Do you all charge "per slice" for all occasion cakes as well as wedding cakes,? Do you have a base price and then add on for extra decorations? I live in Phoenix - does anyone know about what the going price per slice around here is for BC and fondant? Price for wedding and all occasion? Sorry for all the questions - thanks in advance to anyone who has ideas about this one.

For all of my wedding cakes and for customized cakes (ie. sculpted cakes) I charge per slice and then add on for the intricacy of the design. As for standard cakes (ie. rounds, sheet cakes) I have a set price for standard decoration and then if they customer wants further details that are more intricate, then I add on to the price for my time and expertise. I am in Southern California, so I am not certain what the price range would be for Arizona. Are you comparable to us? If so, I will respond with pricing.

I was thinking about this same issue yesterday. It's easy to price your wedding cakes per slice but with the others it gets kind of sketchy. I'm having a hard time pricing my sheet cakes and just regular cakes. Like I had a lady that wanted a decorated 6" cake. I felt bad charging alot because it was so small but if it's under a certain amount it's not even worth your time to make it. Should we set a minimum for all orders?

I charge $1.50 per 2x2" sheet cake serving and charge $2.50 per multi-layered non-sheet cake serving.

It's easy to price all cakes per serving. I use the wilton wedding cake chart to set my pricing, not necessarily to set how many servings (althought they are coincidentally the same). this assures consistency and level pricing. I am not going to get into a conversation on why a 10" round for a wedding costs different than a 10" round for a birthday.

For example, the 6" round serves 12 per this chart. 12 x $2.50 = $30. I dont'get into "this is 12 wedding cake servings @ $2.50 per serving....." I tell them "The price is $30." If they think this is expensive, they can go to walmart ..... I am not a mass producing bakery who bakes 40 of these at a time in the hopes that someone will come by and by one. I do not want to mess with baking a lousy 6" round cake. PLEASE go to walmart and get it!

So whether you charge by the slice or have a flat price .... you're still charging by the slice.

indydebi -

Just perfect! I am printing this out and memorizing it. Great advice.

Thanks so much.

Phyllis

thanks everyone-

Liz,
Cali is prob a bit higher priced than AZ, but would you mind telling me what you charge to at least give me an idea of a range? Thank you so much!

Indydebi,
thanks, you always have the answers! so let me get this right, you don't even tell the customer the price per slice, you just use the chart to determine how many servings, therefore determining how much the whole cake will cost? Do you do that for wedding and all occasion cakes? And is your price per slice different for wedding cakes? What is your price for fondant? And how do you deal with "extra" decoratations" and fillings?

Thanks again for all your help! I have not been charging consistently with my cakes, and I know it is going to come back and bite me in the butt pretty soon here if I don't just get down a set price list to stick to for EVERYONE!

High five for indydeb!

I usually charge a base price for each cake "mix" or "recipe" I use - $20/each. So if I make a 1-mix cake- $20, 2-mix - $40, 3-mix - $60, etc. If I use fondant, gumpaste, etc. I will add $20 to that price. I came up with a simple spreadsheet using excel that seems to work well and I can change and add to it as needed. It is so hard to determine the number of slices of a cake especially since most of my are "scuplpted" that I think it is easier just to do it by the number of mixes/recipes used.

Hope this helps!

Adding my thanks as well indydebi--this has FINALLY clicked in my head!! Your advise about just tell them the cost of the cake was also given to me by my mother, who explained that people are turned off by the cost per slice--just sell them the cake. I've actually lost 2 orders this year by overexplaining the cost per slice---LESSON LEARNED

I usually do not charge by slice. I add what it cost to make the cake and multiply it by 3 and if there are specific details or fondant pieces I add on a price to that.

thanks indydebi,
I actually just ordered the fillings in sleeves to try for the first time - I like the way you do the pricing, I just need to decide what my price per slice will be and maybe write my prices on the wilton chart next to each size cake so I have it handy. Do you ever have anyone comment about the size of the wilton "slice"? Do you let them know what the size is? I need to start making this a little easier on myself! I think definitely no more homemade fillings is a good start! (I hate making those stupid things lol). The supplies x 3 method works pretty well if you can keep track of everything (which I couldn't cuz I wasn't organized enough!) After like 3 days, one big messy kitchen, and a three tiered cake later, I sort of lost track of each thing I used . . . . lol

Nope, no one has even asked "how big is a slice?"

I don't agree with the Wilton charts per say as far as how many slices they get from cakes (24 from an 8" rouind?). Earlene's is a litte more realistic - guess my family is a bunch of cake hogs when it comes to slice size ! That is why I have a hard time charging per slice. I have a general price list for basic cake/filling/decorations and work up from there if anything special is asked for.

deb

MomLittr, you can still charge by slice, just go by Earline's chart to determine how many slices are in the cake, instead of the Wilton chart.

It makes it so much easier when you have a base price per slice to start from.

where is Earlene's chart?

Earlenes:
http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

thanks beth!

after we ask how many do you need to serve, I always ask "are they big on sweets?" because while one cake may feed 35 the same cake could feed 10.

I had a girl come pick up a cake for 20 people, and eventhough I did "upsize" the design so it would fit, she still gave the cake a wonky look and had the nerve to ask me if the cake would serve 20!

we looked at each other when she left and just busted out laughing because we both had the same thought,

20 women or 20 Lumberjacks!!??

I also price by the size and add the costs.

10.00 for fondant accents, EI or chocolates and if we used premade gumpaste flowers we charge them for that and that is where they have the control as to paying for one or one hundred.

Good luck

Hope we are not confusing you too much