How Do You Price Gumpaste Flowers?
Decorating By SweetDreams98 Updated 12 Jul 2014 , 10:27pm by TheItalianBaker
So I have my pricing down for cake per serving (and a chart with amount extra for certain flavors etc) but I'm just starting with gumpaste flowers and I have no idea how to charge for them. Does anyone have a tried and true method they would like to share? Any tips are appreciated!
Pricing sugar flowers are hard - some are much easier and more elaborate then others, if you are new it takes a long time to make 1 but after you've made 100 you can bang them out pretty fast. The hard part is if it takes you a long time to make a flower because you are new you can't charge for that learning curve. It's just part of doing business.
Sugar flowers, to me, are part of the art that are a time sink and unrecoverable as far as sales go. Many bakeries just buy wholesale flowers for this very reason. I happen to like making flowers and am good at them so I spend the time to make them. But I can't charge an hourly rate per flower and I can bang them out pretty fast. Nobody would ever buy them.
I charge an approximate hourly rate, but like @FromScratchSF said, I can make them pretty fast. Some take longer than others so you just have to know what's going to be a massive pain in the butt and increase your price accordingly.
few nights ago I made 2 medium roses, it took me 45min. I figured they costed me $6 each one. I would say I can price them around $10/12 each one, more for bigger flowers
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few nights ago I made 2 medium roses, it took me 45min. I figured they costed me $6 each one. I would say I can price them around $10/12 each one, more for bigger flowers
That seems to be pretty high for the cost to make them, is that just for your gumpaste? I make my own gumpaste so if that's what commercial gumpaste costs, good lord....
AThanks for the suggestions! I know years ago when I was wedding cake shopping my baker told me they are pricey but didn't elaborate and now that I'm doing cakes I was kind of lost lol So far I really like making them, made 3 peonies and I'm going to start roses tomorrow just to practice. There's definitely a learning curve with time just like everything else :) I LOVE the look and don't like putting fresh flowers on a cake unless I have to so I guess I will just practice, practice, practice!
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Original message sent by TheItalianBaker
Oh no no, included my labor cost!
Oh, okay. I was thinking you were using gumpaste made from gold or something!
I sometimes would make them. sometimes buy. It depended on the flower and how busy I was.
Here's a pic of one cake where I used both hand-made and purchased ones. http://cakecentral.com/g/i/53839/a/54839/
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