Fucking 70 quid for a cake????

[Hairwizard]

As title says. Quoted 'from' 70 quid for a Christening cake. This was based on a 6" square cake with 4 sponge layers. Not tiers. Buttercream icing. Any decs toppers etc would be extra and from 8 - 15 quid!
Am i missing something?? How the f does a cake cost that much?

P.s. I make cakes for enjoyment/pocket money rather than profit. I worked out that my hourly rate, once overheads were deducted was around £7 hr. You don't see many cake makers driving around in expensive cars etc. They're not out to fleece you.

It's not a decorated cake though. It's a sponge cake, 15cm square, not tiered, un-decorated.
Fold a piece of A4 paper in half, your cake is going to be smaller than that, undecorated, £70?

To go with the steak analogy - if I order steak in a restaurant I expect it to be a decent size and to be accompanied by chips, some kind of salad or veg, and a delicious sauce. If the steak arrived and it was quite small and sitting on a plate by itself, then no I'd rather buy my own from Tesco thanks.

God some of you are utter cheapskates.

I paid £70 for a cake for a special birthday.

It was decorated to a theme my son wanted.

It was beautifully made and the decorating was spot on.

We were eating it for days and it was wonderful.

I wouldn’t normally spend that much on a cake but I wanted something specific I couldn’t find in a supermarket. Well worth the money when you consider the time and effort it took to make,

Can see all the Cfs in here 😂😂

To go with the steak analogy - if I order steak in a restaurant I expect it to be a decent size and to be accompanied by chips, some kind of salad or veg, and a delicious sauce. If the steak arrived and it was quite small and sitting on a plate by itself, then no I'd rather buy my own from Tesco thanks.

never been to france then? as that's exactly what you get unless you order another 15 quid worth of sides...

Cake for 16 is 2 standard victoria sandwich

🤣 No.... no it's not especially not with any type of buttercream covering it...

I think that’s reasonable from a baker. You are just used to the very cheap food in this country. Dont compare it to supermarket cakes. It’s completely different

Just make it yourself. I never understand why people pay for cakes. They never taste particularly nice, certainly not a patch on homemade, so you're paying for icing which most people peel off. Even at our wedding we had 4 different normal sized home made cakes, (our favourites) and everyone was raving about them. I guess if you want to pay £££ for people to ooh and aah about the I icing then you could get one made but I'd rather cakes tasted good.

It’s convenience that you’re paying for too. It’s not something you do every week. My DD’s 18th cake was a lovely centrepiece and a surprise moment with those firework candles. The ‘18’ was about 5 inches deep and lasted a week.

I paid £120 for dd’s first birthday cake (yes, I was still in the throes of PFB days!). 4 layer Victoria sandwich with pink& white frosting and a gold drip. And a personalised cake topper. It looked beautiful and was worth every penny.

Although I have made my own for £30 for every subsequent birthday since then!

They never taste particularly nice, certainly not a patch on homemade, so you're paying for icing which most people peel off.

Surely she’s talking about buying a homemade cake, from a professional.

I used to teach cake decorating and sometimes made cakes to order - people have no sodding idea how long it takes!

Sounds about right for a cake that’s the centrepiece of an event.

I am in awe of cake makers mine look as if a child has made them no matter how hard I try. Dd aged about 6 asked if dh could make her cakes from now on after her friend had declared my cake “odd”. Which it was to be fair.

I don’t think that’s extortionate. I make cakes for my DCs birthdays myself and although they look nice they don’t look like a professional made them, it takes ages and it’s not cheap to make. Professional cakes look like works of art and should come at a premium £70 for the time put in is not unreasonable.

Nip to Asda for fiver, cake business is tough.

I have nothing against supermarket cakes, including Costco ones. They are a reasonable cake at a decent price and for day to day occasions, perfectly acceptable. Dc1 bought a birthday cake for me from sainsbury only a couple of weeks ago and it was delicious. For a more special occasion, I would make a cake. The last one I made was for a relative's 70th birthday. Admittedly, it was a large fruit cake, but the cost of ingredients, the board, box, decorations (handmade but using specialist equipment), came to around £100. I didn't even include the cost of fuel or time. The decorations alone took around 20 hours to make, let alone the time in making the cake and then actually decorating it. I dread to think what it would have cost from a local cake maker.
The thing is, when you go to a local person, you get a personalised product. The recipe can be adapted to allow for allergies/likes/dislikes and the decorations are to your requirements, rather than from a standard selection. I've made fruit cakes that used tropical fruits rather than traditional ones, marzipan that looks and tastes right without a ground almond in sight and decorations that have included personalised details such as a specific design for the table cloth on a teddy bears picnic cake, the upholstery on an arm chair for a retirement cake and lace from a wedding dress on a wedding cake. I've recreated wedding bouquets in sugar flowers and many other details personal to the recipient. Thankfully, when I make cakes, I only to them for family and I give them as a gift.
OP, it sounds as though what you want could be achieved with a supermarket cake. So go with that. If you want something other than the big standard offering, you are going to have to pay for that.

I assume this is a professional cake baker.

The costs cover ingredients, time and overheads (electricity, cooking materials, cleaning products, insurance, cake box etc).

You are paying for a professional to make a bespoke cake rather than a productions line. It sounds delicious tbf and I need to go and buy a cake :)

I cannot stand supermarket cakes. They are just awful.

Homemade has the added ingredient of love though :).

I have paid more than that. If you want a Cheap one, order online at Waitrose or marks and Spencer.

£60 divided by 16 guests £3.75 portion. Surely you've paid that when having a coffee and cake in a cafe?

My friend had a cake making business, she is amazing and much in demand. Part of the reason she gave up was the fact that people just didn't value the time put in or appreciate that as a business owner she wanted to make some profit.

Its the same with any artistic industry people don't see the effort or time. Making a cake takes hours but we think it's like bake off where they make a four that wedding cake in a day and not sagely along with Paul Hollywood who criticises when the icing is sliding off!

YABU. Four layers is a deep cake, even though it's only 6" square.

I’m a hobby cake maker. Square cakes are trickier than round ones. Try getting sharp corners and edges and smooth sides using soft buttercream and soft cake. It’s bloody hard.

Costco cakes are gross. Over sweet and chemical taste. Someone always brings one to charity cake sales at work and it's always still there after the homemade cakes are long gone.

Also agree what people have said about other craft items, like hand knits or crochet. You can't compare a hand knitted sweater or pair of gloves made from 100% wool to a pair of acrylic ones from the high street.

People just don't appreciate skill and effort, and don't want to pay for your time.

Completely. I knit and crochet with almost 30 years experience, and I am good (used to be, before my hands gave up) Someone asked me to recreate one of my favourite scarves and told me I should sell them. I told her that materials cost 50-60 pounds and then took me 12 hours to complete. If I am paid 15 pounds an hour for my time in my day job, I would expect at least that an hour "overtime", so that would be a very expensive scarf.

She admitted that she wouldn't pay the price for materials, let alone the actual value.

I make things as special gifts but that is it. No way would I try and sell.

I don't think some people realise how long it takes to make a good cake for an occasion - I expect many cake makers spend hours and hours on crafting cakes for customers and pretty much end up with minimum wage if you worked it out.

I appreciate that that's not what you wanted here , for a simple family christening get together I would buy a cake from M&S or similar and then either put fresh flowers on top or personalise with name