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?

Although to be honest @moonbells no one jumps right into business mode. Most people sell a couple of things first before registering a business. And cash in hand is what many people do initially. One lady I know makes hair clips. She started selling informally for a bit first establishing her market. If a friend asked me 'could you make me a queen sized quilt' and its going to cost me and I am putting huge time in, then I see no reason why I can't ask for a nominal amount (although like I said even a nominal amount is £££ and I tend to give away) I'm not running or intending to start a business with tax obligations etc.

I'm not advocating anything and because it's food maybe you need to be more cautious. Just saying the truth. Frankly if you are putting huge time in then a friend should be willing to contribute.

@Herringbone31 yep, and it wouldn't have even fed all the guests, despite us saying how many people there were.

StoppinBy that sounds delicious, I'll have to look the second one up as I've never even heard of it.

The thing is that a professional baker will be qualified and insured and bake from raw ingredients. They will have the expertise to meet your needs. Very few chain bakeries are scratch bakeries now and your cake will be made from a mix and the cream/butter icing will be synthetic stuff. When you look at a m&s cake at £35 and paying for a packet mix and a small flat cake, the £70 Is more in perspective. It is a bit more than I would be happy to pay for a 6" square because the going rate in my area is less but I also understand that person is providing a specialist service and trying to make a living

If you have £70 for a bespoke cake and it's what you want great. If you don't or don't want to spend that much, buy one. Nobody remembers the cakes, I have no recollection of anybody's wedding cake even. Even the sm pictures disappear from feeds quickly.

I work in a bakery and it would cost you about £30 for a 6"square with layers. Our cakes are amazing and well known in the area for being good....we do say though the fussier cakes can take ages and it is the time we charge for rather than the ingredients

@CatherineOfAragonsPomegranate :-) yes I guess that once I've got the kitchen fixed, if people ask for cakes then I can re-assess/see if they are willing to actually pay for time as well as just ingredients and fuel and register with the Council if they are.

Up to now I've had economies of scale - if I'm doing two family Christmas cakes, it's not that hard to prep identical decorations for four as I've already got the cutters and flowerpaste and a batch of icing... food for thought, literally!

Thanks again

Same reason it costs more to pay a hairdresser rather that cut your own. You want professional standards, you pay for them.

Nothing to do with this. I was quoted £60 for a birthday cake. 10 inch, square with fondant icing and Happy Birthday on it. That is greedy.

I’ve ordered one from a local bakery for £35.

I was quoted £60 for a birthday cake. 10 inch, square with fondant icing and Happy Birthday on it. That is greedy.

It’s not greedy, it’s a price you’re unwilling to pay.

Welcome to capitalism.

Nothing to do with this. I was quoted £60 for a birthday cake. 10 inch, square with fondant icing and Happy Birthday on it. That is greedy

Its people like you that stop me doing it professionally. £60 for a 10 inch cake which will have 4 layers so be about 5 inches tall is not greedy! The butter alone for that would cost me £20 as I use Lurpak and currently that costs £2 for 250g, I would need 6 for the sponge and 4 for the buttercream.

You're not just paying for the cake though are you?

You're paying for the expertise and the bakers time. It takes several hours to make and decorate a cake so you're paying approx £40 just in time spent.

Your title should be "I'm too tight to pay £70 for a Christening cake AIBU".

If you can't afford it fine, buy one from M&S and put toppers on it but don't make out like you're being ripped off because actually £70 is cheap.

Made my own wedding cake 3 tier fruit malarkey laced with brandy (rather a lot to be honest one & a half bottles in the three layers). I added up what it had cost me for the ingredients and also to hire a cake tin as I didn't have the really large tin needed for the bottom layer - it all came to just under £75. A friend kindly agreed to decorate the cake (I did the marzipan & Icing she did the fancy stuff). Not sure I'd be happy to pay £90 for a sponge cake though.

