Note 1: Why are custom cakes so expensive?
Note 1: Why are custom cakes so expensive?
As a cake decorator, I often come across those clients that want a fancy cake, but are outraged by the fancy price tag. So I thought I would take some time to address this infamous question, “why are custom cakes so expensive?”
First of all, a cake is not “JUST” a cake. It is a work of art. A visual wonder, if you please. It’s more than just a few eggs, some flour, sugar, butter and milk. Its premium quality ingredients (only the best for our customers), labor intensive and time consuming.
A simple custom cake can take 8-12 hours to complete while a highly detailed cake can take as much as 72 hours, or up to a week of planning the design, prepping decorations, baking and finishing. Thus the larger the cake (amount of servings per cake), along with the complexity of the design, the more it will cost.
So when you are ordering a cake keep in mind that you are paying for: Ingredients (good quality=expensive), time, labor, skill/technique, novelty factor (your unique design), equipment, overhead (electricity, rent, tax etc.) , packaging and delivery ( gas is not cheap, so if you want a cake delivered to your door step, then expect to pay for it to get there).
We cake decorators love what we do and we work really hard to meet the desires of our cherished clients. So when you expect high quality work for little to no money, it’s insulting. Don’t be rubbed the wrong way by my stark comments, it’s all said in love to help you understand that good quality does not come cheap.