Cake Designs, and What Each One Costs
8 finishes, from a smooth buttercream that costs nothing extra to a hand-painted watercolour at +£45. The design is the surface of the cake; the size sets the price underneath it, from £100.
This is a price list rather than a gallery, because that is the question people actually arrive with.
What does each cake finish cost?
The table below is the whole list, cheapest first. The ordering is hours rather than taste: a smooth coat and a textured one take a similar time and sit at the bottom, while anything painted or piped by hand sits at the top because somebody is standing at the cake for an afternoon. Nothing here is a markup on materials.
| Finish | What it looks like | Adds | Its own page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smooth Buttercream | Classic smooth buttercream finish in your choice of colour | Included | Buttercream cakes |
| Textured Buttercream | Beautiful textured buttercream with rosettes or swirls | +£10 | Buttercream cakes |
| Semi-Naked | Rustic semi-naked style showing layers | +£15 | — |
| Drip Design | Smooth finish with elegant chocolate or caramel drip | +£25 | Drip cakes |
| Fondant Finish | Professional fondant finish for a perfect smooth look | +£30 | Fondant cakes |
| Buttercream Flowers | Beautiful hand-piped buttercream flowers | +£35 | Flower cakes |
| Modern Geometric | Contemporary geometric patterns and clean lines | +£40 | — |
| Watercolor Painted | Artistic hand-painted watercolor design on buttercream | +£45 | Printed and painted |
Colour is free whichever finish you choose — the colours page has the counts and the one shade that costs you something. These prices sit on top of the cake. Sizes and portions are on the price page, and what goes on top of the finish — toppers, figures, printed sheets — is on the toppers page.
Which design should you choose?
Work backwards from where the cake will be seen. A cake on a table in a hall is looked at from several feet away, and at that distance a clean colour and a good edge beat fine detail every time — which is why wedding cakes are mostly smooth. A cake on a kitchen table at a child’s party is examined at close range by people who will touch it, and that is where texture, flowers and painted work earn their money.
Then work forwards from the room’s temperature. Buttercream in any of its finishes softens at about the temperature of a hand; fondant does not, which is the whole case for it at a summer party. The comparison guide settles that properly, and buttercream and fondant each have a page of their own.
What is the difference between a design and a theme?
A design is how the cake is covered; a theme is what is put on it. The table above prices the covering — smooth, textured, semi-naked, fondant, painted — and none of those rows includes a dinosaur, a football shirt or a name. Those are decoration, quoted with the design, and they are what moves a price far more than the finish does.
So a cake can be a £100 six-inch in an included smooth finish with a free acrylic topper and a piped message, or the same cake with a painted design and three modelled figures on it. Themes have their own pages: characters, football, numbers and letters.
How are cupcakes decorated?
Per cupcake rather than per box, which is the only honest way to price a mixed box. A classic swirl is included; small piped flowers and custom fondant decorations are pennies each, so a dozen with flowers on half of them is charged for six. A cupcake is £6 before any of that.
| Cupcake finish | What it is | Per cake |
|---|---|---|
| Classic Swirl | Classic buttercream swirl | Included |
| Piped Flowers | Small piped buttercream flowers | +£0.50 |
| Fondant Toppers | Custom fondant decorations | +£1.00 |
Boxes and flavours are on the cupcake page, and what cupcakes cost works through the arithmetic.
What else do people ask about cake designs?
- How much does a cake design add to the price?
- Between nothing and £45. One finish is included in the price of the cake — a smooth buttercream in any colour costs no more than a plain one. Everything above that is priced by the hours in it: a textured finish adds a little, a drip more, a hand-painted design the most.
- Which cake design is cheapest?
- A smooth buttercream in a colour of your choosing, which is included. It is also the finish a message sits on best, so a named, candled cake in one colour costs exactly the price of the cake — from £100 for a 6-inch. Cheap and plain are not the same thing here.
- Can you copy a design I have seen?
- We don't replicate exact designs; we take inspiration and create something unique. Send the photograph anyway — it is the fastest way to tell us the colours, the shape and the feeling you are after, and the reply will say which parts of it are straightforward and which would change the price.
- Do these prices include the decoration on top?
- No — they are the finish, which is the surface of the cake. Toppers, modelled figures, printed sheets and sugar flowers are priced separately, because a cake can have a simple finish and elaborate decoration or the other way round. The toppers page has that list.
- What design works best for a wedding cake?
- A smooth or semi-naked finish, almost always, because a wedding cake is photographed from across a room rather than examined. Detail that reads beautifully on a six-inch birthday cake disappears at that distance, where a clean line does not. Sugar flowers and piping are where a wedding budget earns its keep.
- How do cupcake designs work?
- They are priced per cupcake rather than per box, which keeps a mixed box honest: classic swirl included, piped flowers +£0.50, fondant toppers +£1.00. A cupcake itself is £6.