Cake Decorating Business

Classic Car Cake Pricing??

I’ve been commissioned to build a cake replica of a classic car for a man’s 80th birthday. I’ve underpriced myself many times before because I wasn’t sure how the end result would turn out. I’m finally confident enough that I know it will be really great, I just don’t know where to start on pricing a cake like this. Just for reference, my base price for regular, non-sculpted cakes is $3.50/serving for singles, $4/serving for tiered cakes. I asked the client how many guests she would be serving and she was more concerned with looks than servings. How large should it be in order to get the most detail and full effect? Also, does anyone know of a tutorial to help me get started? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

4 Replies

Get Mike McCarey’s Cakenology Vol 1: Car Cakes DVD immediately! He walks you through creating a car cake from start to finish. The car cakes I have done were between 12-14" long. Pricing is very hard, especially for other people in other markets. Your biggest factor of course is this one. Best of luck!

Jenniffer White, Cup a Dee Cakes - http://cupadeecakes.blogspot.com

Thanks so much! I checked and his website is down… ugh! Do you know where else I can purchase this?

Price high!! You are going to spend at least 3-5 days on this cake from planning to delivery. Not to mention the stress!! Personally, no less that $400 regardless of servings. Most of the time people are alarmed and run, but that’s a whole lot better than me stressing for weeks. In fact, I referred out my last 3D cake for that reason. They wanted a car w Mario & Princess Peach. Not worth it!

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Thanks, guys! I located the DVD and shot the client a price so I’m still waiting to hear back before proceeding any further.