Wedding cake prices

sweetswing

How do bakeries justify the price of wedding cakes ? They are ridiculously over priced ??

MissFlitworth

Definitely agree wedding cakes (and any cake that involves a lot of sugarcraft or takes hours to decorate) are expensive but I think generally the price reflects the cost of ingredients and the ginormous amount of man-hours that go into the sugarcraft on a wedding cake. What kind of prices are you being quoted?

tatumkelly

I would tend to agree that the price reflects the man hours, and the overheads of the business (ESB, rent, rates, wage bill etc).

Your best bet if you want to cut costs, is to go to someone who bakes for pleasure rather than profit.

The cost of ingredients for a home baker is not that high, and you'll find that a home baked cake will often taste better as there is no scrimping on ingredients like in a mass produced environment eg. a handful of cherries in a fruit cake, compared to a home baked version which will usually be packed full of fruit.

What kind of cake have you in mind?

sweetswing

Just a 3 tier cake ,each tier a different flavour ( carrott, Madeira,chocolate ) nothing to fancy in the decoration ,just some roses and ribbons , I'm getting quoted over 350euro "are they having a laugh"

Toast4532

350euros sounds about right for a three tiered wedding cake with different flavour.

A lot of work goes into wedding cakes, so much more that a lot of people realise. (not being smart, but most people don't realise the amount of work, effort and time that goes into wedding and specially designed cakes).

Sigma Force

It depends on the cake and how much work has gone in and the quality of the ingredients a lot of hours can go into one wedding cake or any larger cake but I agree a lot are over priced esp. more simple ones with basic ingredients. It's like with anything with the word wedding in it, people generally up the price.

One thing that could be done is to have someone bake a really nice cake that tastes great maybe with a simple but appropriate design don't say it's for a wedding and then just get your own wedding topper to pop on top. Or getting the topper on it's own made in another shop.

I guess as buisnesses they have to make some profit though as well and ingredients for a 3 tiered with different flavours not including hours used and elec. packaging etc. it all ads up.

shinikins

€350 would be on the low end, budgetwise, especially with different flavours. I'm assuming the roses aren't fresh, but handcrafted, in which case it takes a lot of skill and time to make them, icing a perfectly smooth cake also takes a practised hand.

Faith

Saw this on Facebook a while back:

sweetswing

10 hours to make that ?? I find it hard to believe , it's possible if the person is just a home baker trying to make a few quid and not a fully qualified confectioner, but then you would think they shouldn't be charging prices the professionals charge , I remain unconvinced , add wedding or novelty to cake and you can expect to pay way over the odds

shinikins

Actually, if I remember correctly that picture Faith linked originated from a professional baker's blog.

I've made novelty cakes in the past for friends and family and while baking a cake might only take an hour, decorating it takes a long, long time, especially if you want fine detail. If you're not prepared to pay for someone's expertise then buy a cake in the supermarket and put some ready made icing on it-it won't look as good, and it won't taste as good, but at least you can say it was cheap. You get what you pay for at the end of the day.

rubadub

Sigma Force wrote: »

It's like with anything with the word wedding in it, people generally up the price.

some minor swearing in this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA

I really do wonder if you could get it a lot cheaper this way, and just put on some wedding decoration at the end

shinikins wrote: »

buy a cake in the supermarket and put some ready made icing on it-it won't look as good, and it won't taste as good.

I have tasted some very mediocre wedding cakes in my time, which i know costed a bit. I would have taken a bog standard supermarket swiss roll over them!

I am surprised there is not someplace specializing in making wedding cakes in bulk, esp. chocolate biscuit ones which keep well. I prefer the look of a minimalistic cake, just smooth icing and no sugar craft stuff.

sweetswing

rubadub wrote: »

some minor swearing in this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA

I really do wonder if you could get it a lot cheaper this way, and just put on some wedding decoration at the end
I have tasted some very mediocre wedding cakes in my time, which i know costed a bit. I would have taken a bog standard supermarket swiss roll over them!

I am surprised there is not someplace specializing in making wedding cakes in bulk, esp. chocolate biscuit ones which keep well. I prefer the look of a minimalistic cake, just smooth icing and no sugar craft stuff.

