Basic pricing help - Page 8

I would also love to receive the pricing list. I just received my first two cake orders and I'm sure I underpriced them!

michellelshort@hotmail.com

Thanks in advance!

Take sometime and sit down to make a list of everything you use for
making a cake. If you bake from scratch you need a list of what you
use. If you use cake mixs, make a list of the things used for that.
Don't forget about your icing and fillings. Next you need to figure
out how much these things are costing you. Make sure you are using the
regular non sell price. If you are using fondant on a cake you need
to add that cost in as well.

I use cake mixes, so I figure the cost of the cake mix, plus everything
that goes in it, the filling, and 2 recipes of icing. These tells me
how much money I am spending to make that cake. To this figure you
need to add the price of your cake board/box. I will usually round up
and add a $2 or $3 at this point, to account for other things like the
decorating bags and such.

Now from here the general rule is to take the figure you have and times it
by 3. In my area sometimes I feel like that is too much, so you mostly drop it down to 2.5. NEVER EVER go below x2!!

So lets say that you came up with 8.50 as your figure (I'm just pulling
a number out of the air). 8.50x3 = 25.50 or 8.50x2.5 = 21.25 So then
you would charge 25.50 or 21.25 for a cake that requires one cake mix.
If you want to do a by serving price then you can figure out how many
servings a one mix cake pan would give you and use that as a guide. We
will use the 10in square (one layer) as an example. It usually uses
one cake mix and according to the Wilton guide it serves 25 (wedding
servings) or 15 (party servings) So you could say 25.50/25 = 1.02. So
that is slightly over $1 per serving. BUT remember wedding cakes cost
more to make than your regular every day cake. You have the price of your dowels/pillars plus cake plates. Plus these are usually cakes you have you deliever. I would probably go ahead and up that to $1.50 or $2.00, if not more.

Now if you want to get specific you can sit down and make a party
serving price and a wedding serving price, and when you do the wedding
figure go ahead and add in the dowels and/or plates/pillars to the
prices so they will already be figured in.

You can also call around to local bakeries to get an idea of what they
charge but please keep in mind that you do not have to charge less than
them. If you call somewhere like Walmart or a grocery store, remember
they buy in bulk and it does not cost them as much as it will you to
make the cake.

If you make specialty cakes then I would break your cakes down into groups. You could have your basic cakes for a price, your specialty cakes for a higher price, you may so have a dessert type cake that you would want to price a certain amount.

I know it sounds like a lot of work. And it kinda is. Just remember to save your math and figures. You probably want to go back every 6months or so to check your figures against store prices as some products go up over time. Once you sit down and do this, it is easier to go back in and plug in a new number.

You really need to know how much money is going into the cake to know how much to ask for it in return. Don't short change yourself and don't try to compete with grocery store cake prices.

can i have a copy please. My e-mail feroza@poribar.org
Husne

Can i please get a copy too? Winjobit77@cs.com

For those of you who say you are only charging twenty bucks for cakes, you are really selling yourselves short. I know it depends on where you live to some extent, but you should NEVER go by what the grocery store or Wal-Mart charges! Remember that People want something better than that (and expect to pay more), otherwise they would just go to those places! Not to mention that, as someone else pointed out, those places pay MUCH less for their ingredients (partly because they they buy huge amounts, partly because they use the cheapest lowliest ingredients available) and they usually have the means of making and assembling things much quicker than a baker doing cakes individually would. You are insulting yourself and you will put yourself out of business if you charge their prices.

I know that we all want to do them for friends and family for free, and I do that a lot as my gift to them for their occasion, but for everyone else $20 would be my "bare minimum" even for a small cake - just buttercream with no design, maybe some sprinkles. You have to get paid for your labor time!

Sorry everyone!

Yikes, I never thought I would come back to this. I have been off of my computer for 2 months (we are waiting for our house and living with family).

So there is no way I can email out my pricing list to SO many names. It would take me forever and a day.

So to make my pricing list, I just went to the grocery store and priced out all of my ingredients.

Then I figured out how much of each ingredient I needed for each size of cake. Wahla...A pricing list.

So easy you can all do it yourselves. it is really only a hours worth of work. And Really my pricing list has amounts for where I live, so you would have to re-do it for where you live.

I'd post it, but I'm still not on my computer!

Good luck everyone.

can i please have a copy of this also trenth_40@yahoo.com

I wrote my own excel spreadsheet for pricing cakes (if you would like a copy email me at alicegop@gmail.com), I've run across a couple of people who don't have excel though.

You can go to www.microsoft.com and search for excel viewer so you use excel when you don't have it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&DisplayLang=en

I copied the link if you would like.

I refuse to compete with Costco. If people want a Costco cake go get one. They taste good and are good for backyard BBQ's and church picnics. My cakes will taste awesome (better than Walmart that is for sure), but are highly customized. Don't sell your art short! I agree with ChristaBaker. I'd rather do a cake for free than to underprice it (I'm a math teacher and my husband is a history teacher and we like to talk about the parent who wants you to give a kid a bump up in his grade so he can.... play a sport or not get an F or whatever and so we say if we are going to sell our souls for a grade and give them a grade they don't deserve might as well give them an A. I see this the same for cakes. If you are going to sell yourself short, you might as well just give it away.)

You are an artist, you have skills beyond a minimum wage worker. You had to invest a lot of your time and money into taking classes and buying supplies. You should make more money than someone flipping burgers at McDonalds!!!!!!!

I would love a copy of your price list, too!! I have had so many people tell me I'm not charging enough, so I would be curious to see what your list says.

Gracias!

morackers@centurytel.net

Can I have the "Oh so famous" list too... I really appreciate you sharing your info on pricing. Thanks. nefgaby@verizon.net

Me too, please. I would be greatly interested in you pricing list.

cheese_fries@msn.com