How Much Does Wedding Cake Cost

Are Smash Cakes Still A Thing

A lot has changed in the last few years with the advent of the internet and more people being able to get their hands on cooking tools. One of these tools is an assignment to make a cake.

For some, this is a time-honored tradition that they look forward to every year. Others have turned against smash cakes because they believe that they are too simple and dont offer enough flavor. Despite these disagreements, there is still a large population of people who enjoy smash cakes.

What Is Included In Wedding Cake Cost

The total cost of your wedding cake includes a bit more than just the cake itself. When youre paying for a wedding cake, youre also paying for other elements of the bakers time.

The average cost includes not only the cake itself, but also a consultation with your bakery of choice, and a cake tasting is usually included. Youre also paying for delivery and set up. Delivering a cake is no small task, as they must ensure that the cake travels safely and stays fresh.

Cakes are priced based on more than just the ingredients, so keep this in mind when considering costs.

An added cost to consider is a cake cutting fee this is often overlooked because your venue may charge you, not your baker.

How Much Does A Good Wedding Cake Cost

Wedding cake prices vary drastically. It depends on the size, the style, the intricacy of the details, the ingredients, and what vendor youre utilizing, of course.

According to Wedding Wire, the average cost of a wedding cake in the U.S. is $500 with most couples spending between $300 and $650.

There are ways to save on the price though. Instead of a large, 3 -tiered beauty, you can opt for cupcakes or a one-layer bake surrounded by smaller, sweet morsels for the guests to enjoy. Depending on your theme, this could really amp up the personalization of the event.

Also, going with something on the more simplistic side could be a less-expensive option, even the new naked cake trend wont cost as much as a hand-painted, a watercolor stunner.

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How Do You Deal With Food Allergies When It Comes To Making Your Wedding Cake

The last thing you want to happen is to make one of your guests ill, which is why you should raise any known food allergies with your baker at the first possible opportunity.

“Wedding cake bakers will know and be able to give you specific lists containing which of the 14 reportable food allergens your cake contains,” Annie advised.

“Most will also be happy to provide full ingredient lists for you, though those may not be available in advance, as suppliers may change the contents of ingredients used, and your cake will be baked in the few days running up to your wedding.”

Extra Ingredients And Add Ons

The basic wedding cake is often just the cake and the frosting with many variations of those two things. That is having been said. Many couples choose to have additions added to their wedding cake. This can be an advanced design on the cake like an inscription or pattern. It can also be something like strawberries or chocolates added to the cake itself.

The possibilities for customizing your cake are truly endless, but of course, the more you add, the more it will cost. If you plan to add some kind of special addition to the cake, you should have that figured into your budget.

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How To Save Money On Wedding Cakes

Making your wedding cake as simple as you can is a good way to save money. Using simple flavors, designs, and sizes can be a huge relief on your budget. Having a naked cake is also a good idea as it has little frosting and is easy to make yourself if you find it cheaper than a bakery.

Making your own wedding cake is also a good way to save money. Even if you know someone who makes cakes it would be a good alternative as they could possibly make one for a cheaper price.

Using simple, natural decor is another way. Using greenery, flowers, and other cheap decor pieces would help and also give a rustic feel to your wedding cake. Artificial flowers and greenery can be bought online for a cheap price, as well as simple wedding toppers.

The Cost Of The Bakery

First, you must consider who will be making your cake. Higher-end cakeries specializing in wedding cakes might be more costly than a local bakery for example. The time it takes to make your cake will be another factor. If you need your wedding cake finished faster, youll be paying more for the rushed service.

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When To Order Wedding Cake

Depending on the bakery and what kind of cake you want, you may want to order your wedding cake around 6 months before your wedding. Some bakeries can be booked up with orders for quite a while, especially one that is popular in your area.

If you want a very simple cake, that is small and easy to make you could probably wait 4 months before your wedding. But you will have to risk not getting your cake in time, so better safe than sorry. If you are having your wedding during the wedding season then you may want to order your cake around January.

The least popular wedding months such as January, March, April, and May are good months to order and book things because they have low demand and sometimes prices get dropped some.

Strategies Forfriends And Family

Now you know how to price a cake for clients, but what do you do when friends and family ask for cakes??

There is no right answer to this, and its a personal decision. Ive heard of bakers doing a variety of different things, including:

• Setting a specific discount
• Making cakes for free, but only for immediate family members
• Charging full price

Whatever strategy you choose, make it very clear in the beginning. When you explain how much money and time go into making a cake, most people are very understanding.

