Lots of people ask us why we do not include specific pricing for our wedding cakes on our website. The basic answer is that it is just impossible. Every wedding cake design is different, and when we say “the devil is in the detail”, it really is. There are many factors that affect the price of a wedding cake.
Most people will have a budget for their wedding cake. Whether this is hundreds of pounds or a few thousand pounds it is important to be realistic about what you expect to get for your money.
Time is Money
If you want something small, elegant and reasonably plain this will keep the cost down significantly. For some people less is more, and there are many beautiful wedding cake designs around that actually do not require hours and hours of sugar craft. Obviously the making of the cake, the cost of ingredients, delivery and overheads do add up, but something relatively simple, perhaps decorated with fresh flowers, can still look very impressive and will keep the cost down.
The price of a wedding cake starts to increase when you include more intricate work such as piping, lace work and sugar flowers. These elements take hours and hours of manpower and thus do come at a price. Everything we do is handmade — every petal of every flower. A single sugar rose can take up to 15 minutes, so you can see how the time adds up.
Whilst still only a four tier cake, the design below will be roughly double the price of the cake featured above due to the piping detail and the time required to make each individual rose (plus beautiful crystals do of course come at a price!).
Obviously there are wedding cake designs at the top end of the price scale — cakes adorned with sugar flowers or piping. Hours (and in some cases days) of work spent by the cake design team creating a centrepiece.
Other Factors Which Affect Cost
Other factors that will influence the price of your wedding cake are the design, delivery and set up. Designing a bespoke wedding cake can take a day or two before the cake is even started.
If your wedding venue is a long way from your cake designer this will increase the overall price. Your cake designer may also need to be on-site for a long time to set up your wedding cake before you arrive at the venue. Remember to ask your cake designer if they will deliver the cake themselves or if they’ll use a courier. I believe that wedding cakes should only be set up by people who know the product and will know what to do if something were to go wrong.
Lots and lots of things to consider, and remember, you get what you pay for. If something seems too good to be true then it generally is!
Guest post by Nicola Hall of Hall of Cakes
Images from Hall of Cakes
