How much to pay a friend to make a Birthday cake??

[Pipercloe]

My friends son, who is 16 bakes lovely cakes.

I asked if he would mind baking one for DH birthday.

He is excited to make the cake, but I have no idea how much I should pay for this, I have no clue how much even the ingredients would cost for a cake. I’m on a bit of a budget currently, so don’t want to pay lots but also don’t want to under pay.

What is a reasonable price? 😬

Do you have a specific cake in mind? If so price up the ingredients and add a bit on for his time. Alternatively tell him an amount you're willing to spend and see what he produces.

How many tiers, how much decoration, what kind of decoration, how many will it serve.

Ask him to cost up the ingredients for the cake he plans on making to meet your brief.

Then add some for his time. How much is going to depend on what sort of decoration - just covering a plain one tier round or square cake in fondant is not going to take anywhere near the same time as multiple tiers, buttercream finishes, edible decorations, piped illustration type stuff..

It depends on how big it needs to be and how complex the design is.

I'd say £20 an hour is reasonable.

Maybe £30-40? £10 for ingredients £30 for his time (even a simple cake will take a couple of hours)

The same as a similar handcrafted cake bought at a shop.

I think he is planning on a 3 tier cake, with lots of chocolate accessories and some fondant accessories.
I cant imagine the ingredients would cost that much, but I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️
It won’t be a huge sized caked, it’s just for us not a party of people.
I asked mostly because I was trying to boost his interest in baking, I’m really not that bothered by a cake, I would happy buying a supermarket one.

Don't be daft.

I'd ask him to price his ingredients and estimate how long it might take to make and go from there.

Have you asked him how much he wants? I think it’s best you’re all on the same page before you even start. I felt sorry for a couple getting slagged off on here the other day after they ‘only’ paid £125 for someone’s son to look after their dog for 2 weeks while they were on holiday, after he offered to do it as a favour.

I am not.

All in I'd say £50 to include all ingredients and labour.

You’d be surprised, given the price of butter

I make cakes for friends and it’s easy to spend £15-20 for ingredients. 2/3 blocks of butter are £6 already. Then if you add on eggs, chocolate, cake boards etc.

I would normally accept £30 from a friend

3 tiers will cost at least £120.

Just because he is 16 I think u still need to pay him.going rate. He won't be getting the ingredients or gas at a reduced rate.

Around $100.00

Ah more than £40 then, he could well spend £20 just on ingredients.

Ask him to price it up for you

3 tiers or 3 layers @Pipercloe? Very different prices 😊

Okay so he’s going to tell me the price of the ingredients, but says he doesn’t want any extra. But of course I will pay extra.
but how much extra do I pay for his time?

Oh yeah three tiers is alot more, if you don’t want a this OP just tell him you can’t afford it and want one tier only. One tier cakes around £20-30 depending on size but three tiers could be £60-100. This is using mates rates and paying for ingredients and very little time.

I would think paying £50 was a bargain for a 3 tier cake with decoration. Professional ones can be very expensive, look online at local cake makers to get an idea - obviously he's not a professional but you will get the idea on what's classed as an average price.

Ingredients would be £20 easy.

If so you should tbh have choosen the supermarked cake.

It will be more expensive to ask someone to make a cake with ingrediens and a person's time than a supermarked cake.

Cakes are quite time consuming to make and ingrediens today are not cheap.

The thing is I can’t tell him I don’t want it as he’s so excited to make it