That's exactly what I'm talking about

sweetswing

shinikins wrote: »

Actually, if I remember correctly that picture Faith linked originated from a professional baker's blog.

I've made novelty cakes in the past for friends and family and while baking a cake might only take an hour, decorating it takes a long, long time, especially if you want fine detail. If you're not prepared to pay for someone's expertise then buy a cake in the supermarket and put some ready made icing on it-it won't look as good, and it won't taste as good, but at least you can say it was cheap. You get what you pay for at the end of the day.

I think that baker should switch profession ,10 hours is rediculous for that cake , just because some one takes a few classes in decorating and makes a couple of cakes doesn't make them a professional !
A professional would serve an apprenticeship for 4 years under supervision of a fully qualified person ,learning all the tricks of the trade , the dos and donts, making and decorating cake day in day out !
I imagine a qualified person would turn out much more than one cake in a 10 hour shift , but the bakery won't say this because it's not in their interest to do so , so when it comes to wedding cake I firmly believe that "you do not get what you pay for"

Bonita810

Hi.
Even simple wedding cake is costly and time consuming,
because it's not a cake, it's masterpiece:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfeWQ8-iWD4

sweetswing

Bonita810 wrote: »

Hi.
Even simple wedding cake is costly and time consuming,
because it's not a cake, it's masterpiece:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfeWQ8-iWD4

Wow I enjoyed that , but that's hardly a simple wedding cake , and I disagree ,simple wedding cake should not be time consuming and costly !!!

shinikins

sweetswing wrote: »

I think that baker should switch profession ,10 hours is rediculous for that cake , just because some one takes a few classes in decorating and makes a couple of cakes doesn't make them a professional !
A professional would serve an apprenticeship for 4 years under supervision of a fully qualified person ,learning all the tricks of the trade , the dos and donts, making and decorating cake day in day out !
I imagine a qualified person would turn out much more than one cake in a 10 hour shift , but the bakery won't say this because it's not in their interest to do so , so when it comes to wedding cake I firmly believe that "you do not get what you pay for"

By 'professional baker' I meant a fully qualified confectioner, not just someone who's making cakes for a hobby. Even if you watch any shows like Ace of Cakes, one cake cannot be made and decorated in a single day, and thats in a fully equipped bakery with several people working on one project. I've worked in a 5* hotel with highly qualified confectioners, and they couldn't turn out a wedding cake in less than several days, icing needs to rest, sugarcrafted flowers need to dry, then be painted and arranged-this all takes time.

Faith

sweetswing wrote: »

I think that baker should switch profession ,10 hours is rediculous for that cake , just because some one takes a few classes in decorating and makes a couple of cakes doesn't make them a professional !

Are you just trolling? Can you see the level of detail in that cake? It's a hand painted, hand crafted tank. Or did you just read the headings and not the text? Like shinikins said, buy a supermarket cake if you want it cheap. Or if you think you can do a better job, then do it yourself.

sweetswing

shinikins wrote: »

By 'professional baker' I meant a fully qualified confectioner, not just someone who's making cakes for a hobby. Even if you watch any shows like Ace of Cakes, one cake cannot be made and decorated in a single day, and thats in a fully equipped bakery with several people working on one project. I've worked in a 5* hotel with highly qualified confectioners, and they couldn't turn out a wedding cake in less than several days, icing needs to rest, sugarcrafted flowers need to dry, then be painted and arranged-this all takes time.

I'll see your "ace of cakes" and raise you "the cake boss"
The guys and girls in Ace of cakes are not trained qualified confectioners ,they are your mans art school friends ,he called himself a chef for Christ sake , now he has a fantastic imagination and his friends have aswell , but he's a celebrity that makes rice crispy models for rich Americans .
Now I wager if you ask him to make a wedding cake and the cake boss to make the same one , I recon the cake boss will be finished by the time duff has his ingredients weighed up ,
Because he has been brought up in a working bakery all his life, he is a "master" now I bet he can turn out way more than one cake a day , but I also bet when he puts wedding cake on the label he whacks up the price .

shinikins

Some are art students, some are bakers, I worked with a chef who is an army trooper-doesn't make him any less of a chef than any other, he got the job on merit. You could also look at Eric Lanlard's show on Food Network, fully qualified French confectioner who specialises in wedding cakes-not even he could have a wedding cake finished in less than 10 hours, and certainly not for less than €300!

