The Price of a Wedding Cake

There is a huge debate going on at the moment regarding cake makers ripping brides off.  Perhaps some cake makers are ripping people off but I think the majority of prices are spot on.  Some are nearly too cheap.

As a result of this, and the high cost of weddings in general, brides are choosing to make their owns cakes.  Which is perfectly fine with me.  There is room in this world for everyone.  But please, please don't tell me how cheap it is to make a wedding cake.  And please don't tell me how little time it takes.  On average, beginning with the first phone call and ending with delivery, our wedding cakes can take up to (and sometimes beyond) 24 hours.  Oh, and please don't tell me it's easy.  It only looks easy when you're not doing it.  

Point in example.  I was asked to make the wedding cake below.  I knew there was going to be quite a few sugar roses on it and thought 'how hard can it be, it's only a flower'.  I had to do two classes to learn how to make them.  I was lucky as a friend taught me and even then it took several hours of practice (and a lot of binned sugarpaste) to get them looking like this.  I'm doing a full day course in flower making next September.  It's not as easy as my friend made it look.

So, the cake below.  I'm going to break it down tier by tier.

Item	Cost
Top Tier – Fruit cake	24.00 (not including baking time)
Marzipan	5.80
6” cake drum	1.30
Second Tier  - Lemon Madeira	12.48
8” cake drum	1.60
Third Tier – Chocolate Fudge	15.23
10” cake drum	1.95
Fourth Tier – Chocolate Biscuit Cake	35.00
12” cake drum	2.50
14” cake drum	3.20
Ribbon	4.80
Dowels	5.00
Petal Paste , 2 packs – for roses	12.00
Dust for rosees (to bring out colour and create depth)	2.50
Boxes, 1 x 10” and 1 X 14”	1.50 2.95
Covapaste to cover cake	32.00
Grand Total	163.81 Hours: 28

The Woman's Institute, where I initially went to work out pricing, said that 'as a general rule of thumb' you should triple your costs and that is your price to the customer.  That would mean that the attached cake should retail at €491.43.  We don't charge that much.  
The cake took a combined effort, by myself and Bernie, of 28 hours.  A lot of that went into making the flowers.  We didn't have to deliver it thankfully as it was going to Donegal.  
I think this cake was worth every penny of the €420 the bride and groom paid us.  So did they.
You get what you pay for.  If you think making your own cake is the cheap option . .  well?  I disagree.