Ok, first of all--for simplicity's sake, I prefer to charge for wedding cake servings only on any cake (whatever the occasion), one price, one size to work with for charging. I put the same ingredients and time into both, unless it's a very ornate wedding cake, which then gets charged accordingly (but so would an ornate party cake).

I don't want someone showing up with the "well, if an 8" for a party costs only X, then why is an 8" wedding cake round X?" question.

BUT--I'm having a hard time facing someone with a $75.00 (or higher) price for an 8" round 4 layer cake. I have $36.00 into the ingredients and kitchen rent (I rent), and that's charging VERY conservatively for rent...If I spend 3 hours and even charge $10/hour , I'm still at almost $70.00...

I'd rather just NOT do party cakes! But I'm just getting my name out there, so I need all the advertising I can get...

Comparable bakeries around here (higher end, who do weddings as well) charge like $28.95 for an 8" round, which I can NOT afford to do).

If I don't charge more, it means I'm basically doing it for cost, so why bother!

HELP with this one please...I'm having a hard time being brave enough to look someone in the eye and quote them that much for an 8" or 9" round...though I know I should!--I use fresh, super high quality, and often organic (expensive!) ingredients for all-scratch cakes with IMBC frosting, so if they wanted a $.99 cake (yeah right), they will be shocked at my pricing.

bump--I have to deliver this sample at 3 p.m. and give her some pricing guidelines (she has no web access).

Price per party serving? or just stick with wedding size servings and charge her $72 for an 8" round...(She's getting carrot cake, IMBC, and cream cheese IMBC filling)

help, help, oh help

Oh wow! That is a lot for an 8" cake, not that I think they are not worth it or anything ( I'm sure your carrot cake rocks!) and Carrot cake is a more premium cake choice..... I also am wondering what to do about the whole wedding vs. regular cake prices.

I checked my prices recently and the standard fees for round cakes are pretty comparable to the wedding servings (I think I am using a really, really big one though). I would love to have one system so bouncing around wouldn't be an issue..... are you saying that counting your rental space, it costs you $70 to make this cake?

$13.99 for ingredients, with markup = $17.48 for ingredients only

$3.59 for boxes and boards and fancifoil

$1.80 rent of pans etc

figuring $15.00 for kitchen rent AND drive time at $5.00 for 30 minutes driving

Three hours time x $10.00 = $30.00

(NOT counting the fact I'm making and delivering her a 6" boxed sample today for FREE)

TOTAL COST should be: ...drum roll....$67.87

So at $3.00 party serving, I'm making $7.50 an hour

At $3.00 wedding serving, I'm making $12.00 an hour whoopdeedoo

That is so tough,
72$ is a little outrageous for a 9" round, although I COMPLETLY understand what you're saying and agree with you. People need to understand that top quality ingredients cost more than a bakery box mix or ordered in frozen cakes...not to mention you will not get IMBC or fancy homemade fillings from most commercial bakeries. I think you should explain to her how you figure your pricing out, and see what she says. If she pays you, but leaves upset about the price, that's not good advertisement for you either...

If I "eat" the rent cost and charge $6.00 an hour and $2.00 a party serving, I'm still at $40.00 for an 8" round...I'll probably just charge her $35.00 and be done with it.

I just know I'd never pay much more than that for that size of cake, no matter what is in it, which is why I have a hard time charging it. oy

I should stick with weddings. I'm my own "worst customer"

I think you have to charge based upon each individual cake.....personally. If it's just a premium flavor with plainly iced (not much decorations) it can't be the same cost as a 3-D replica of their kids favorite toy!!!! I understand you may still put 3 hrs. into a cake without much decoration......but I think most people expect to pay more for wedding cakes because it's for a very special occasion and most times ( I find) wedding cakes are more costly 1. because they're usually tiered which is more complex and time consuming and 2. because the decorator usually won't accept anymore orders for that same day or even that whole week just to focus on that ONE cake......which means they would have to turn DOWN orders just for YOU (the bride)........so that should cost more in order to make it worth the decorator's while. I think a 4 layer 8" round carrot cake.......resulting in 8" thick?? is that right?? I think the most I would personally pay......mildy decorated (basically iced with a nice border) would be about 45 dollars........but that's me......I'm more likely to pay much more for a custom birthday cake for my kids' birthday party

I generally try to price at 3x cost...which works out to about 70 something for you. Seems like a lot, but if you sell yourself short now, it'll be hard to go back! Make sure people know what they are getting when they buy a cake from you, TELL them how much it costs you to make it, good luck!

Wow girl!

That doesn't sound right! Your costs are too high. If there is no way for you to bring them down I will suggest stop making small cakes or set a minimum order $$$.
Because even if you want to charge $3 per serving like a wedding cake, 14-16 party servings x 3 = $42 to $48. Actually you are loosing money!

Good luck!

I have a hard time charging what I should on cakes, too. Yes, $75 sounds like a lot for an 8" cake, but I am sure that your decorating is much better than what this potential customer can get from the grocery store. You may not have every person who calls decide to buy a cake from you, but there ARE people out there who will pay a premium price for a premium product. I think the biggest mistake you could make would be to undersell your cake because you will just be giving away your time.

Your last post said that you were considering selling this cake for $35, but previously you said you have $36 put into the cake. Don't do it! Your time is worth something and in this scenario, you are giving her a dollar!

