Acceptable price for a wedding cake, Cheshire

Your cake sounds fairly complicated to make, even if the decoration is elegantly minimal. £400 doesn't sound that excessive for me, given the time it will take to create the sponges.

That actually sounds pretty cheap for that kind of wedding cake to me I'm afraid! Reducing it by one tier should reduce the price a little but I wouldn't expect it to dramatically change.

Yup sounds right, I originally wanted big tiers and sparkles but then changed to cupcakes which was about £200 quid cheaper. Consider reducing tiers, 1 rainbow, or else you could have your dream cake as a smaller version, 1 tiered feature and supplement by having another plain m+s cake to cut up and give out.

I agree with the people above, if each tier is 4 layers and each of those layers is a different colour then that means 4 separate cakes per tier will have to be baked - A lot more time, a lot more ingredients and a lot more preparation than your usual tiered cake. £400 sounds reasonable when you break it down like that.

Hi, I am in Cheshire and my cake is £325 for 4 tier Square

Biggest tier- 10inch, then 8, 6 and 4.

Flavours- Madeira, Fruit, Fruit and Lemon

This includes separators, decoration, toppers and delivery.

I am in south Cheshire, if you like can pass on the details- our icing is very plain tho as we are having flowers to decorate (not included in price of cake)

Why don't you just scale down the cake?!

Sounds reasonable as you have chosen a complicated design. Maybe just have bottom tier like this or each tier a different shade of pink?

Might sound simple on paper but will take plenty of graft for the cake maker to get the cake you want, ''unfortunately'' people need to be paid for that time and ingredients. 4 tiers is quite a lot, perhaps you could look into having something simpler, less teirs. M &S charge £180 for a very simple 3 tier.

My cake is £400, 3 tiers and thats the best price i could get for what i wanted.

I don't think that is cheap, or simple. I'm guessing if it was simple then people would be making their own cakes. It sounds like £400 is about right to cover the time this would take.

Sorry I agree with everyone else I'm afraid!

Hope you can find a solution in your budget!

I think this is cheap!

Sorry, I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for. ?

Ahhhh i guess from what alot of you are saying this is a good quote. I am considering just having 1 tier in the pink rainbow, which has drastically reduced my quotation.

So im now going for bottom tier Chocolate cake, 2nd Tier Carrot cake, 3rd tier rainbow pink vanilla and top tier a lemon sponge. We have got a quotation from someone that much more fits with our budget. Sorry to moan, just bringing up a toddler and having just boguht our first home, we are trying to keep as close to our tight budget as possible.

Cheers Guys

The way I found was best to cut costs was to be much less specific about what you want.

For example, flowers: I knew I wanted them but wasn't really bothered about what particular flowers I had. I saved a lot of money by giving the florist free reign. The only stipulation I gave was white or cream. It meant she could just go with what was in season etc.

I think it just depends on who you go to lovely. My sisters cake was very very simple

Some companies wanted to charge her £400 for this cake. She managed to get it for £200 from a local cake maker. The advice from my BIL and Sister told me to look around and see if you can find little local bakers who might be able to do it for you for cheaper.

Just to add my two pence in, I decorate cakes on the side and I think £400 sounds like a v.reasonable price for this considering the amount of time it would take to do the different coloured layers. Do you actually need 4 tiers' worth of cake? I would work out how much cake you need to feed your guests - maybe you could have two tiers of real cake and a dummy tier or two?

^^ Sorry, I've just realised you have already changed your cake requirement, but this is a pet peeve of mine

I am sure I read this from you somewhere before Kharv and I have done just that so cheers very much!

We're pretty much in the same situation, so I know how you feel. If you just had the top tier rainbow pink, and got the photographer to take some lovely shots while you were cutting it, I think that would have the same effect (in terms of what it looks like). Also, your guests will appreciate the variety if you have a different flavour for each tier.

No worries ?

I also saved money on bridesmaids that way - I wasn't prescriptive on colours so was able to grab a bargain when one came up.

I had budgeted £500 for my cake but needed the money elsewhere so my mam made it for me. It was nothing like the cakes I got quotes for as I'd wanted a square cake with very sharp edges all in lemon sponge. But my mam found a recipe for a round three tier cake with chocolate, lemon and fruit layers which was gorgeous and delicious. Also, as she's not a professional cake maker she can't do fancy icing so I went for rustic buttercream instead. I ended up loving it so much more than my original plan.

I guess i was bein extremely Niaive in thinking that it was simple, I think i just thought that because the icing we so simple in that there is no detail on it at all I was choosing a simple design so therefore a simple price to match.

As I have said i have changed, and I still get my one tier rainbow pink for photographs which is fab. And having got feedback from a few of the bridal party etc. They have all advised whilst the pink looks pretty, effectively its 'just a vanilla sponge' where as a variety of flavours means it will appeal to more people.

We are inviting 120 people for the evening, each to have cake as part of the buffet sweets, So a 4 tier or a large 3 tier is the only way we are able to do this. My cake is round, with 12" Choc, 10" Carrot, 8" Pink Rainbow and 6" Lemon

Sounds so tasty! Glad you have found a good compromise ?