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?

keeeps longer

Even just making my dc a birthday cake at home by myself ends up costing me at least £20-30 in ingredients.

Forgot to add in the £20 for the pan but a regular baker could spread that cost over several bakes so not as bad I guess.

OP you will always come across those that are ok paying $$ and others who aren't.

FWIW I wouldn't pay that much for a cake when you can get a nice one from Sainsburys or Tesco for much cheaper.

I'm happy to pay £30 per hour plus materials for anyone with a skill that I don't have. And more for someone like a plumber or electrician whose skills cost a lot to gain and are vital for safety.

I even had a customer of mine make their own cake once and came to me if their own accord afterwards admitting that after doing it twice because they messed up the first, paying for ingredients, and the stress, they wished that hadn’t been so blind and could turn back the clock. If you wouldn’t expect someone to sit idly behind a desk answering phones for less than national min. Wage then I absolutely can’t understand how you could ever possibly expect someone with a skill and an outlay to!!

I made my cousins wedding cake as a gift, didn't think too much about it when she asked if I could help. 12" chocolate, 10" lemon drizzle and an 8" light fruit with just white icing and then frosted rose petals for decoration. All the ingredients, cakes boards and dowls to support tiers came to over £70 and I probably spent about 30 hours making it over the space of a week. I hope she realised how much of a bargain she had.
I bake my kids birthday cakes now, for an 8" round vanilla sponge with buttercream, jam and fondant icing it probably about £12 ingredients, but easily takes 3 hrs from start to covered in basic fondant before getting anywhere near giving it a theme. I can see why cake makers charge a lot and I'm glad I have the skills to turn out a decent cake myself, but I think I'd happily pay if I couldn't do it and wanted something more special than a supermarket cake.

We pay similar for bday cakes. They look amazing and taste great. I’ve always thought the price reflects that they are handmade to order rather than on a conveyor belt. I love a shop bought cake but can’t buy them anymore due to child allergies. Worth every penny in my view - they take hours!!

We had a huge wedding cake - 4 tiered fruit that MIL made and iced - and quite a small wedding. The top 3 tiers were not cut. She wrapped them up and put them away and we have used one for DS1 christening, one for DD and one for DS2. We had small christenings, PIL, Dh's grandmas, SIL and BIL and godparents. They came back to the house for champagne or a cup of tea and a slice of the cake.
Just as well DH has had a vasectomy - we have runout if tiers now.

You’d choke on your breakfast if you saw my prices for an simple photograph anyone could take with the right camera’. There’s a saying amongst business owners - you’re well rid of the customer thinks they can do better, cheaper.

I agree with clary. I can make a homemade, totally non professional cake, for a tenner!

Any colleges near you with a bakery that sells to the public?

Two hours work at say £20 per hour plus ingredients plus insurance etc

Feel free to have a go yourself.

If you don't want to actually pay someone for the hours that it takes to bake, clean up after baking, decorate and clean up after decorating, to supply all the ingredients, baking equipment and cake boards then you should definitely purchase the equipment that you need and crack on with it.

Anyone can bake and decorate a cake but not everyone can do it well.... which category do you fall in to?

I’ve made my daughters birthday cakes as I’ve not wanted to spend that, last one I made the unicorn horn style cake that’s popular, with rainbow tiers inside. It took me hours, and hours. Ingredients might not cost much but it takes time and skill to make cakes

That’s a great price for 4 tiers!

I'm normally in the camp of "pro cakes cost more than you realise because of the time and skills" but I've just had a great paw patrol cake from a local cake maker for £50 which looked great and tasted just as good. I must admit I was surprised that's all it was but it opened my eyes a little.

I was quoted £70 for a cake for my mothers birthday. So instead I bought a Costco membership and ordered on of theirs for £14.99 picked the colous and the writing and everyone loved it. There was cake for days It was massive and delicious. services.costco.co.uk/cake/

YABridiculouslyUnreasonable

Anyone who makes anything or does any sort of craft knows that anything handmade costs money in time and materials.

I don't make cakes as the initial outlay in materials to create professional cakes seems like quite a lot in money and I already quilt which is an expensive hobby. I give my quilts away gladly, but I do get people making custom requests and being shocked when I tell them how much the backing fabric costs alone. They have no idea.

I cannot imagine the ridiculous expectations professional Bakers have to put up with because most people do bake themselves at a certain level, leading to unrealistic expectations. Then there's the trend for eggless, vegan, gluten free etc, which the alternative ingredients are £££.

I've seen people selling hand knitted jumpers and crochet blankets online to fund their hobby for peanuts. Barely covers the cost of wool. All fuels this something for nothing culture and of course, the majority of bakers/crafts business people are women and no one wants to pay them.

Some of the cakes I've seen are incredible, it's like artwork. Thing is they all get cut up and destroyed so I can never justify the price myself BUT I can totally see why the person creating them would charge that amount.

I made DS2 a duck pond cake out of a circle of kitcats, blue icing and choc sponge, little yellow sugar ducks on the top and he thought it was a masterpiece so I was chuffed with that ... for his 4th he wants a paw patrol rainbow sponge cake, eek...

MIL's 60th birthday cake was over £600! It was amazing, 3 tiers and a sugared ornament on top.

What you've described is par for the course, not sure why you're surprised.

As for the person that would want Hogwarts in cake form for £70.. try timing that by 10 and you'll reach a more realistic figure.

Costco cakes are lovely!

I think cakes are a fair price if you take into account the cost of ingredients, equipment needed (obviously only a small % as they wouldn't have bought it just for one cake), time taken etc; but whether you think it is worth it is another matter. I was quoted £90 for a first birthday cake, it was gorgeous and she was really talented, but it was too much when DD wouldn't have a clue what it was anyway. I bought a plain cake from a supermarket and added some wooden animals to decorate it that she could keep. Still came to about £70 less and she still has them now.

Sounds a bit steep for what you asked for and I'm an independent cake decorator/supplier in London with over 10 years experience!

My minimum is £50 otherwise it's not worth my while but as others have said you can get a decent looking cake from a supermarket if you don't want to spend a lot.

I just was surprised by tbe diff in price from this cake maker and others in local area for a similar cake. For the size i couldnt justify it.
Have other recommendations within my budget from school mums fb group.