How big a cake do you need?
A simple guide to servings, so you neither run short nor waste half a tier.
How a ₹7,800 dinosaur cake is priced
Three tiers, sculpted figures and two days of work: what goes into a themed birthday cake, line by line.
Our dinosaur party cake is one of the most requested children’s designs, and parents are often surprised by the price. Here is what goes into a 3.5 kg, three-tier version, roughly as we cost it.
Ingredients come to about ₹2,100. That covers 3.5 kg of sponge made with butter, eggs or our eggless base, real vanilla and Belgian chocolate for the truffle tier, plus about 1.5 kg of buttercream and ganache for filling and coating, and 1.2 kg of fondant for the covering and figures. Food colours, edible dusts and gum paste add a little more.
Structure is next. Tiered cakes need cake boards between each layer, food-safe dowels inside the lower tiers so the upper ones do not sink, and a heavy base board. Together with the box and transport cradle, that is around ₹450. Labour is the largest part. Baking and levelling take three hours; filling, coating and stacking take four; the three dinosaurs, the volcano and the palm trees are sculpted by hand over about six hours across two days. Thirteen hours of skilled work comes to roughly ₹2,600 at the wages we pay.
Delivery in our chilled van and set-up at the party add about ₹350, though we charge delivery separately. Rent, power, the dehumidifier and remakes add about ₹900. That leaves around ₹1,400, under 20 per cent. If the budget is tight, a single-tier 1.5 kg cake with one dinosaur on top costs ₹3,600 and still delights most five-year-olds.
