JT cake - adding fondant for $800?

i just got married this past weekend & we just got the cake that was included in the package & i was 100% happy with it.

i use to be a chef & to do a cake with fondant is a lot of work & they are probably just covering some of the excess labor because it does take some time to make it perfect.

I met with Francesca (their wedding coordinator) and she told me to go directly to Dortoni's. I didn't even want a cake but I felt kind of pushed into it! Because I am doing the cake, I am going to be very specific about what I want so I am going to go right to the bakery to see what they say. Elminate JT as the middle 'man'. Let Dortoni's tell you how much it is going to be and go from there.

I have to say that I am not the happiest with JT right now. They are neglecting to return my phone call and were not the friendliest when I called the other day. I thought since you are paying these RH's a small fortune that they would treat you like you actually matter!!!!! (sorry for venting on your post!)

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your comments. But for those of you who went directly through Dortini's, did you get a refund from JT since the original package already included a basic cake? Or did they add other desserts instead?

Thanks!

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Posted by NYCPrincess

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your comments. But for those of you who went directly through Dortini's, did you get a refund from JT since the original package already included a basic cake? Or did they add other desserts instead?

Thanks!

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i dont think JT will give you anything back. First of all i think dortoni's will just add on the price for basic cakes and you will pay the difference even with them, not sure but how it should be done. Another reason i dont think you will get any money back is bc i went with a completely different baker, i didnt use dortoni's and i didnt get money back for not using them. They did add things to my CH since i didnt get a cake through them

So I called Dortoni and asked for a price quote for a buttercream cake and a basic fondant cake for my expected number of guests. The difference between the two quotes was $200.

I called my banquet mgr, and he says the additional cost could be anywhere from $500-$1000! So I told him I called Dortoni, and they told me it was only $200. He said that the scroll design on the cake (one of the 6 or 8 original JT selections) couldn't be done with a pastry cone anymore and had to be rolled fondant too.

Now, I'm certainly not a professional baker but on the cake designing shows on TV, I always see them use pastry cones to design on fondant cakes. So he says he's going to call Dortoni for a price quote and let me know.

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Posted by NYCPrincess

So I called Dortoni and asked for a price quote for a buttercream cake and a basic fondant cake for my expected number of guests. The difference between the two quotes was $200.

I called my banquet mgr, and he says the additional cost could be anywhere from $500-$1000! So I told him I called Dortoni, and they told me it was only $200. He said that the scroll design on the cake (one of the 6 or 8 original JT selections) couldn't be done with a pastry cone anymore and had to be rolled fondant too.

Now, I'm certainly not a professional baker but on the cake designing shows on TV, I always see them use pastry cones to design on fondant cakes. So he says he's going to call Dortoni for a price quote and let me know.

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fondant cakes are EXPENSIVE, honestly to get a fondant cake in the hundreds its a good price, most are 1k and up. If you have a smaller wedding and less guests then yes it can be in the hundreds. Like i mentioned in the post, for e-party i had called over 50 bakeries and the cheapest i really found it for was $6 a slice, most were over that though.

For wedding, i used an outside vendor for my cake, didnt get a cake through JT. And trust me $800 is a good price for a fondant cake, well depends on the # of guests, how many guests are you having?

HOWEVER, i remember jt telling me that they usually use about $250-300 from your payments towards the cake, so they should deduct that much from the amount dortoni's would charge you for a fondant cake. I have no idea of dortoni's prices, but im also sure they will work with you if youre a JT bride, if you were getting it elsewhere and completely went on your own to an outside vendor, you would be paying at least $6-8 a slice. Good luck

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Posted by kellylee418

When I didn't even want a cake, JT said that it is included in the cost and they would not give us the money off the cost of our wedding so we decided to just get the cake. I have read places where JT had given $600 back though if you don't get the cake so it seems as though they are either inconsistent with their brides or maybe they used to give money back and now don't.

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i hope they didnt give others their money back bc i didnt get a cake through them and we didnt get any money back . They did add things to our CH for us to make up for that amount though so i was ok with that.

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by NYCPrincess

So I called Dortoni and asked for a price quote for a buttercream cake and a basic fondant cake for my expected number of guests. The difference between the two quotes was $200.

I called my banquet mgr, and he says the additional cost could be anywhere from $500-$1000! So I told him I called Dortoni, and they told me it was only $200. He said that the scroll design on the cake (one of the 6 or 8 original JT selections) couldn't be done with a pastry cone anymore and had to be rolled fondant too.

Now, I'm certainly not a professional baker but on the cake designing shows on TV, I always see them use pastry cones to design on fondant cakes. So he says he's going to call Dortoni for a price quote and let me know.