I enjoyed making my friends birthday cakes for free, and always looked at it as my gift to them! They never asked or expected me to bake for them, so I never felt any pressure around it.

But I also didnt have my extended family asking for baptism and anniversary cakes.

However, a lot of people are in a different situation. If you have demanding relatives or friends who expect you to drop everything and make elaborate cakes for them, I recommend setting ground rules upfront.

This will help temper expectations, and prevent future conflict.

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Order A Large Wedding Cake

So the first option, if you want everyone to have cake at your wedding, is to order a larger wedding cake. Now, of course, this depends on the number of guests that you will be having at your weddingthe fewer guests, the smaller the overall cake may be for the proceedings. So one hundred guests will need a smaller cake than one meant to feed fifty guests.

Now the big problem with this type of cake providing is that on the whole, it is very expensive for you. The larger the cake, the more the baker will charge you because of the extra cake, fondant, and manpower that would go into the desert. This all increases the cost significantly depending on the number of guests that you have.

In an earlier part of the article, I told you how a good-sized piece of wedding cake should cost around seven dollars, and in total, the cake should cost seven hundred dollars. That figure was based on the idea that you only had one hundred guests, still a large number. If you had two hundred guests, the price would at least double, maybe more, depending on time and labor.

What Should You Expect At A Wedding Cake Tasting

After reaching out to two potential wedding cake bakeries and scheduling a time to meet, its time for your wedding cake tasting. Your wedding cake bakery might ask you to select cake and frosting flavors youre considering in advance, so be prepared. Another pro tip? Even though tasting wedding cakes is a highlight of the planning process, keep it smalltheres no need to invite your whole wedding partys opinion, as this can make it difficult to make a decision. Let this be a part of the planning process that you and your partner can actually enjoy doing together.

When you arrive, youll be served small portions of each sponge, internal filling, and external frosting flavor. Then, youll create small bites of each combination that is possible. If you like what you taste, its time to discuss the details. Come armed with photos of wedding cake designs youre inspired by, or images that illustrate your wedding theme and color palette. If you dont come to the table with some sort of direction, your wedding cake baker may have a difficult time figuring out how to make your dream cake. The most specific you are, the better, so do your research, and you and your wedding cake baker will both be happier.

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How To Figure Out Your Wedding Cake Pricing

Before you go wedding cake shopping, its important to know not only what kind of design you want , but how much youre willing to spend. To do that, you have to know just how wedding cakes are priced.

Below is a look at a sample wedding cake cost. While the price will definitely vary by bakery and design, this helpful illustration might help make sense of how the price of a wedding cake is calculated. Note that the wedding cake cost is calculated PER SLICE and not PER CAKE.

Pricing for a 3 tier wedding cake with buttercream frosting for 125 guests:

• $3.00/slice for the base tier
• +$0.75/slice for the 2nd tier
• + $0.75/slice for the 3rd tier
• =$4.50 per slice x 125

TOTAL WEDDING CAKE COST: $562.50

Note that most bakers will charge per slice, but some might have a minimum price thats added to based on your design and how much work is involved .

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So How Much Do Wedding Cakes Cost

For the purpose of pricing a wedding cake, we are setting our example below on a buttercream covered wedding cake decorated with flowers. Below you will find approximate serving sizes and approximate wedding cake prices for:

1. A tiered wedding cake.2. A choice of wedding fruit cake or mud cake.3. Finger size portions, to serve with coffee or tea.4. Vanilla buttercream frosting.5. Minimal cake decorating.6. A choice of local in-season fresh flowers or man-made silk flowers.

The prices below start from a simple two tiered fruit or mudcake with vanilla buttercream icing, at $5.50 per finger size slice. As we’re going up another tier, we’ve added $0.50 to each slice.

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Publix Wedding Cake Overview

Sizes range from as little as six inches to as large as 20 inches in size. Publix to show you what each size can serve.

The cake flavors available include vanilla, marble, chocolate, vanilla chocolate combo, Red Velvet or carrot, and the icing can either be buttercream, cream cheese, rolled fondant or fudge.

As for the fillings, options include raspberry, lemon, vanilla custard, cherry, fresh strawberries, cannoli, chocolate pudding, and German Chocolate. Extra flavors may be available on request.

