This cake was featured in TheKnot by Confections on the Coast. I have a bride who wants this cake, with a few of her own personal additions but I'm not sure how I should go about charging for this one?

I did my first wedding cake this past November and charged $2.50/slice (I live in a small town in Central PA) but ended up putting at least an extra $600 into it - I really miscalculated on that one and made no profit!

I would so much appreciate advice from CC on what is the best option as far as cost for this particular cake, or any wedding cake for that matter.

Thank you so much everyone!

Lis

What are your estimated costs for ingredients (including boards, supports, etc) and how many hours do you think it will take to complete the order (prep, baking, decorating, and cleanup)?

One million dollars.

You have to do the math yourself. How much I'd charge has zero bearing to how much you could charge. You don't have my overhead, my experience or my recipes and vice versa. So sorry, this is all on you.

Beautiful cake though!

Edited to say, the cost you charge should be based on your ingredients, overhead, time it takes you to make and what profit margin you want. You'll need to fill in those blanks.

We would need more details even to give you a hint

Will it be a fondant cake as pictured or buttercream? Will the size be the same, are you making the flowers out of gumpaste, silk or real? Lots of variables here

Think about your last cake and figure out why your estimate was low. Did you under estimate your time, the amount of fondant, the cost of ingredients?

I agree with the posters above.

However, I am extremely curious. How do you put $600 into a cake? You're including a time/wage factor, yes?

that's a beautiful cake! I agree with the others as well. You need to price out all the ingredients first. Then calculate overhead, labor, and profit...
Pricing is such a hard thing to get the hang of! I'm trying to work on it as we speak!

Thanks to all - I realize it's ultimately up to me; still such a rookie at this business I'm feeling overwhelmed.

I'm working on the time expected, ingreds, etc. to give myself a rough idea, was just curious what others charge etc.

This cake will have fondant/choc/wht/BC layers- no special flavors.....gumpaste ranunculas and using the same design, size.

I'll see what I come up with and then check back in.....again, thank you so much - all of you are an inspiration to me!

Lis

I created an Excel document to calculate the cost of making my cakes. Would be glad to send it to you if you think it would help.

"but ended up putting at least an extra $600 into it - I really miscalculated on that one and made no profit!"

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How is that possible? I'm just curious because I never want to make that mistake!

Yeah, what FromScratch said. Those factors are huge. Plus you have to factor the prices in your own market and find where you fall within that market. In a successful, or viable, business plan, those two factors end up being the same.