Cake Decorating Community - Cakes We Bake

I know that I can vent to my CWB buddies and you will all understand......many of you I sure have had this issue yourselves. I had a request from someone to do a Sesame Street birthday cake, 30 people, to look like Mr. Hoopers store and the apartment building next to it. Little characters roaming on the street, very detaile buildings the whole 9 yards. When I quoted a price of $100, which I think is reasonable considering all of the hours that would go into: purchasing ingredients, baking, stacking, filling, trimming, covering in fondant I made myself, making all the decorations, trim pieces, etc. by hand to custom fit this cake, etc.....I get "Oh no! That's far more than I wanted to spend!" Okee dokee! Feel free to contact a bakery to see what they would charge or figure out how to do it yourself. Aaaagghh! Thanks, I feel better now. Back into the kitchen.

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Won't be hearing from you much in the next couple of days then Joann! Good luck.

Get busy Joann, but thank you again, I am sure this helped us all to relieve some of that built up stress, made us mad, and laugh reading through the comments, but at the end, it made all better when we shared it to the only ones who can understand us,  the caking sisters at CWB...lol

That's why Im not more into baking, people just don't appreciate the work we do.  It's many hours, even the planning takes time! People see those amazing cakes on tv and they think they can get one smilar for pennies. HELOOO they sometimes cost thousands!! People need to realize how much this really cost. Some think: "how much sugar, flour and butter can cost?" It's not the cost of the materials it's t he creativity, the time spent baking, decorating, the responsibility to get it done and get it done right in time for their special occasion!! Now, I guess I also needed to vent!! ;-)

Hope you feel better! I know I do :-)

This is all so therapeutic - I'm finding myself laughing more and more every time I read another comment.  Can you imagine us all round a table with a glass of wine letting off steam?  Hysterical.........

oh yes...I would love that...lol

We should plan a convention!!

Great idea Katy!

Just for a point of reference.  Charm City Cakes' (Ace of Cake show) cakes START at (ready for this?) $1000.  So when you see them do a simple one or two tier cake?  Yeah, that's at least $1000.  I wish more of the shows would show how much the cakes cost.  That's why I loved Fabulous Cakes - they always told how much the cake was costing the customer.

Don't know how I missed this one....last month I had a lady ask for a number 50 cake in the shape of the numbers that was going to feed quite a few people, so I had my husband actually cut the number 5 out of 4" thick wood, and then he cut out a perfect number 5 and was just getting ready to cut out the zero, when the gal called up and wanted me to go cheaper. I told her that we had already started on the cake forms for foil to be inserted inside to make pans and that the biggest expense was already done, and that the price was still standing at what I quoted her. She e-mailed me the next day, and told me to just go ahead and make a sheet cake instead so that it wouldn't cost so much. I was furious. Stupid me, I hadn't charged her a deposit for those wooden forms. The fiftieth birthday party was in two days. I wrote back to her and told her that there would be no sheet cake and that she had better call a grocery store or a bakery because I wouldn't be making her cake. People like that I can do without. Thank God my grandson's 5th birthday is coming up in December. Baking a single layer cake should work with our cake form, and he will have a number 5 so there will be no waste.

Joann Gottermeyer said:

Do you all bellieve that she had the nerve to send me an email and ask if we could 'tone it down' and 'scale it back' so it wouldn't be so expensive?? And then I had a phone call from someone who wants a cake in the shape of a stage, with lights, scaffolding and sound so that it resembles a concert, with gumpaste figures - 5 of them - that are made to look like each of the actual band members plus some other one hanging off the scafolding.....and then tells me she has a budget of $75. "You can do it, can't you??" Ummmmm....no. Sorry. Too bad Charlie. I need a vacation.....

Good for you Linda. People never cease to amaze me. I just got an email from someone who wanted 4 dozen fancy-pants cupcakes for Saturday afternoon. Let's see.....it's Thursday night. 8pm. Ummmmm....nope. Sorry Charlie.

oh yes pleeeeeese xox

Katy Nott said:

This is all so therapeutic - I'm finding myself laughing more and more every time I read another comment.  Can you imagine us all round a table with a glass of wine letting off steam?  Hysterical.........

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