Need Help Pricing This Cake....please
Decorating By Meghan1010 Updated 25 May 2012 , 5:08pm by SoFloGuy
Sizes are 14, 12, 10. Buttercream all over with WASC with strawberry, chocolate/buttercream, WASC with buttercream.
The link to the picture is below it would not upload as an attachment
http://www.weddingcakelady.com/Pillared/new/pill42.jpg
How much are you spending on the supplies/ingredients?
How much is your time worth? How long will it take you to make it?
How much profit do you want to make off it?
We are new at this.... we haven't bought the supplies yet (pillars included). The lady wants a quote? 1st wedding cake that we've done...doesn't look hard and I'm sure it won't take that long it's fairly simple design? But we do realize that baking, icing, etc does take time....we just don't have a clue what a cake that size should be priced at?
You don't have to buy the supplies to know what it will cost you. Arm yourself with a list of what you need and make a trip to the store and get some prices.
The problem with asking pricing questions is that there isn't a set number we can give you. There are way to many variables out there.
Your location plays a factor in it. If you are in a large city chances are you can price higher than someone in a small town.
Baking from cake mixes and scratch cost differently. Baking from expensive ingredients costs more. Buying in bulk lowers your costs. Buying supplies in a higher cost city can cost more than buying in a small town.
How long it takes you to work varies as does hourly wage.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to take some time and really figure out what you spend making a cake. It can be very surprising when you start adding up all those numbers and really see what you actual spend on a cake.
You can always call around to bakeries where you live and see what they with charge for the cake, but then you do have to keep in mind their expenses and supplies could cost more or less than what you would be spending.
I actually was wondering how many of you price your cakes based on cost & time OR based on # of servings????
I am in a small town, and people tend to look @ you like you are crazy when you charge $85 for a 3 tier (6,8,12, 12 being dummy) basic cake (no one around here ever thinks outside of the box) bc & fondant decorations.
They want Ace of Cakes @ WalMart pricing.
I am in a small town also. My basic wedding cakes start at $2/serving. I know that is low compared by many on CC, but in my area is about the going rate.
That cake would qualify as a basic cake for me.
I actually was wondering how many of you price your cakes based on cost & time OR based on # of servings????
Your cost/time/profit become your price per serving.
Im just grabbing numbers out of the air here
Lets say your cost for an 8in round cake which serves 24 is $10. And it takes you 6 hours at a $10 an hour to do it.
When you divide $70 by 24 (number of servings) you know you need to charge at least $2.92 to cover your cost and time.
If you charge $3.50 per serving, then you will make a $14 profit on the cake.
If you charge $3.75 per serving, then it is a $20 profit.
You dont actually have to price out every cake, you just need some base numbers to work with. If you do mostly tiered cakes, then I would figure the cost for a 6 and 8 or a 6 and 10 and then use those numbers to figure your price per serving. That way the pillars/dowels are built into the price. So then if you do a cake that is a single tier then you just make a little extra profit on it.
Another thing to remember, when figuring your cost do not use sale or discounted prices. It is nice to buy things on sale but sometimes you may not be able to, so then you are shorting yourself. And if you do get things on sale, again that is just extra profit for you.
They want Ace of Cakes @ WalMart pricing.
Yes people do. The key there is to not give in to it. How much is your free time worth to you? If you arent doing a cake for someone that doesnt want to pay what your time is worth, what else could you be doing? To me I would much rather be doing something I want to be doing, than doing a favor for someone that cant understand that my time and talent is worth more than $20 for a huge elaborate cake.
Lets say your cost for an 8in round cake which serves 24 is $10. And it takes you 6 hours at a $10 an hour to do it.
When you divide $70 by 24 (number of servings) you know you need to charge at least $2.92 to cover your cost and time.
If you charge $3.50 per serving, then you will make a $14 profit on the cake.
If you charge $3.75 per serving, then it is a $20 profit.
I am so glad to see you phrase it this way. 
Too many people would figure "I spent $10 on ingredients, sold it for $70, so I made $60 profit."
No .... profit comes AFTER payroll. As I tongue-in-cheek phrase it "pretend you are a REAL business.....!" 
and have to write a check to an employee for that payroll. You charge $70 for the cake. You write a check for $60 for payroll (actually you write it for more when you figure the employer taxes that need paid). You write a $10 check for supplies. Your profit, or I should say The Business's Profit = ZERO. to Texas for pointing this out!
Woo hoo I got a thumbs up from Debi!
