CAKE!!! What do you have and how much did you pay???

Hi Sam

Have you got an example of what you want as I'm assuming that she is basing that on a normal three tier cake and if you are looking at choocywoccydoodah cakes then yours is far from simple?

It depends on what you've asked for. Her "3-tier cakes start at £250" may be the price for a completely plain 6/8/10 inch round cake, all the same basic flavour with plain white icing. The price may then rise for having, say, larger cakes, different flavoured layers, fancier icing/more decorations etc - all of which will take more of their time as well as costing more in ingredients. I have no idea exactly what you've asked for that generated that quote, perhaps if you could give us a bit more detail we might have more of a clue? If she's never done something like that before then maybe she has to factor in extra time for experimenting/checking flavours or decorations?

However, if you think she is charging too much for what you want, look elsewhere. There are hundreds of bakeries out there online.

When we were looking at wedding cakes, most were between £3-500 for a 8/10/12 inch square fruit cake, white icing with purple icing flowers to match our colour theme. In the end we didn't buy a professional one, our mums made the cakes and one of mum's friends did the icing for ~£100 total.

I wanted a choccywoccydoodah cake too! But I found the cake a bit too dry for my taste (they do a sample cake which you can buy) I know a few of the 2013 brides are having choccywoccydoodah cakes and they loved them/loved the sample cake (maybe I just had a bad cake)

Why not order a sample cake and decide for yourself ??

ETA Venart did you order a sample cake from choccy in the end?

Well my cakes are sponge 3 flavours - chocolate, lemon and victoria.
butter cream and fondant icing.

For instance, the OH went travelling so i wanted that in there some where.
Where we met, how we first started talking properly.....all down to my faulty tap at home , he was maintenance where i worked so it was the perfect excuse to ring him . So i want a dripping tap on my cake, when i think back it makes me smile & giggle. If it wasnt for that tap giving me a reason to ring who knows where i could be right now!

getting engaged
Rugby as OH is a massive lover
Our first pet, flow a very crazy springer spaniel.
Cows as i lived over at his family farm for ages while the people that was renting his house moved out.

and the topper i want me in a dress with him in his rugby kit and it needs to look like im dragging him .

It sounds odd but i will think of a way to link everything together

Im having 60 cupcakes (over 2 tiers) and a giant cupcake for the top to cut.

Im paying £125 for the lot.

I have only read bad things about the cake, apparently if you want a good looking cake go there but do not expect it to taste nice.

I have only read bad things about the cake, apparently if you want a good looking cake go there but do not expect it to taste nice.

This beast is costing me £750 but I love it LOVE IT! Plus the designer is a really lovely girl and hilarious!

So something similar to this but with all our relationship points, i want it to mean something to us i want it to be completely unique to us

I'm afraid I think £650 is quite reasonable for all of that. The expense will be in the detail - of which you want a lot.

A plain three tier cake at £250 is also quite reasonable, I think.

I love your ideas but it's a huge amount of craftsmanship and that is what the price tag is for.

Sorry ladies I could not spend that much on cake.... it's just cake that ends up getting wasted, well most of it. But hey ho each to their own.

I couldn't either - that's why my mam made mine! But I can completely see how very detailed cakes cost that much.

Totally. For me the money is better off spent on things that you will rememeber. In all the weddings I've been to I can't remember the cake apart from my SIL's and that's because it was a tower of cheese and we had never had that before, it was awesome btw.

Our four tier plainly iced cake is costing £325. 2 fruit tiers, one plain and one lemon. And it is having fake flowesr to decorate.

Kindly boyos mum and dad are buying it for us.

That is a fab idea, and it will be really personal. However, two thoughts:

1) That's an immensely complicated amount of sugarwork (I think that's the right word!) - much more than just making a cascade of flowers or sticking some stars and swirls on the side. Plus all the extra icing colours will add up in materials costs. This is probably why she has quoted you such a high price.

2) Looking on her website, I can't see anything like this cake in her gallery. Her cakes do look lovely, but there's nothing on there that suggests that she has any experience making something like that - and she's said to you she's never done it before. Are you willing to take that risk?

I did! At first the texture of the sponge was a bit disappointing, but I really liked 2 of the flavours! The cake itself is much heavier than I normally like, but OH absolutely loved it, and I have to admit I loved the chocolate on the exterior, and the chocolate truffle filling, so we will be getting a small choccy cake, as it's only £35.

As for the question of what we're paying for what we're getting: We are spending less than £300 to get 2 cakes (choccy lemon and hummingbird bakery chocolate), 48 mini cupcakes (hummingbird bakery carrot and red velvet), 24 macarons, 24 brownies, 30 profiteroles, 1 new york cheesecake, 1 pecan pie, a cheese plate, and a lemon tart.

We wanted to get more for our money than we could get with a wedding cake.

We were quoted £1400 for our choccywoccydodah cake, but we are going for a local cake maker who has similar sugar work cakes for half the price! Worth shopping around!