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fondant cakes are EXPENSIVE, honestly to get a fondant cake in the hundreds its a good price, most are 1k and up. If you have a smaller wedding and less guests then yes it can be in the hundreds. Like i mentioned in the post, for e-party i had called over 50 bakeries and the cheapest i really found it for was $6 a slice, most were over that though.

For wedding, i used an outside vendor for my cake, didnt get a cake through JT. And trust me $800 is a good price for a fondant cake, well depends on the # of guests, how many guests are you having?

HOWEVER, i remember jt telling me that they usually use about $250-300 from your payments towards the cake, so they should deduct that much from the amount dortoni's would charge you for a fondant cake. I have no idea of dortoni's prices, but im also sure they will work with you if youre a JT bride, if you were getting it elsewhere and completely went on your own to an outside vendor, you would be paying at least $6-8 a slice. Good luck

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I would think $800 is reasonable too, but the $800 reference was an ADDITIONAL $800 on top of the original $$600, making the total 1,400. This would feed approximately 175 people, and is not even considering extra details and designs...just basic fondant which I think is unreasonable.

My hall mgr agreed that $200 extra is reasonable for the extra fondant itself. What is up in the air now is whether the scroll design can still be the pastry cone design or also has to be fondant (he believes the latter, whcih would dramatically increase work and cost). But on cake shows I see, they seem to have pastry cones to decorate at least certain parts of fondant cake (not to say of course it is the only thing they use). His point was that buttercream wouldn't stick at all to fondant.

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Posted by NYCPrincess

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by NYCPrincess

So I called Dortoni and asked for a price quote for a buttercream cake and a basic fondant cake for my expected number of guests. The difference between the two quotes was $200.

I called my banquet mgr, and he says the additional cost could be anywhere from $500-$1000! So I told him I called Dortoni, and they told me it was only $200. He said that the scroll design on the cake (one of the 6 or 8 original JT selections) couldn't be done with a pastry cone anymore and had to be rolled fondant too.

Now, I'm certainly not a professional baker but on the cake designing shows on TV, I always see them use pastry cones to design on fondant cakes. So he says he's going to call Dortoni for a price quote and let me know.

---

fondant cakes are EXPENSIVE, honestly to get a fondant cake in the hundreds its a good price, most are 1k and up. If you have a smaller wedding and less guests then yes it can be in the hundreds. Like i mentioned in the post, for e-party i had called over 50 bakeries and the cheapest i really found it for was $6 a slice, most were over that though.

For wedding, i used an outside vendor for my cake, didnt get a cake through JT. And trust me $800 is a good price for a fondant cake, well depends on the # of guests, how many guests are you having?

HOWEVER, i remember jt telling me that they usually use about $250-300 from your payments towards the cake, so they should deduct that much from the amount dortoni's would charge you for a fondant cake. I have no idea of dortoni's prices, but im also sure they will work with you if youre a JT bride, if you were getting it elsewhere and completely went on your own to an outside vendor, you would be paying at least $6-8 a slice. Good luck

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I would think $800 is reasonable too, but the $800 reference was an ADDITIONAL $800 on top of the original $$600, making the total 1,400. This would feed approximately 175 people, and is not even considering extra details and designs...just basic fondant which I think is unreasonable.

My hall mgr agreed that $200 extra is reasonable for the extra fondant itself. What is up in the air now is whether the scroll design can still be the pastry cone design or also has to be fondant (he believes the latter, whcih would dramatically increase work and cost). But on cake shows I see, they seem to have pastry cones to decorate at least certain parts of fondant cake (not to say of course it is the only thing they use). His point was that buttercream wouldn't stick at all to fondant.

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yeah if you were to get a basic fondant cake elsewhere for about 175 guests, then the total would be $1050 thats going by $6 a slice although many places charge $7 a slice if they have designs on it but even that should be about $1225, im going by the price of the place i used for my cake. They told you they pay $600 for cakes or did you give them that amount for cakes. Just asking bc i was told differently which doesnt matter in my case but curious what the lady told me was true

who is your Banquet manager at JT?

as far as pastry cones, it depends on what type of design it is. If the design is made with fondant then no they wont always use a pastry cone bc fondant cant be squeezed out of it easily bc its more of a clay substance, if its buttercream then yes that can be squeezed out. Fondant is rolled and then put on top of each layer and smoothed out. After that as far as what they use all depends on the type of design that you want on the cake. THere are some designs that have to be made by hand with the fondant but again depends on what you want. Do you have a pic of the cake you want? I would go by what dortoni is say they charge for a fondant cake. What are their prices per slice for a fondant cake, forget what JT takes out of your payment for the cake but lets say you wanted to get a cake from dortoni's on your own what did they say they charge? and then bring this up to JT.