Wedding Cake advice

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tracy Deadman on August 18, 2011 at 5:40am

Yes Aisha, I like Trex the best and it's available from Sainsburys and Tesco. :)

aisha said:

Thank you ladies. And Nasreem I shall make note. Can one get vegetable shortening here in the uk?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dawn Becker on August 18, 2011 at 5:42am

She's on a budget - and so is everyone else.  Don't you dare do this cake for cheap!  Anything that takes you away from time with your family costs money.  This is going to take you hours upon hours.

 

People on "budgets" have no business asking for expensive cakes.  Quote her the going rate for that cake in your area and not one sent less.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tracy Deadman on August 18, 2011 at 5:50am

I totally agree Dawn

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on August 18, 2011 at 5:56am

Boy, I agree with Dawn 100%!! A cake such as this is not one that anybody even dare ask to keep in a budget. When you are requesting a cake that looks like you are dripping in wealth, then you better expect to pay like you are dripping in wealth. I do all of my own work with help from my husband on delivery, but this kind of a cake looks like it demands a full staffed bakery for assembly and delivery. Ohhhh, my prayers go out to you Aisha. You are a much braver person than I am.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Armijo on August 18, 2011 at 9:38am

i agree with the others. you need to charge at least $3.00 a serving and also putting fondant around the cakes will help hild the roses in so double the cost of your fondant and charge $2-$3 a rose (those are time consuming) then try to estimate how long it will take you and charge a labor rate of at least $15 an hour. that is a mighty cake and your bride seems to have champagne taste on a beer budget and that cake it overboard with budget. But i have to say making the bottom 2 tiers dummy cakes is a great idea.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on August 18, 2011 at 10:04am

Have you decided how many roses it will take, Aisha? Here is a description of the Trump cake that I found on the web: 

 

The orange Grand Marnier chiffon wedding cake was five-foot-high, seven-tiered, 200 pounds, 32 inches in diameter, covered with approximately 3,000 white icing roses, and filled with Grand Marnier butter cream. It did not have the traditional bride and groom on top.

Wedding guests each received an individual cake about the size of a cupcake. Looking like the top tier, the individual cakes were chocolate sponge cakes, filled with chocolate truffle, and decorated with one rose on top.

Now, that's a lot of roses!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lynne Salmon on August 18, 2011 at 10:11am

You have not given a quote?!?!?  And she is on a budget!?!?!  Come on now :( 

You'd had better figure out how many servings this monster will provide and come up w/an amount for her and do it NOW.  I just did it for you.  If you start w/an 18" base and work up to a 6" top tier there will be 435 servings (U.S. servings/Wilton chart).  At a *minimum* of $3.50 a servings that comes to $1,522.50  Believe me you will earn every penny of that and wished you had charged double!! 

Hon, she has champagne ideas on LESS than a beer budget:(   When is this thing scheduled for?

There is NO home oven that will handle a 22" (or even a 20") cake pan - do you even have one??.  Just how do you expect to pull that one off?  I don't think you have thought this order through really.

There will be no problem w/the roses staying on the cake as they are proped up against it not 'hanging' from it.

Pipe an open circle (not just a dot) of b'cream on the back of each rose and place against the b'creamed cake.  The circle will cause a suction effect holding the rose firm.  

The roses cracking:  you need to add some shortening and maybe a bit of egg white to your dough. 

Oh another thing I just thought of........check the doorways as to how wide they are.  You may not be able to get such a large cake through.  Check the vehicle you plan to transport it in too....The hallways you have to go through.  Anywhere you go w/this will have to be checked for size!

 

As for making the Cr ch icing to match the other used........the advice alread given is spot on.  Mix some of the cr ch icing w/the b'cream & add just a *tiny* dot of brown coloring.

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by aisha on August 18, 2011 at 10:42am

Hi there Lynne, thank you for writing to me. And most especially thank you for the price breakdown, will definitely use it and also convert into pounds.

i have not given her a quote as of yet because shes still to get back to me on what type of icing, we should have a one to one conversation tomorrow hopefully conclude on everything.

