To think this is too much to pay for a cake???

[AmIjustreallymean]

We're having a double celebration (not a wedding) but we thought we'd get one cake to celebrate both events. Cake in the shape of numbers but decorated in two different styles.

The baker was recommended to me and is consistently recommended on our local social media. I don't want to hassle them and i might not get anyone else as the event is soon. But the quote is for 3 figures, ie over £100!!!!

The last cake I bought was £65, nearly 8 years ago so I'm a bit surprised. Am I being really mean and this is a reasonable price?

Goodness you'd need two square cakes for cutting out purposes.

if you want a more affordable option plenty of great places do nationwide cake deliveries. I believe Betty's teahouse do customisable celebration cakes and their cakes are really good.... cakebox are great as well and they do excellent eggfree cakes which is great if you have guests with allergies or of the Hindu faith. I recently ordered a sachertorte from kipferl (an Austrian bakery based in london) for delivery and it was sooooo good.

Going to go against the grain here, ime, bespoke cakes can look amazing, like really amazing but the taste (nearly) always disappoints.
if it is heading towards £200 then i would duck out of the cake and spend that on eg luxury fruit and chocolate for pudding instead.

If it was one cake it would be expensive but you are having 2 cakes.

Everything food has gone up by at least 50% in the past 8 years.

Very reasonable, I wouldn’t want to do all that work for £100 less the cost of ingredients.

sounds reasonable. I’ve had 2 cakes that were cheaper over the last month but not of that size/quantity. Paying £80 for a custom vintage heart cake and 6 custom cupcakes this weekend for example

Just looks like a sandwich cake with a bit of icing. Ingredients will have cost £5-£6 max. £29-£30 seems like a lot to bake and decorate it. Not anything whizzy.

But £35 is reasonable in comparison to £150-£175.

Ok, member of a family of professional bakers here. It’s nice to see so many people advocating for the effort and time they put in. But it’s sad to see so many people getting ripped off. Do you all not get multiple quotes for your £200 basic cakes? 😂
A rough guide of how much they should cost, including ingredients, business costs and profits-
6 inch cake £32
8 inch cake £38
10 inch cake £42

The prices are for a 2 tier, 10cm deep cake, including filling, frosting, any buttercream decorations and fondant writing.

Extras include characters etc £5 each
Toppers which are ordered in generally around £4 each.

The 10 inch cakes will feed 40 people. So if you want 2 massive 10 inch numbers, say with 3 characters and a topper to feed 80 people, it’ll come less than £105. God knows where these idiots are getting their cakes from

They look fab!

Op is there any chance that a friend or family member could make it for cost? I do this for the people I'm close to and it may not be the amazing £175 cake you have in mind but it would still be good.

That is absolutely what you'd pay now. My friend has a cake business. She is incredibly talented and has lots of repeat business but I honestly don't think that people realise how much goes into creating these works of art and the cost of ingredients, never mind cost of utilities to bake etc. It amazes me the work she puts into each cake. I think £100 is very reasonable.

I wouldn't pay for a cake that's nearly £200.
I would just bake it.

Perhaps we need to know exactly what this cake is for £175.00.

Its a very fair price if you want a bespoke cake. However if you don't care if it was me i'd get a couple of pre ordered fancy ones from m and s and some bespoke cake toppers with big numbers on. Probably cost you a lot less and as you say it's just going to be eaten anyway.

Why say over £100, then?! What's outing about the exact figure? And like everyone else said it's TWO cakes, not one 🤷🏻‍♀️

You can get number cakes from Waitrose. Not as personalised but a lot cheaper.

Sounds like a reasonable price

That's terrifying... What is it supposed to be?

It's a hard one - I totally get that it's not overpriced considering the ingredients and time, but at the same time it's a lot of money for cake and it's really up to you if you value it that much. It doesn't seem too bad for a double celebrations - the cakes will be a centrepiece and phot0graphed, and hopefully delicious to eat!

I am a hobby baker and would never do it professionally as people just won't pay a fair price for a cake, unless you are good enough to be really high end. And I don't blame them really as it is so cheap to buy them from retailers, even customised cakes.

You could shop around a few bakes, and look at customised options from Bettys etc. That might give you an idea of what you can get and whether you feel the number cakes are worth it.

It is a basic cake, but so are most of the cakes posted on mn that people are ranting and raving should cost hundreds of pounds. If that cake cost a fiver to make being 2 cakes, decorated and with filling etc, then why are slightly more elaborate cakes taking slightly more time worth hundreds more? Guaranteed if someone posted that cake saying hm should my cake maker be charging for this, there wouldn’t be a post on here saying under at least £60-£80

£100 sounds fine for a big bespoke cake.

Number cakes are a pain with so much waste. You need to use almost double the ingredients to make a sheet cake, and you'll need to do two. It would need at least 6 butters, 30 eggs, 1.5kg of sugar, 1.5kg of SR Flour, vanilla paste... this is just for the sponge.

My 6 inch cake with 3 layers is from £60 and my 8 inch with 4 layers is from £80. My double tier cakes start from £150. I make sure to add my wage at £15 per hour.

I hate these threads. Ingredients are costly and so is people's time and the value of their skills.

That's the price you pay.

Otherwise get one from super market

So you expect the baker to work for free?

£6 would just about cover the ingredients of an undecorated 9" 6 egg sponge. Raw, of course.