It sounds like you want something pretty similar to us. We weren't going to splurge on the cake to start with, but then we got a bit 'overexcited' when we met with the cake maker, and we're now paying £450! But it's going to almost be used as a centrepiece to the room. It's 3 tiers- fruit (I DO love a fruit cake!), Baileys & chocolate and lemon sponge- but, as others have said, it's the level of detail / sugarwork that's costing the money. They are airbrushing the cake, and hand making lobster pots / fish / seaweed / deckchairs / seashells, etc. all out of sugar, plus the cake toppers. The lady is even sourcing some rope / driftwood and an old life preserver to act as a base for the cake! That's what you're paying for. Here's a couple of pics we sent her for inspiration:

Just on the Choccywoccy thing...my OH's mum ordered one of their cakes for Christmas; it cost about £80 and was meant to be a grand finale to the dinner- it looked like something you'd get in Asda and it was virtually inedible- the sponge was dry, crumbly and tasteless. Such a shame!

Skeptikal - Can I ask why you have such a penchant for all things relating to the sea? I'm really intrigued.

Anyway, here is my cake, it was a present from my sister in law so cost me nothing - it was stunning. Traditional Fruit, Marzipan (which usually I hate, but this stuff was sublime) and icing.

And we also had a novelty cake for the old man (he is of West Ham United religion).

Of course! I'm Portsmouth born and bred; both fiance and I have strong naval links in the family (his dad and brother-in-law are both ex Navy, my maternal grandad worked for the naval police and my paternal grandad was in the Navy too). Although neither of us are naval sorts...couldn't handle the discipline, plus I'm a natural pacifist!...we've always lived by the sea and we actually met on the pier.

I love being on water and around water. It's hard to explain to people who aren't from seaside towns, but I could never imagine living away from the sea. It's got a 'pull'. I went to visit a friend in Nottingham once and I felt really odd, like, claustrophobic and unsettled. I think it was because I was far away from water. I don't like being landlocked! If I had the money, I'd get my own boat in a heartbeat.

We're getting married in my hometown, in admittedly, un-nautical surroundings...although it is a stone's throw from the sea...but I'm hoping that I can transform the space we have using a bit of creativity and lots of seagull sticky-tape! ?

Love the daisy cake!

I am making my own cake and it's costing about £80 in ingredients but it is taking a lot of time to make and I think this is what people underestimate. Mine is 3 tier fruit cake in 6/9/12 inches round. The 12 inch round one had the ingredients prepped the night before and it took 4 hours to cook in the oven. I have spent the last few months feeding the cake with brandy. Then to marizipan all 3 will take an afternoon, to ice them will take another afternoon and then to decorate them could take anything from a few hours to a couple of days. I know you are having sponge so the cooking and prep is a bit less but you have to appreciate it may just be 'cake' but the skill and time to get a beautiful looking 'cake' is a lot and this is what you are paying for!

For Skeptical - I haven't quite got the hang of the quote thing yet -

Sounds fantastic. I can almost hear the seagulls and see the deckchairs blowing inside out. Hope it all goes really well for you.

I was born near the sea - the Swansea bay, and my childhood memories are full of scorching summers, packed out beaches, sandy timmed salmon sandwiches and warm squash stuffed into empty corona bottles, and striped windcheaters all blowing all over the place.

(My brain has miraculously frozen out the raw sewage that used to get washed up on the beach, from the nearby steelworks and oil refineries). In my mind the sea was perfect blue (it wasn't).

Nothing like it.

Everyones cakes look absolutely amazing!

This is ours only it will be a different shade of pink. 4 Tiers, 2 fruit, 1 lemon drizzle and 1 chocolate & buttercream -£440 inc delivery

Gemmy this is really my cup of tea (and slice o' caaaake) I love it, just my taste.

I love the creativity and personalisation of all the others to, they really say something about you as a couple, but my heart just lies with something a little bit more traditional. Love it.

xxx

We are obviously VERY different people.....! I've never understood womankind's obsession with shoes.

Thanks havecredit, yours is stunning. I think everyones look amazing and the personalised ones are so creative. The way I see it is have you have the money in your budget to afford it then why not. Some people are very lucky and have family/friends that can make beautiful cakes, unfortunately i'm not one of them!

This was ours from our home party (we also had a cheese tower). My SIL made it as our wedding present, but I think it would have been around £350-400.

I know! I don't know how all these hitchers have such talented friends, I adore my pals but a round of scooby doo fairycakes would be about their limit! ;-)

It really just depends on where you want to spend the money and that is just personal choice I think. I mentioned the other day that i thought spending 700 dollars on a veil was insane, and within seconds a bride came back saying that is exactly what she'd just spent! It also just depends on your overall budget, if you are having to chose between say a photographer or a cake, I'd get the photographer every time!

xxx

We all spend our budget on what we prioritise, some may think that the cost of my dress or shoes are over the top but if its what you want and you can afford it go for it...Your day Your way as Funky said. As for cake OH loves cake so I want it to taste just as good as it looks..you are probably getting the idea I love a bit bling ( although there is none on my dress at all) so heres the design I am basing my design on

Cherry that is just gorgeous! its just so immaculately done I love the pearls between the layers - nice detail x

Originally my cake budget was fairly large, I was looking at choccywoccy and the like. However, as time has gone on and I've come up with ideas of other things I wanted i.e. a live band instead of a DJ, a bouncy castle for all the children, candy floss machine.... my poor cake budget has dwindled. We sat and re-evaluated it and decided people would remember the band, the bouncy castle and the candy floss but cake, regardless of whether we spend £100 or £1000, probably won't leave a lasting impression on anyone.