Wedding cake price?

[Pigeon]

In all honesty, if I was contacting someone who was not a professional I would not expect to pay the "going rate" of what professionals make. I'd expect to be paying less - for the limits on experience and product available.

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree. But if I had neglected to schedule this with a professional, and was looking for somebody to save the day at the last minute, I'd expect to pay the going rate at a minimum. This isn't a case of a hobbyist going out trying to drum up business.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Well I ended up having to turn them down. I felt bad, but I explained that this is just a hobby and I have an 8-5 day job (I was willing to do it more for the experience of getting another cake under my belt). The wedding planner wanted them to come to my house to do a formal cake tasting with multiple cakes, fillings and fondant to taste. I can't do that right now with the holidays and I would have had to charge a lot more to do all of that too since I don't have that stuff on hand.

I looked up a couple local bakers in the area and the cheapest I found was $4.50 per slice w/out fondant, you had to call about fondant for "special pricing." Thinking about the time my cakes take me $2 per slice probably would put me in the negative at the end.

For now I will stick with wedding cakes for family, hopefully someday I can quit my day job and do this for real

Robynprincess- That is a fantastic cake- especially for your first try!

 

[MosMom]

Definitely go for $3.00 a slice if they want fondant flowers. You could also charge a flat rate per slice for fondant, say $2.50, and then charge per hour for any sugar flower work in addition to the per slice rate, about $10/hour is reasonable. Don't forget to charge extra for any fillings or extras they might want.

 

[hambirg]

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree. But if I had neglected to schedule this with a professional, and was looking for somebody to save the day at the last minute, I'd expect to pay the going rate at a minimum. This isn't a case of a hobbyist going out trying to drum up business.

Yeah, I agree. They are in a bind.

I think $3/serving sounds reasonable, but really do sit down and figure out your costs. . .all of them. . .and then factor in your time and a reasonable hourly rate. If they don't want to pay. . your not really out anything. They are free to go the grocery store route.

ETA-RobynPrincess I LOVE your cake. Good job!

 

[dakcp2001]

Well I ended up having to turn them down. I felt bad, but I explained that this is just a hobby and I have an 8-5 day job (I was willing to do it more for the experience of getting another cake under my belt). The wedding planner wanted them to come to my house to do a formal cake tasting with multiple cakes, fillings and fondant to taste. I can't do that right now with the holidays and I would have had to charge a lot more to do all of that too since I don't have that stuff on hand.

I looked up a couple local bakers in the area and the cheapest I found was $4.50 per slice w/out fondant, you had to call about fondant for "special pricing." Thinking about the time my cakes take me $2 per slice probably would put me in the negative at the end.

For now I will stick with wedding cakes for family, hopefully someday I can quit my day job and do this for real

Robynprincess- That is a fantastic cake- especially for your first try!

Sounds like they were not exactly realistic in their expectations! Best of luck with making your cakes! Once it becomes stressful (like having a bride who might nit pick etc) it may lose some of the fun for you. I think asking for a cake tasting with multiple cakes & tastings is sort of silly knowing that you are not a bakery.



Robynprincess I love that cake! Did you make it?

 

[jenrose66]

I got married in 2004. I went to one of the nicer bakeries in town because I loved their cakes, it was my splurge!

Anyway, we paid $350. The cake was 3 tiers, pink buttercream frosting with white pearls studded through out.

The cake was chocolate with a raspberry whipped cream filling. The top layer also had chocolate ganache for me and DH.

The actual cake served 130 and then I had a couple sheet cakes in the back that served another 30...the baker suggested that was the most cost effective way to get the number of servings I needed.

 

[hambirg]

Well I ended up having to turn them down. I felt bad, but I explained that this is just a hobby and I have an 8-5 day job (I was willing to do it more for the experience of getting another cake under my belt). The wedding planner wanted them to come to my house to do a formal cake tasting with multiple cakes, fillings and fondant to taste. I can't do that right now with the holidays and I would have had to charge a lot more to do all of that too since I don't have that stuff on hand.

I looked up a couple local bakers in the area and the cheapest I found was $4.50 per slice w/out fondant, you had to call about fondant for "special pricing." Thinking about the time my cakes take me $2 per slice probably would put me in the negative at the end.

For now I will stick with wedding cakes for family, hopefully someday I can quit my day job and do this for real

Robynprincess- That is a fantastic cake- especially for your first try!

You made the right call.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think that was a good call! They wanted the professional experience from a hobbyist. Bad expectations on their part.

But to answer the question, in '03 we paid something like 3.50 per slice in Oregon (outside of Portland, to give context for prices) with a minimum of 100 people. And that was buttercream (REAL buttercream, omg so good) with some amazing fillings. It was the best cake I might ever eat (and I've had some good cakes!), a husband of a friend had a dream about the cake a year later, and the slices were HUGE (another baker might have considered our cake for twice as many people, and possible more, considering how thin I've seen wedding cake sliced).

 

[RangerPooh]

We got married at Disneyland and our per slice cost was $13. Our cake came in under $100 and fed 75 people. A bit high for what we got, but tasted good.

This was our cake

 

[Imzadi]

We wanted a 'Wonky cake' for our wedding but we were looking at £600 (about $1000 for 3 tiers) which was just wayyyyy too much for us, so I ended up buying a DVD on how to do it and made it myself.

What should have cost so much, cost me about $300 in ingredients, tools etc.

I had never done it before.....

Great first cake!

The cake was 3 tiers, pink buttercream frosting with white pearls studded through out.

The cake was chocolate with a raspberry whipped cream filling. The top layer also had chocolate ganache for me and DH.

Oooh! That sounds so yummy!

 

[bumbershoot]

We wanted a 'Wonky cake' for our wedding but we were looking at £600 (about $1000 for 3 tiers) which was just wayyyyy too much for us, so I ended up buying a DVD on how to do it and made it myself.

What should have cost so much, cost me about $300 in ingredients, tools etc.

I had never done it before.....

I didn't realize that was a cake YOU made! Fabulous!

Do you ever check out cakewrecks.com? They show cakes that are made by professionals that do not end up very nice...and there are plenty of professionals out there that don't even come close to doing as gorgeous a job as you did on that!

 

[clh2]

To the OP - check out wilton.com

They have a great discussion board - specific to wedding cakes. And -there is someone who has a pricing grid that they will share with anyone who asks. I'll never, ever be making wedding cakes...so I haven't ever requested it.

The discussion board has a lot of great people, great ideas, and people who can help you out with any problem you may encounter in negotiating with customers, fondant problems, and even recipes help.

 

[Nicolepa]

I looked up a couple local bakers in the area and the cheapest I found was $4.50 per slice w/out fondant, you had to call about fondant for "special pricing." Thinking about the time my cakes take me $2 per slice probably would put me in the negative at the end.

For now I will stick with wedding cakes for family, hopefully someday I can quit my day job and do this for real

!

I was going to say in CA I don't think you could get a fondant cake for under $4/slice. I am a hobby cake decorator and I get people all the time wanting me to do cakes. Until recently I've just told them no, but I've been reconsidering my stance. That being said I wouldn't touch any sort of cake for $2 a slice. You will lose money, not to mention your time. For a simple buttercream cake I would start at $2.5 minimum. Fondant $3-$3.25. Anything less is not profitable or worth my time. I also have a minimum $$ before I turn on my oven.