The biggest costs are for the chocolate itself and any equipment you need to buy. You'll also need to consider renting a cake stand and buying decorations. I assume a professional would already have the baking and display equipment and also benefit from economies of scale, but in total I spent 114 pounds: read on for a breakdown of costs involved.

Here's a breakdown of what I spent:

(All prices are in British pounds and were current in spring 2006).

• Cake tins: 25.00

• Stand hire: 10.00 (weekend) + 5.00 for 2 extra days

• Small electric handheld mixer from Tesco's value range: 5.00

• Decorations: 6.00 (ribbons and artificial flowers - my brother bought the statue for the top)

• Plastic tubs for protecting and transporting the cakes: 5.00

• Chocolate coating sauce ingredients: 20.00

• Marzipan: 11.00

• White chocolate coffee ganache ingredients: 10.00

• Ingredients for 3 sponges, sized 6", 8" and 10", including 14 eggs, 2 big tubs of margarine, 2 bags of sugar and 2 bags of self raising flour: 9.00

• Chocolate for heart shaped decorations: 5.00

• Jar of coffee, which could have been cheaper but I went for organic fairtrade for the good karma: 3.00

If you're planning to do a home made cake to save money, it probably won't unless you already own a stand and tins. A non-chocolate cake would also probably be cheaper. On the bright side, if you do like baking, you get some great new equipment to keep. You also have more choice over the quality and source of your ingredients (eg fairtrade, organic, vegetarian etc).

<Last revision: 23 July 2007>