Is this a reasonable price for a christening cake?

[Sofiegiraffe]

Asking because I genuinely have no idea about these things, I've never ordered a bespoke cake before.

I've been quoted £70 as a minimum price for an 8 inch one tiered cake that serves 25 people.

Does this sound about average?

I think that's expensive; depending on how intricate the design is.

I pay £45-50 for an 8" birthday cake but always go for a simple design and buy plastic figures instead of having sugar paste ones made.

I paid £60 for a three tiered caked for my sons christening, so yes to me that seems expensive but depends on location I suppose.

Just seen you are in the North East, I am as well.

Costco cake is horrible. Sickly sweet and no texture. (I make cake for fun and wouldn’t buy a Costco one if you paid me.)

Sounds normal to me, have paid it recently for birthday cakes.

M&S do cakes to order online if that would fit your budget more.

Something like this: www.marksandspencer.com/personalised-celebration-sponge-cake-with-gold-ribbon-serves-30-/p/ckp21035342

[quote lap90]M&S do cakes to order online if that would fit your budget more.

Something like this: www.marksandspencer.com/personalised-celebration-sponge-cake-with-gold-ribbon-serves-30-/p/ckp21035342[/quote]
Ooh yes the m&s cakes are great

@thatsallineed

I must be missing something here. The ingredients for a nice 8" sponge cake plus fondant icing would be not much more than a fiver.

I'd want gold leaf on it for £70.

Where do you shop... The 90s?

I read that as 8 inch high cake as 8 inch diameter wouldn't feed 25. Basic good quality ingredients and icing for that would be at least twice what you are saying. Plus the time of the baker and materials needed for baking and decorating.

We used the rectangular sponge cake from Asda and decorated it ourselves. There are lots of nice decorations available online and you just need to put them on the cake, no complicated skills needed. I can see why bakers charge what they do but we didn't have the budget for that.

No idea but I’d suggest making your own.

Making a giant fruit cake (which will keep and feed a lot of people) will cost no more than £20 in ingredients and buying a big cake tin. It’s very simple to do, lots of recipes on the internet and you can buy ready rolled marzipan and icing.

I made my DS’s christening cake as we didn’t have enough wedding cake left over. It was easy to do and no way I’d pay £70 for a fruit cake! ...but I made my own wedding cake as well so maybe I’m a bit unusual...

Honestly, unless you are paying for fancy decoration that is beyond your skill set, a simple sponge cake is so easy to make!

For an 8inch cake you can get ingredients for a fiver and it takes all of an hour to make and bake.

I had a bespoke two layer Victoria sponge with buttercream crumb for my wedding (to feed maybe 40 people) and it was £130 (south east)

Assume you mean a 2 tier naked cake?

They’re a lot harder to do than they look, and they have to be done at the very last minute because the buttercream is so scant. Your baker may well have been up all night making that for you.

@thatsallineed

I must be missing something here. The ingredients for a nice 8" sponge cake plus fondant icing would be not much more than a fiver.

I'd want gold leaf on it for £70.

Oh dear - you haven't made many cakes have you?

Or if you do and the ingredients come to less than a fiver I don't think I would want to buy or eat it..

I priced up a 7" sponge cake with fondant icing and decorations recently and charged my friend £10 which was rounding it up to account for all the bits n bobs I didn't itemise. But I didn't charge for my time and I'm no professional. It seems quite a lot for sponge cake, I'd expect maybe £50 but depends on the level of detail in the decorating.
The Costco cakes are vile, so artificial and sugary.

@emmathedilemma

I priced up a 7" sponge cake with fondant icing and decorations recently and charged my friend £10 which was rounding it up to account for all the bits n bobs I didn't itemise. But I didn't charge for my time and I'm no professional. It seems quite a lot for sponge cake, I'd expect maybe £50 but depends on the level of detail in the decorating. The Costco cakes are vile, so artificial and sugary.

We’re you using proper butter, free range eggs and good flour/sugar there?

I’d be using over 750g sugarpaste on a 7” cake (around 4” high). Plus butter cream, plus good ingredients in the sponge. No way could I do that for £10.

A christening is not the time for a Costco cake. They are utterly vile, smothered in thick ugly synthetic axel grease. No butter has ever been near that cake.
They are monstrous and yet my sister brings one to every gathering bigger is not always better.

I'm in the NW and think £70 is very reasonable from your description

The Costco cakes are fine for small kids birthday parties but no way Id have one as a centrepiece for a Christening. They don't look particularly good and they don't taste nice. Unbelievably sweet and mostly icing. They're great when you have 30 schoolkids all needing a piece in their party bags though. We used to send them all home with that and have a nice cake at home later for the adults

I paid £120 for dts cake, I didn't even like it in the end. Now for birthdays I go to Waitrose and buy their plain iced cake for decorating, £20 I think, and then get on Etsy for decorations.

I am not artistic or a baker but they always look good. I did their first communion cake this way too.

@WouldIBeATwat

I’d be using over 750g sugarpaste on a 7” cake (around 4” high). Plus butter cream, plus good ingredients in the sponge. No way could I do that for £10.

I don't get it either. I would use at least 2 packs of butter (approx £1.60-£1.80 per packet), add in the eggs (4), vanilla paste, sugar, good jam, Fondant (£2-£3). Plus colourings, a cake base and a box.

With all the equipment I use, and the tools etc making a cake for £10 is literally giving it away rather than rounding up. I can only assume people using really bad quality ingredients and not proper butter to make a cake for less than £5..

@emmathedilemma

I priced up a 7" sponge cake with fondant icing and decorations recently and charged my friend £10 which was rounding it up to account for all the bits n bobs I didn't itemise. But I didn't charge for my time and I'm no professional. It seems quite a lot for sponge cake, I'd expect maybe £50 but depends on the level of detail in the decorating. The Costco cakes are vile, so artificial and sugary.

How did you decorate it?

The icing on Costco cakes will make your teeth itch. It’s a bit like sugary shaving foam-minging.

For an 8inch cake you can get ingredients for a fiver and it takes all of an hour to make and bake

Ha, ha, ha, ha - that's a joke, right?

You can really get all the ingredients for an 8" cake to serve 25 for a fiver? Have you included butter, jam, sponge flour, sugar, eggs, icing sugar, professional quality sugarpaste, electricity, cake board, cake box, ribbon, food colourings, baking parchment, specialist gums, egg white substitute, cling film, contribution towards equipment (mixer, bowls, tins, cutters, sugarpaste rolling pin, piping nozzles and a myriad of other things).

And in an hour you can shop for ingredients, make, bake, cool, ice, and decorate the cake, plus time spent taking the order, discussing the order/emailing the customer, cleaning, washing up, checking payments, accounting, marketing and anything else I've forgotten.

Because if you can do all that in an hour, for a cost of £5, you should go into business making bespoke cakes - you'll make a fortune!

@countrygirl99

Costco cakes are incredibly sweet and cloying. 2 mouthfuls and I feel sick.

I'm with you. I love some of the food from Costco but the big rectangular cakes aren't the best, quite sickly and artificial tasting.

If you want to save money, I'd be tempted to buy one of the plain iced fruit cakes from M&S and jazz up the decorations.