I work in a bakery and it would cost you about £30 for a 6"square with layers. Our cakes are amazing and well known in the area for being good....we do say though the fussier cakes can take ages and it is the time we charge for rather than the ingredients

Yes, sounds lovely! Old fashioned sponges with jam, cream, buttercream icing and piping. All you need, and, it sounds, like the OP was asking for. Not the sort of cake that takes hours and hours and is better placed in an art gallery!

I paid slightly more than that for my daughters first birthday cake. I was reluctant at first but she'll only have one first birthday and I'll never pay that again! Or at least not until she turns 18!

It's a day's work, and they have to pay for the ingredients.

It's not a day's work for a basic cake with buttercream icing.
And the ingredients for eg. a chocolate cake would come in at under £10. Even vanilla extract is only a teaspoon from a £5 bottle.

My basic sponge recipe for a 4 layer 8 inch round vanilla cake takes 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract plus a teaspoon for the buttercream. My chocolate cake takes 6 teaspoons and that tiny bottle isnt a fiver it's closer to 7 pounds

Theres 180g of cocoa in my chocolate cake that's £3 for bournville cocoa powder in the supermarket 6 free range eggs at £2 from a local farm that's half your tenner ferrier. I still haven't added flour sugar butter icing sugar or the baking paper I use to line my tins. Then you have the belgian chocolate ganache I use before adding fondant that uses 800g of chocolate and 800ml of double cream. The costs add up a board and a box and most of the time an extender for the box because it isnt tall enough costs 5 or 6 pound plus postage or the cost of petrol to go to hobby craft and buy one.

I still have my Mum’s old cookbooks somewhere, the ones written for a poorer and simpler time. I think one is an old Be-Ro book. None of the cakes had more than 2 eggs (four for a Victoria sponge probably) or a tsp of vanilla or a couple of tablespoons of cocoa. Even buttercream icing only had a little bit of butter. Her old bottles of food colouring lasted years because you only needed a drop or two to make the icing pink. We had a box of plastic decorations (I think Father Christmas may have been Bakelite because he was heavy) that came out for Christmas, birthdays and other occasions. The cakes were lovely and memorable (hated Christmas cake and other dark fruit cakes though though and still do).

Fake vanilla - better with nothing, it's so awful! Seriously though cakes at parties are often just shit - the kids will eat anything at these events - I never touch them, waste of calories - made with shitty additives, often even the expensive ones are made with marg. I like cake - but mostly the kind where the taste is the important thing - not the decoration...I should get my coat!

Sorry but I used to be a baker....would you be prepared to work for less than minimum wage??? If not, why expect a baker too? Equipment and training comes at a strap price. Can’t believe people are still this ignorant!!

This 100%, over and over, on repeat and peopke still never get it.

Seriously though cakes at parties are often just shit-the kids will eat anything at these events

That’s the point though, isn’t it. Kids will eat anything so a £6 Tesco cake is fine!

I understand some good bakers can charge £75 and are entitled to do so. I would just never ever pay that.

Newmuma2020

Love the pics, we get the you tube brigade, in to get their car fixed, they say how much!!!! How long?!!!!! I looked on YouTube and that said...... We tell them to crack on them. Most take the hint some have tried and then it took longer and was more pricey down to their ignorance, being fed a song and dance and not wanting to trust the professionals!!

which chocolate cake I make a foret noire every year for my son's birthday, and the prices are going up and up. This is something else I have noticed. good chocolate, pure cocoa powder that helps raise the cake, sugar, butter, etc. All those prices have gone up. You have to factor that too.

hannabarbera
Back up greedy, what were their costs and labour, how much marrk up did they then wack on? What's this to the costs if the other place in comparison? Are they the same quality both made to order on site? Unless you know this then how do you quantify greedy? Very hard to if not impossible to. You can just accept that fresh professionally made cakes cost thus bur there are cheaper options and stop slating people for earning some money for 5he job your wanting them to do.

I could say the same for hairdressers ans many other professions. Make it yourself if you think it's that easy.