All in all, the grocery store offers four types of icings, five cake flavors, eight fillings and 24 standard icing colors.

Publix offers more than 50 designs, ranging from the Blossoming Romance theme to a Classic Rose. You can browse all of the designs available, with pictures on their official wedding cake page.

How Much Can I Expect To Pay For A Wedding Cake

Wedding cakes can be as simple or decadent as you like. But remember, the more extravagant you go, the more youll pay. To give you a rough idea, heres how much wedding cakes cost on average in the US:

Average cost of a Wedding Cake

If youre on a budget then a single-tier wedding cake will offer plenty of value, starting at just $80. This is also ideal for smaller weddings as you wont have as many guests to feed either. On the other end of the scale, five-tier wedding cakes can cost as much as $1,800. The price could be higher if the cake is adorned with sugar flowers and other luxurious touches.

The overall price of your wedding cake will reflect its size, complexity, and finish. However, as every company will have a particular price structure the costs will vary.

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Be Straightforward With Your Budget

Saving on a wedding cake requires planning. The cost efficiency does not come in the middle of the process when you realize that you cannot afford the sugar flowers or gold flakes that encase your wedding cake. Nevertheless, discussing the budget with your baker prior will help you save money on the onset and time on your bakers end.

The Design And Extra Details On Your Wedding Cake

Next you and your partner will need to decide on the design and details of your wedding cake. How big will it be? How many layers do you want? What shape would you like it to be? What colors are you interested in? Do you plan on having additional cake embellishments like fondant flowers or edible gold leaf accents?

The answers to each of the questions will also affect the price of your wedding cake. Obviously, the bigger you need it and the more details you wish to include will increase your wedding cake cost.

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What Are The Extra Costs

At no extra charge, customers can choose between marble, vanilla, chocolate, or a combination of the two. However, some small costs will apply if you want to pick one other than those listed in our table above.

When you have a cake that needs to be delivered, Publix charges $35 for up to 10 miles. If the delivery is between 11 and 20 miles away from their store, then it will cost an additional $45 on top of that price. For deliveries over 30 miles in distance, they charge an extra $55 plus another $3 per mile. When delivering your order, if there are more than two tiers or the shape/table decorations require special setup time, this could take longer, so make sure you let them know ahead of time when placing your order.

You should expect additional charges for cream cheese and fudge icings, fruit fillings, or cannoli filling on cakes with whipped toppings. There is also an extra fee if its German Chocolate Cake, Black Forest Cake, or Carrot Cake.

Keep in mind that cake toppers are an additional cost you may want to consider.

The Publix bakery requires a deposit for cake stands and acrylic legs. This sum of money is returned once the pieces are returned with no defects.

What Flavours And Trends Are Popular

5% of couples have a fruit cake for their wedding despite it being the traditional flavour for wedding cakes in the past. 69% of couples are instead opting for a mud cake in a chocolate or vanilla flavour.

21% of couples opt for other flavours such as lemon or raspberry. 5% have a flourless or gluten-free cake. Were seeing a rise in mixed flavoured cakes with combinations like raspberry and champagne definitely getting us in the mood for a cake tasting.

Naked cakes and rough icing are still very popular with couples stylistically. Rustic, vintage and bohemian themes will be well suited to these cake designs. White and mixed metallic cake designs that add that luxe factor come in on the other side of the wedding spectrum. Were seeing more of these in traditional, elegant and modern weddings.

Were also seeing couples who dont like sweets go for a cheese cake for their wedding. We are 100% on board with this trend!

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Cost Of The Publix Wedding Cake

A wedding will not be complete without bringing a two or three tier cake. Apart from Publix, there are many cake producers in the towns of the USA. All of them are very competitive so the average cost of a wedding cake lies at $300 to $700.

Therefore people can buy a wedding cake for under $200 if they don’t want to customize it with specific items and designs. Moreover, some of the bakeries also offer their wedding cake at a low price.

The total price of the cake depends on the type of material and its size. That is why one must consider the taste rather than its price.

Generally, Publix set their price by the tier of the cake. They make their items with good quality materials and favors. Additionally, they also give focus on the outlook and overall design. That also helps to make the wedding memorable for the visitors as well as the organizer.

Individuals at wedding order cake by counting the total number of people. In general, one pound cake is not made for wedding as it is quite impossible to serve every person. That is why we don’t count one tier under wedding cake.

In the following table, we illustrate the type of wedding cake according to its size along with the price range.