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Ok... I probably sound really stupid right now, but I was asked to make a round cake shaped like a squadron coin for a Commander's going away.  They want it to look just like the coin and I agreed before even thinking it through! And guess what else I did like a moron??? I only charged $50!!!!!!!! UGH! I'm so frustrated and don't even know how to beging. They need it by Thursday! PLEASE HELP!

 

Thanks!

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Diana if you are going to do specialty cakes then you really need to charge by the person with a 25 person minumum....I think a good start would be 2.00 a person or slice.The average serving is 2"x1 for a 2 layer cake. For sheet cakes you can serve 2x2" pieces. So a half sheet would serve approximately 25-30 people. A 10" 2-layer cake (4" high) will serve approximately 25-30 but you have to cut it in rectangles not wedges. Sounds to me like you wil have to make 2 half sheets and piece them together...that was a great idea Ebony. You can make a template out of parchment. Measure the width of the cake and draw a semi-circle so that the width of the semi circle is half the diameter. Lay it on top of the half sheet and cut carefully. I hope it works out!
You guys are all AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad I joined this site. Everyone has been extremely helpful and very kind. Thank you all so much! I appreciate it! I think I finally figured out what I am going to do... just like it's been suggested more than once, I will make two sheet cakes and cut each in a semi-circle and finally, piece them together! I will stay very "standard" with the flavors. One vanilla and one chocolate. I will cover and decorate using fondant (or, FBC transfer.. we shall see). This is a huge project and it's due on Thursday, so we will see how it goes! Keep your fingers crossed for me and again, THANK YOU!!! :0)
you can use the square 10 or 12 in pan and you would have to make 4,and then cut your circle from there. That is an easy fix to the large round ... It is more $$ but you can make it a 20 to 24 inch circle that way.. I made the same mistake on a cake by telling them one price and thinkin' OMG while i was doing the cake ...lol.

Diana said:
Thank you so much for your advice! Yes, I've already been given an image of what the coin looks like... I kinda already knew since I work for the AF ;-). I was actually thinking of just printing an edible image and then piping around it. Do you think I can find a round pan larger than 16"? Or is there a trick to making a really large, round cake??? There has GOT to be a trick!

Thank you for the link! It helped tremendously!! I am horrible with serving sizes.

Stampinsher said:
I had to google what a squadron coin was and what I found were a lot of different armed forces and designs. So I sure hope you know which branch this Commander is involved with for starters. Then people on previous postings said that they can go to walmart or someplace to have an edible sheet printed for a minimal amount of money. Perhaps you can find the coin online and then copy/paste the picture onto your word program, take that to where ever and have them make you an edible sheet?
Then just decorate the sides of the round cake as you wish! Remember, the edible transfer sheet doesn't have to be the whole circumference of the cake.
This might save you some time and dollars and you just might be able to make some profit but chalk it up to a great lesson and you are doing the right thing by going through with your commitment in my opinion.
Good luck!
I'm trying to find the discussion where it was talked about the size of cakes and feeding people here on the site. I will keep searching and hopefully get back to this posting soon.
If anyone else can find that posting please post here for Diana.

I found it!!!!

http://bakedecoratecelebrate.com/techniques/amountbakingguide.cfm

It was on Cake Batter Capacity Chart posting here:
http://www.cakeswebake.com/forum/topics/cake-batter-capacity-chart

The posting is by SeriousCakes and Deah!!!!
Have you given any thought to doing the coin shaped and decorated cake in the size pan you want plus doing an extra sheet cake with maybe simple decorations for everyone to eat? It will require more baking but might be less stressful (at least for me it would be!) This is coming from a fellow newbie so I can totally understand the stress.
Kim, I was going to just do two sheet cakes and carve them into a circle, but when I got off of work to make some final purchases, I realized I would have no way to transport such a large round cake (plus they didn't have the correct size sheet pan... grrrr)... sooooo.... I did exactly as you mentioned! :-D I went ahead and bought a 16" round cake and I'm making another 10" to go with it. The 16" is going to be decorated to look just like the coin and the smaller one will have the "Farewell" message on it with minimal decor/piping. That should take care of it.... whew! Cakes are a-baking as we speak! Keep your fingers crossed for me! And thanks!

Kim Miller said:
Have you given any thought to doing the coin shaped and decorated cake in the size pan you want plus doing an extra sheet cake with maybe simple decorations for everyone to eat? It will require more baking but might be less stressful (at least for me it would be!) This is coming from a fellow newbie so I can totally understand the stress.
I just wanted to say one more huge THANK YOU for all the help with this HUGE project! It's now midnight, and the cake is done! Whew! I am beyond exhausted! I ended up making a 16 inch and a 10 inch. I hope to God it's more than enough! The 16inch has three layers of cake and two layers of chocolate mousse filling, the 10 inch is a two layer cake one layer filling. If you are interested in checking it out, I'm uploading it to my page now.

THANKS AGAIN! :0)

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