I am looking to assemble the cake at the venue and obviously take my back up kit.

one thing for sure is she has reduced the size from a 7tier to a 5tier. And i do have access to a restaurants kitchen, so i'll be able to bake whatever size.

in regards to my roses, i usually use fondant icing. so would the shortening apply to fondant and gum paste?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Linda Wolff on August 18, 2011 at 11:16am

Aisha, I also found this guide for figuring out approx what you should charge for a cake. I know it is for dollars, but it really does have some very good pointers, and you can figure it in pounds, along with checking out your local bakeries and what their going price would be for something as grand as this cake. Never short change yourself on what your value is. The bride would never have come to you in the first place if she did not think you had the talent she was looking for.  I can't wait to see your creation! What a challenge it will be. Start on those roses as soon as she pays at least 1/2 half the deposit on the total cost of the cake. I hope that is soon, because that is still a lot of roses even with the cake cut down to size. http://www.cakeboss.com/PricingGuideline.aspx

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lynne Salmon on August 18, 2011 at 11:16am

......would the shortening apply to fondant and gp?...........

 

Yes it does.  The use of egg white especially to gp  but i have used both on fondant.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tracy Deadman on August 18, 2011 at 2:04pm

Hi Aisha,

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this and I felt that a lot of cakers out there would benifit from reading it too..

It's from a website called  Staceys sweetshop http://staceyssweetshop.blogspot.com/2011/08/howd-you-arrive-at-tha... (thats the link) but I've pasted it below anyway....

This puts the whole cake-price-thing so succintly.

(and by the way, I don't have a Mercedes because I can't afford one!)

Tracy x.......read on
Setting a Budget for your Custom Cake
Sometimes I get a phone call or an e-mail from a potential client inquiring on a cake. They have very specific ideas about what they want and have the cake designed in their head from top to bottom. They know the colors, accent pieces, sculpted pieces, flavors, and they know what they want to pay.

So when my client calls I have some questions that need answered so we can get down to business.

- What is the date of your event?

- How many servings of cake will you need?

- Do you have a design in mind?

- Do you require delivery?

- What is your budget?
I want to elaborate on this one. Some people think it's a trick question. But it's not. There are many techniques and materials that can be used to get from raw cake and filling to finished piece of edible art. I need to know how much money you want to spend so I can choose which methods to use to get to your finished product. I need to know how much detail to include, if I can use fancier techniques like poured sugar, hand sculpted pieces, or possibly even purchasing special tools for your project. Do I need to employ a carpenter to build a frame for your cake? It's all going to play into your quote and that is why your answer is so important.

So, when you tell me you want a cake to serve 60 people and you want it to defy gravity, you want specific detail pieces (about 30 of them), you want sparkle, you want your guests to go "WOW", and you only want to spend $300.00. I need to know, HOW did you arrive at that number?

Let's get the facts.

Those shops you see on TV have a minimum order for custom cakes. One has a minimum of $1,000. And it doesn't matter if you only want to feed 25 guests. One charges $100.00 just to sit down, taste some cake, and talk to them about your design. No finished cake included in that price. And the per serving cost of a fondant decorated cake usually STARTS at about $8.00 a serving. But more likely will cost you about $12.00 - $14.00 per serving because we already know you want WOW factor.

So let's break it down. 60 servings of cake. WOW FACTOR. Budget of $300.00. That's $5.00 per serving. Which is the base price at my shop for a fondant cake. You know, where we start. (Remember those TV guys start at about $8.00) So HOW did you determine your budget of $300.00?

Did you research what custom cakes cost before you got that number? Or, is it how much you have to spend, it's a number that "sounds good", and really, it's just Cake and Icing! Right?! Let's nip this one in the bud. If it was JUST Cake and Icing, you'd have gone to the Warehouse store and picked up a sheet cake. You don't want cake and icing. You want mouthwatering edible art! There's a difference. And creating a custom sculpted/carved/designed piece of art work, requires talent, experience, time, materials, and skill. And that cost money.

So before you "decide" on your budget. Do a little research. Make sure that your budget makes sense. Make sure you account for what you are asking for. And be honest with your cake designer when they want to know your budget.

You see, you might not be able to afford a Carved 3-D cake of your fiance's dog. BUT you could afford a smaller tiered cake with a sculpted topper that looks like his dog, Rusty. There's a difference of about $300.00 or more in those two cakes. So keep that in mind. If your budget isn't reasonable for what you requested, ask your designer HOW you can still match your theme but get closer to the budget. And don't be offended if they tell you that you can't afford a custom cake. It's okay. I know I can't afford a Mercedes. I just buy the car I can afford. I don't try to tell the Mercedes dealer that he HAS to change the price of the car because I only have $15,000 to spend. He'd laugh at me.

