A.S.
In all honesty when you are talking custom cakes you are looking to spend significantly more than a cake you have made at a grocery store baker. $70 does not sound that bad to me actually. It takes a lot of time and effort for a cake like that. The only place I can recommend is maybe Stein's Bakery at Preston and 635. I'm not sure who you have tried but they are really good. They don't have licensing for characters so they can't do trademarked or registered character cakes but they do custom cakes and cookies.