Hi there, I'm a newbie to cake decorating and this is my first order... I need your help, I don't know how much to charge, I live in VA Beach (I don't know if this matters or not) and a friend or my husbands' asked me to make him a cake for 25 - 30 people. He chose a Fondant cake, 12" round pan x 4" high (without fondant). I don't know how much to charge, I spent aprox $15, including cake box and cake circle and I spent 8 hours total working on it, I know, I'm a bit slow... Any thoughts? I would really appreciate your opinions as well, does it look good? I know the picture is not with the best resolution but all comments are more than welcome, I want to improve!
Thanks sooo much.

i would charge minimum $25. I charge if it is an easy cake $10 per piece and $13 if it is too detailed and takes a lot of time ... hope it helps

I'm no help, but wanted to tell you that your cake looks great!!! I have never made a cake for money, so I have no idea!

For your first order I must say that you did a wonderful job. Vet

sorry i forgot to tell u're cake looks great !!!

first of all, I think you cake looks perfect. It looks very professional and clean. Also, I think you should definitely charge more than $25. At least by me, people can barely get a crappy cake for that much. Dont make it seem like it is worth less than it is because more people will want cakes from you when they see that and you dont want to spend that many hours of hard work to make ten dollars per cake. I think $ 40 is still a very fair price, especially considering it is fondant. Just an opinion but if you want people to value your work , you need to value it. Send someone to a local bakery and ask how much for a 12" round with fondant and fondant decorations. See what kind of ball park they are in, and I am sure your cake tastes a whole lot better. HTH!!! Great job....let us know what you do and how they like it!!

Beautiful job on the cake. As far as pricing, I would figure either 2.5x or 3x what your costs were is a good place to start.

The cake is delightful! I would charge at least $35.

An easy way to figure this is your cost ($15) multiplied by 2.5 (an industry standard I am told). This actually comes out to $37.50 to be exact. And that's not even accounting for your time! (But since you are a self-professed newbie, you can charge for your time when you get faster at making cakes).

Your out-of-pocket cost of $15 seems a bit high. Was it the fondant?

Hi, I live in Richmond VA and 4 months ago I was just like you ... I had my first order and didn't know how much to charge. So I did a 8 in round cake (4 inches tall) decorated in buttercream and I charged $20.
The girl that asked me to bake the cake told me I was not charging enough... so I increased my prices.

these are my prices ( I bake just for friends and family)

All these are 4 inches tall (2 or more layers of cake and filling)
6 in - $15
8in - $25
10in- $40
12in- $50

For example, for a 8 in cake I use a hole cake recipe and 2 buttercream recipes, plus the board, paper, box.... it is like around $12, so at least I double it.

blowingsunshine u think it is too much ??

the competition charges a lot more, so i think it is fair...

Any grocery bakery (at least here in Texas) would charge around 1.50 a pice for a specialty cake, things are more expensive in VA so I would charge $40. It sounds reasonable for me. I haven't sell any, but have bought a lot!

u know it is funny u said it coz to be honest with u i always make a lot of discount on those prices, but i definately would charge $35 or more on nefgaby's cake

Well...a 12" serves more like 45 people. A 9 or 10 inch would be more for 25 or so people.

well.. (fondant, $.50 per serving, +$40 for cake=
$62.50.

(again, above is my price for a 12 inch which serves 45 people, if it were only a 10inch that serves about 30 people I would charge $50.)

blowingsunshine u r so right i made a mistake, i was talking about quetzales wich is $1 for 8 quetzales, so my piece costs about $1, $1.30 u were so right, i made a mistake in the currency ! LOL

Hi Girls.... thank you thank you thank you!!!! Funny story... as I'm new to CC I couldn't find all the replies I got, so I just read them today, but thank you'll! Now, I have to let you know how it went... so I delivered the cake, about 40 miles from where I live, but no biggie, as we had to run errands close to where this person lives, so I we deliver de cake and they LOVED it, they paid me $60!!! I asked for $40, thinking that was a GOOD price and they paid me $60! They were shocked with the cake and very happy, that night this person calls (I wanted to cry thinking something had gone wrong....) to my surprise , they ordered a second cake for the next day, I didn't sleep but I wouldn't turn it down, so they ordered an 8" this time and got $40 for it! I know, it is a LOT of money for 2 cakes, and now as a result of this 2 cakes, I got 3 more orders from people attending the parties this cakes were for!
Anyway, thanks again for everything!

Hey Gabbs, you are from Guatemala???? ME TOO!!!! I figure you got mixed up with quetzales... how is business down there? I miss Guate

CONGRATULATIONS !! that's so good...
2 thumbs up!

Hey Gabbs, you are from Guatemala???? ME TOO!!!! I figure you got mixed up with quetzales... how is business down there? I miss Guate

really ?! i can't believe? is ur name gaby too? well i most say there are really good seasons and others that aren't so good, but it's been pretty good
where are u from? capital?

Si, me llamo Gaby tambien! Soy de la capital y estoy en los US por mi esposo, me case con un gringuito! Y tu? Que cool encontrar a alguien de Guate en CC!

si eso mismo digo yo, he visto mucha gente de latinoamerica pero nadie de Guate, q bueno saberlo ! y mas q se llame igual a mi!
y como te ha ido? cuanto llevas de vivir alla?

Me imagino que nos van a echar del forum si seguimos solo "platicando" pero escribime a mi mail! Yo creo que no te puedo poner mi direccion aca en forum pero es facil, el mismo user name, nefgaby y luego arroba verizon punto net.

Thanks again everybody for the awesome help with my cakes and prices!!!! I'm very excited and loving this website!! Now, one more question.... anybody? Do you think that a 12" should get 45 servings, a 10" 25-30 and an 8" maybe 15 servings? All in party servings, as I know for wedding servings you can get more per cake! Thanks again for all your support and help!