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? 😬

No you can't really. Not now you asked for it

A three tier cake with lots of chocolate and accessories is likely to cost almost £40 in ingredients alone - butter, eggs, icing etc. isn't cheap.

I think you have to be prepared to pay much more than for a supermarket cake. You’ll be getting much better quality ingredients and the time, care and planning involved in making one cake is far longer than a conveyer belt product. It’s unfair to say you’re not bothered and would be happy buying a supermarket one when you have asked for a special one. You mention the ingredients but there’s also the cost of the cooking

Another option would be to ask him what ingredients he needs, then you buy them and give him some money for his time on top - £30-50?

Give him a budget?
I would tell him what I would pay and more or less what I would expect of the cake.
It's quite easy to sort what ingrediens cost and a fair number of hours of work.

Please don’t underestimate the cost of ingredients. I took a chocolate fudge cake into work and one of my colleagues asked if I could make one for her son’s birthday. It wasn’t cheap. I used butter and proper Callebaut Belgian chocolate. Plus cream for the icing. It was a big slab cake and the ingredients came to about £25. She had a hissy fit about the cost and paid up very grudgingly. She also asked if I would make one for her daughter’s birthday. I said no. The grief and nitpicking over the cost wasn’t worth it. And no, I wasn’t going to compromise by using Marge and cooking chocolate.

You need to pay minimum wage, on top of the price of all ingredients and materials at the very least.

Bear in mind that mixing and baking the cake is in itself several hours work. That’s before you’ve even started decorating it etc.

You might also like to think about the misery of caged hens and pay the necessary extra for higher welfare eggs.

I don’t want to seem ungrateful, I do want to pay a fair price hence asking on here.
I am just a bit annoyed with myself for asking as our finances are a bit low currently, and I was more asking as I knew it would boast his confidence, I was never fussed by the cake. I never knew how expensive cakes are to make until now

Three tier- presumably its a big party!

Ingredients c9st a lot more than you think'
Single tier homemade costs me close to £20

£80 minimum really £100 is more appropriate

That would only be 3ish hours of work, a three tier cake is days of work, not a few hours ffs.

.

Yeah, homemade cakes (done properly) aren't cheap. I think when you can buy a supermarket cake for a fiver, it's easy to forget how much this stuff costs when it's not being mass-produced.

I would pay cost of ingredients + hourly living wage rate for his time

Don’t be that person who takes the piss OP, if you can’t afford it, then you can’t afford it

I’m assuming @Pipercloe means a 3 layer cake rather than 3 tier since she said it won’t be a big cake and it’s just for them rather than a party etc.

Just bung him the money for ingredients and £20 on top.

Do you mean layers or tiers OP? Three tiers would feed about 100 people.

3 tiers? Are you sure about that? Do you mean 3 layers? As an average 3 tier cake will feed over 100 people...

Let him know this and ask for a cheap cake.

How many guests are the cake for?

You decide which cake you want to pay for - and if you choose with sense it doesn't have too be a very expensive one but yes, more than a supermarked cake.

But don't let him run wild with ideas for great and expensive cakes if you want a cheap cake. Which is a fair request. Set a budget for ingrediens and work hours but be fair.

Ask him. If he is already into baking, then he will know the costs for ingredients and gas/electric anyway.
Then add a bit on top for his time.

That’s less than two hours at minimum wage.

It will take him that long to shop for ingredients and weigh them out!

A three tiered cake is a lot of work. And he’ll have to know what he’s doing with the construction to make sure it’s stable and doesn’t collapse. Not saying it’s out of his league but certainly not a knock it up in a couple of hours affair. Are you having a huge party? That’ll be a big cake.

Can you message him and say you hadn't appreciated the cost of the ingredients so could he please make you whatever he thinks is appropriate for £50 all in

"£120"

Is it made out of gold?🤔

Have a proper conversation with him and talk about what you are expecting and what you are willing to pay and he can then plan what he does from that without getting carried away. It's an important skill for him to develop - to be able to listen to customers and to deliver appropriately to their spec.