I'm getting the impression you started this thread just to rant, you don't seem to be taking anyone's views on board.

sweetswing

shinikins wrote: »

Some are art students, some are bakers, I worked with a chef who is an army trooper-doesn't make him any less of a chef than any other, he got the job on merit. You could also look at Eric Lanlard's show on Food Network, fully qualified French confectioner who specialises in wedding cakes-not even he could have a wedding cake finished in less than 10 hours, and certainly not for less than €300!

I'm getting the impression you started this thread just to rant, you don't seem to be taking anyone's views on board.

It' seems like this thread is getting a little off track , I started this thread because I wanted to see what cake lovers taught of wedding cake prices , in a way I suppose it is trolling " this I apolagise for ,and for any body I've rubbed up the wrong way"

Faith

sweetswing wrote: »

Because he has been brought up in a working bakery all his life, he is a "master" now I bet he can turn out way more than one cake a day , but I also bet when he puts wedding cake on the label he whacks up the price .

He's been training for 18 years. I guarantee you that he charges FAR above a few hundred dollars for a wedding cake.

You go to a GP for 15 minutes, you pay €50. You go to a specialist for 15 minutes, you pay €120. Same amount of time, but you pay significantly more for an expert. That being said, you're still paying a lot to take advantage of the GP's extensive training. I saw a program where Chef Art Smith had 24 hours to make a wedding cake, and he struggled enormously, with the whole thing being close to a complete failure.

I don't see this discussion going anywhere. You appear to be uninterested in actual facts. I'll be closing this thread shortly because it's nothing more than a rant.

sweetswing

Faith wrote: »

He's been training for 18 years. I guarantee you that he charges FAR above a few hundred dollars for a wedding cake.

You go to a GP for 15 minutes, you pay €50. You go to a specialist for 15 minutes, you pay €120. Same amount of time, but you pay significantly more for an expert. That being said, you're still paying a lot to take advantage of the GP's extensive training. I saw a program where Chef Art Smith had 24 hours to make a wedding cake, and he struggled enormously, with the whole thing being close to a complete failure.

I don't see this discussion going anywhere. You appear to be uninterested in actual facts. I'll be closing this thread shortly because it's nothing more than a rant.

You say I'm uninterested in facts , here's a fact for you faith " I happen to be a fully qualified baker ,confectioner and have been since 88 , now I've already apologised on my last post , but please don't tell me I don't know the facts about cake decorating ,I've served my time in working bakeries ,vie worked every shift imaginable learning my trade and learn my trade well is exactly what I've done !
I know exactly how much time it takes to make a wedding cake ,and exactly how much it costs taking into account everything, I just wondered if anybody else did "I guess I have my answer"
Again I'm sorry for rubbing any body up the wrong way

phormium

Why are you getting quotes if you can do it yourself?

sweetswing

phormium wrote: »

Why are you getting quotes if you can do it yourself?

I didn't get quotes , I just said I did , I wanted to see what the good people on here tought it should cost , I suppose I could have just asked out straight , but to late for that now

shinikins

sweetswing wrote: »

I didn't get quotes , I just said I did , I wanted to see what the good people on here tought it should cost , I suppose I could have just asked out straight , but to late for that now

So did you just start this thread to do some market research??!! If you're a fully qualified baker working for the last 24 years you should know how much people are prepared to pay for a wedding cake, and how long it takes to make one.

sweetswing

shinikins wrote: »

So did you just start this thread to do some market research??!! If you're a fully qualified baker working for the last 24 years you should know how much people are prepared to pay for a wedding cake, and how long it takes to make one.

Yes I said I knew 2 posts ago , and yes I was just doing a little market research , I'm afraid I just went about it the wrong way .

Zaph

sweetswing wrote: »

Yes I said I knew 2 posts ago , and yes I was just doing a little market research , I'm afraid I just went about it the wrong way .

You know sometimes it takes me a while to decide whether or not someone should be banned because I have to do all sorts of digging first. But every once in a while someone makes it easy for me by just coming clean. Banned and thread closed.