I can honestly say, working for my dad has opened my eyes to all the stuff involved in running a business that you really never think about. When you do payroll you learn there is a lot more to the labor 'costs' than just what you make an hour.
Also you realize that there really isn't any profit, because that just goes back into the business to pay all the other bills there are like rent, ins, phone, internet, office supplies, cleaning supplies, postage, credit card charges, and so on. And then when all that is handled you really hope you still have money in the bank for when this or that breaks or needs to be replaced.
Balancing the checkbook is always fun cause you watch the numbers dwindle down, then jump up when there is a deposit made, then watch them start the dwindling process all over again. And some of our bills will make the check book go from a nice amount to a 'umm, we need some money to come in before you pay another bill' amount.
Leily, feel free to cut and paste it. 
They want Ace of Cakes @ WalMart pricing.
that drives me nuts! i work at a grocery store bakery but its a made scratch bakery. so we always get people coming in wanting a wed cake for under $100.. they want all this beautiful work done on it but then they crap their pants when you tell them how much it is. i get the 'but its just cake' response. so annoying! i love my cake shows but i hate when people think i can magically make it for $20 bucks...
i get the 'but its just cake' response. so annoying! i love my cake shows but i hate when people think i can magically make it for $20 bucks...
"Oh! you wanted "just a cake"!! Walmart .... Aisle 8 ..... knock yourself out."
See ... THEY can make it for twenty bucks. But when they throw in the extra expense of paying someone ELSE to make it FOR them, of taking that "just a cake" in a pan with some icing slapped on top and converting it to a tiered work of art, of paying someone for their talent ..... for some reason they think the person works for free.
And you know darn well THEY won't work for free. 
Indydebi, you are so funny and fiesty! I love it! I came to this forum because I am making 175 cupcakes, and 1 three layer 8 inch cake and just wanted to find out how much I could have charged if I was making money on it. I am doing everything for free because it is my niece. Anyway, I loved the "Oh, you wanted just a cake... Walmart aisle 8, knock yourself out!" comment. That's awesome. 
i simply use the wilton cake cutting guide and start pricing at 3 dollars per serving. this is a basic cake with buttercream icing, I charge 50cents more per serving for smbc , mousses, dollar more per serving for fondant, fresh fruit, certain decorations....I make it clear all the extras cost such and such amount....it keeps them in their budget, and keeps them from trying to get me to make a million dollar cake for peanuts, its fair any way you look at it, dont forget to charge for delivery and setup, i charge 25-75dollars for that, although I just delivered a cake to Times square in nyc, and charged 260 delivery, its 120 miles one way
Some wise soul here wrote that when you go into a restaurant, and order a lovely, delicious dessert, what would you expect the price to be?
Our local, small town restaurant charges $4.95 for a piece of cake.
One layer, chocolate fudge, with a tablespoon of chocolate drizzley goodness.
Little dollop of whipped cream on the side.
I'm guessing it's an 8" round, cut into many many many pieces.
People buy it by the bucket load.
Even at 15 servings, that cake would price at $75.
That sticks with me.
And because it makes sense to me, I can explain it to folks when they come asking for the $30 cakes.
No, I don't get every order, but that's ok.
HTH someone else like it did me
CBMom, I used to keep printouts of restaurant websites showing the prices (and pics) of their desserts. The client didn't have to take my word for it .... I showed them the evidence of what they paid every time they walked into that place.
$4.95 for a slice of cake doesn't seem like much money ..... unless you have to buy 150 of them!
I love these posts, they always make me feel better about pricing cakes. I grew up with a mom who always made our cakes, and they were always awesome. So when I got married adn we were looking for a cake I was shocked. I knew they were expensive, but I had never bought a cake, even from a grocery store. i always madeit myself or mom did. We happily paid for our wedding cake, as I knew it was the only time in my life I would pay someone for a cake.
With that said, I fell into making cakes for friends and family after I had kids myself. I amde their cakes and of course they had to compare with the ones I had as a child. So now, a few years later people want to pay me for the cakes. i had to figure out a pricing sysytem. This was so hard for me, since I can't believbe people pay for cake, such a silly idea....right???? Well, every time I quote a cake I have to remind myself they are paying for a peice of art, not "a cake". They are paying for my time, my visions, and my soul, because that is what I pour into every cake.
We all need to remind ourselves that. If they want "a cake" they can go to Walmart, aisle 9. If they want a peice of me, then well, they need to pay for it.
I just had to remind myself of that when i quoted someone $125 for a helmet cake....yep, not even $2.75 a slice!!!! I guess my time is still pretty cheap!!!
