients?  Here goes:
Supports x12: $4
Cake Board x4: $10
Filigree Foil: $8
Boxes x4: $12
Dyes x3: $15

Let me know if you have any other questions.  I'm dying to know what you think!  I need all the help I can get!!

I think you are being more than reasonable. I wouldn't give them a complete breakdown of costs, unless they specifically ask for it, just ballpark ingredients, materials, and your time.

Give them a price YOU can live with, and that won't make you feel like you are being taken advantage of.