So when you figure out your budget, make sure it is backed by a little research. AND make sure that the shop you choose has a gallery of photos that show they can pull of what you are asking. Don't be disappointed in the end because you didn't research in the beginning.

And have fun with it! Custom Cakes can truly be the centerpiece of your event. And considering it's art that you are paying for, they should be!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Armijo on August 18, 2011 at 2:13pm

Tracy this is really helpful. i need to figure how to put this on my website. Too bad people do not actually read the terms and agreement on the site and they really only look at the pictures we post..lol this is helpful to any baker. def going to share this. Thank You

Tracy Deadman said:

Hi Aisha,

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this and I felt that a lot of cakers out there would benifit from reading it too..

It's from a website called  Staceys sweetshop http://staceyssweetshop.blogspot.com/2011/08/howd-you-arrive-at-tha... (thats the link) but I've pasted it below anyway....

This puts the whole cake-price-thing so succintly.

(and by the way, I don't have a Mercedes because I can't afford one!)

Tracy x.......read on
Setting a Budget for your Custom Cake
Sometimes I get a phone call or an e-mail from a potential client inquiring on a cake. They have very specific ideas about what they want and have the cake designed in their head from top to bottom. They know the colors, accent pieces, sculpted pieces, flavors, and they know what they want to pay.

So when my client calls I have some questions that need answered so we can get down to business.

- What is the date of your event?

- How many servings of cake will you need?

- Do you have a design in mind?

- Do you require delivery?

- What is your budget?
I want to elaborate on this one. Some people think it's a trick question. But it's not. There are many techniques and materials that can be used to get from raw cake and filling to finished piece of edible art. I need to know how much money you want to spend so I can choose which methods to use to get to your finished product. I need to know how much detail to include, if I can use fancier techniques like poured sugar, hand sculpted pieces, or possibly even purchasing special tools for your project. Do I need to employ a carpenter to build a frame for your cake? It's all going to play into your quote and that is why your answer is so important.

So, when you tell me you want a cake to serve 60 people and you want it to defy gravity, you want specific detail pieces (about 30 of them), you want sparkle, you want your guests to go "WOW", and you only want to spend $300.00. I need to know, HOW did you arrive at that number?

Let's get the facts.

Those shops you see on TV have a minimum order for custom cakes. One has a minimum of $1,000. And it doesn't matter if you only want to feed 25 guests. One charges $100.00 just to sit down, taste some cake, and talk to them about your design. No finished cake included in that price. And the per serving cost of a fondant decorated cake usually STARTS at about $8.00 a serving. But more likely will cost you about $12.00 - $14.00 per serving because we already know you want WOW factor.

So let's break it down. 60 servings of cake. WOW FACTOR. Budget of $300.00. That's $5.00 per serving. Which is the base price at my shop for a fondant cake. You know, where we start. (Remember those TV guys start at about $8.00) So HOW did you determine your budget of $300.00?

Did you research what custom cakes cost before you got that number? Or, is it how much you have to spend, it's a number that "sounds good", and really, it's just Cake and Icing! Right?! Let's nip this one in the bud. If it was JUST Cake and Icing, you'd have gone to the Warehouse store and picked up a sheet cake. You don't want cake and icing. You want mouthwatering edible art! There's a difference. And creating a custom sculpted/carved/designed piece of art work, requires talent, experience, time, materials, and skill. And that cost money.

So before you "decide" on your budget. Do a little research. Make sure that your budget makes sense. Make sure you account for what you are asking for. And be honest with your cake designer when they want to know your budget.

You see, you might not be able to afford a Carved 3-D cake of your fiance's dog. BUT you could afford a smaller tiered cake with a sculpted topper that looks like his dog, Rusty. There's a difference of about $300.00 or more in those two cakes. So keep that in mind. If your budget isn't reasonable for what you requested, ask your designer HOW you can still match your theme but get closer to the budget. And don't be offended if they tell you that you can't afford a custom cake. It's okay. I know I can't afford a Mercedes. I just buy the car I can afford. I don't try to tell the Mercedes dealer that he HAS to change the price of the car because I only have $15,000 to spend. He'd laugh at me.

So when you figure out your budget, make sure it is backed by a little research. AND make sure that the shop you choose has a gallery of photos that show they can pull of what you are asking. Don't be disappointed in the end because you didn't research in the beginning.

And have fun with it! Custom Cakes can truly be the centerpiece of your event. And considering it's art that you are paying for, they should be!

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next ›
• Page