I just recently did a cake and added up just the packaging and support materials and it came to about $17 for the drum, cake boards and cake box. Well I only charged $50 and after figuring out the cost of 2 recipes of cake, 2 recipes of MMF and 2 1/2 recipes of buttercream, I didn't make a darn thing for my time let alone profit. I call these instances my "learning promotion" because I'm new at this and learning as I go too. 
It's the Cinderell doll cake that I just posted in case anyone is interested.
Anyways, everyone is right you need to figure out your costs first and don't be afraid to charge for you talent either (I'm still working on that myself). I'm going back to the drawing board and adjusting my prices.
teaparty, your story reminded me of one where a friend asked for a quote for a sandwich lunch for a meeting. He was about 20 mins away and I waived the delivery fee for him and quoted $175. he about flipped!
"$175 for SANDWICHES?????" he said.
"No," I told him. "$175 for sandwich, chips, fruit, my made-from-scratch cookies, drinks, ice, cups, condiments, the packaging, servings dishes, and free delivery to your place for 30 people at the last minute."
He decided he'd "make 'em myself!" so I decided to be a good friend and gave him a list of all of the equipment he'd need to get (container for the ice, cups, basket for chips "because you're NOT going to just sit the open bag on the table are you?? 
", he'd have to buy full bottles of condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles) so be sure he remembered to take them all home afterward; dont' forget the cooler to transport all of this stuff and he should plan on getting up at least a couple of hours early to prepare everything and get it packed in the cooler to get it to his office for lunch.
He emailed that he didnt have that kind of time (DUH!) and he'd think of something.
The next time I saw him, I asked if he ended up calling Subway. He said, "No .... they require 48 hours notice!"
the point of my long drawn out story is they only think of the cost f the FOOD. They never consider all fo the extra equipment, supplies, and TIME that's involved.
How many servings are you quoting it at? Also what are the grapes all about? Are they real, fake, gum paste? Thanks
Indydeb: in all fairness I think my client/friend would have paid more had she any idea what she was getting and had I asked because she was truly amazed by the cake. After the party she said I seriously needed to increase my prices because she had a friend who insisted that she must have paid $100 for the cake (she wouldn't tell her friend how much she paid because I asked her not to).
I sympathize with all newbies like myself, because it is difficult to figure out how much to charge over and above the actual costs of the cake itself.
I'm not much help to you Meghan1010, but let me be a lesson for you. 
Thanks everyone, this is by far one of the better pricing threads!! Great info!!
This link may help with pricing too. This is from a storefront bakery.
http://www.yourcakeplace.com/birthday_menu.html
This link may help with pricing too. This is from a storefront bakery.
http://www.yourcakeplace.com/birthday_menu.html
This places prices aren't even consistent per serving. But the only way this would be beneficial is if you are in the same area as this bakery. I can post a link to a bakery in Alaska, or New York and say here are prices, but it won't help me in Iowa because my cost are a lot different, plus no bakeries around here charge those same prices. It's best to price compare (after you know your cost etc..) locally.
We all need to remind ourselves that. If they want "a cake" they can go to Walmart, aisle 9. If they want a peice of me, then well, they need to pay for it.
Wow! Do I have permission to quote you? Cause I ABSOLUTELY love this!!!
teaparty, your story reminded me of one where a friend asked for a quote for a sandwich lunch for a meeting. He was about 20 mins away ..........................the point of my long drawn out story is they only think of the cost f the FOOD. They never consider all fo the extra equipment, supplies, and TIME that's involved.
Debi - Did he ever tell you what he ended up doing for lunch that day?
This link may help with pricing too. This is from a storefront bakery.
http://www.yourcakeplace.com/birthday_menu.html
Thanks for posting I like the way they did this. I think I'll use this format for my own.
So i've been doing cakes and selling them for about a year. I dont have a pricing guide dont know how to do one.
Here is one of my cakes 11x15 size cake no filling. made with fondant and BC. I charged 65.00.
What do u think about that price. please look at the attachment
I'm soooo glad I found this thread. I have made all my cakes for free, either for my children or friends.
I had one person to offer to pay for a cake....20 dollars. It was an acquaintance and needless to say I told her I would just do it for free. I wasn't offended because many people don't know just what goes into baking and decorating cakes.
Everyone says "you should start a business!" I wouldn't even know how to start charging people..."uh yeah all my cakes have been free but now you have to start paying..." awkward.
Anyway just wanted to vent really....I don't feel that my cakes are ready to be paid for yet....
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