I have been charging between $40 and $50 for an 8" (3 layer) cake--made from scratch with premium, homemade fillings and IMBC. I need to take my own advice and begin to charge more, but the problem is that I have established my prices here and will have to justify raising them to my customers who reorder. Does that make sense? (I don't rent a kitchen, so I usually only put in about $12-15 per cake)

Good luck with your quote today!

I also think you probably need to set a minimum order amount. I rent a kitchen, too, and it's tough to have to pass that on to the customer. It's just not cost effective to do one small cake. I'd suggest $50-$60 as your minimum order amount. That would encourage larger cakes and orders.

I agree with kelleym,you should have a minimum order amount or you should only do wedding cakes and speciality birthday cakes where you actually make a profit instead of selling yourself short for a 8" cake.

I completely agree that if we don't make it worth our while then why bother? That said, you seem to be offering an extremely high end cake service because my carrot cake w/ cream cheese frosting (all scratch) is about $6 in ingredients, but I am not using organic. And the box and foiled board is $1.75. So $7.74 X 3 = $23.25 but I charge $25 for an 8" cake that is 4" high. And that sort of seems low, ya' know? I think I would be working for about $4.50 per hour! Which sucks.....but I don't have rental costs to account for either.

Are you able to multi-task while you are there at yoru rental location? I mean, while the cakes are baking are you working on other stuff too and are you able to decorate cookies or something? I don't know how it all works

First when I say 4 layers, I mean 2-2" rounds torted to make 4 layers of cake, 3 layers of filling, about 4-1/2" deep...sorry...

I have $21.54 into this carrot cake at 8" round NOT counting any hourly.

If it's for a baby shower, I have a feeling they'll need more servings, but who knows? And I don't know what kind of decoration she wants on it, but I count my time in the kitchen as well as decorating time, so 3 hours is pretty standard...

even at $5.00 an hour for 3 hours (and NOT charging rent kitchen--that's just impossible) I'm at $36.54 bare minimum for time and material (and without passing rental costs on, I'm probably not actually making a dime!)

ugh

I think I'll stick with weddings. This is too much of a pain and SO not worth the time.

And still...not even counting the cost of making her a sample cake and dropping it off for free today to even GET the sale...


I should just do these for friends and fam.

Thanks you guys.

I just looked at your pictures and your cakes are absolutely beautiful! The flowers on the cornelli valentine's cake are so realistic, I thought they were fresh until I read the description!

Thanks, CakeDiva--you're sweet!

I love doing this, but I'm really a practical person too, so it's hard to be firm enough to look someone in the eye and say, 'Yeah, $100 for an 8" round. I think that's fair."

Even if I *do* value my time at more than $5.00 (or even $12) an hour...

wah...I'm going to focus on weddings. That's what I love, anyway.

Hopefully this baby shower lady will have a daughter getting married...lol

I'm just going to tell her prices start at 2.00 for party servings and that I price per job/cake, so I need to know what exactly she's wanting before I can quote her a total. I can't pass my rent cost along, that's for sure...

This has been, um...therapeutic. Thanks everybody for helping me work this out, out loud, so to speak.

I agree with last post , your cakes are beautiful. If it is not cost effective to do small cakes than I would stop doing them too. You have to look at it as all business. I would think that for the carrot cake that you could charge $50-$55.

I can not believe that you all are talking about pricing a 8" round carrot cake, from scratch

I have to quote someone tonight for the very same thing

I caculated my cost & they are $28.73. Not including electricity, water.etc...

SO I am going to tell her $40..

Thanks EVERYONE for your help & you did not even know it

This place rocks


Cake minds think alike

Cakediva--

I was just thinkg great minds think alike~ & thought ooohhh cake minds think alike...

I think I am going to use it in my thingamajijjer....I can not think what its called....

Signature line thats it..

Hi! I am from a VERY small town which fortunately does not have a "bakery" other than Wal-Mart or Krogers. So, people who want a fresh cake (Here even a boxed cake mix is considered fresh, because it is made the same week cake is ordered, not shipped in frozen), made from scratch, or gourmet they will expect to pay a pretty penny for it.

I have charged $45.00 for an 8" round which consisted of a chocolate cake made from scratch with Nutella filling and crushed walnuts. Simple shell border and "Happy Birthday" piped. They were thrilled and gave me a $5.00 tip.

I also have trouble pricing my party cakes. Usually go by how many people they want to feed. Then by difficulty. I hate torting & Filling, so I add $5.00 per layer per cake. Add about a million dollars if they want Fondant (short people have no business working with fondant). And really over charge if they order an elaborate cake with less than two weeks notice.

You could ask the lady to buy the ingredients and supplies for you then just charge her for your work. Then she'll have an Idea as to why it costs so much. (Just a thouht).

Julisa

Also. Can some one explain to me what it means when some one writes "here is a bump". I don't frequent forums or chat rooms and have no clue.

I just called a local bakery & they sell a 8" Carrot cake w/ cream cheese icing for $10.25 I asked her again I said "$10.25" She said yea!

This girl is going to flip when I tell her $40.00


Holy Cow....how do they do it??

No idea!

Bakery assembly line, box mix, generic frosting, bulk ingredient purchases at lower cost than we can ever get...?

We have to console ourselves with the fact that ours taste fresh (baked same day today!) and have better frosting and decorating work.



I'm going to stick with at LEAST $2.00 a party serving and stay away from them in the future.

Here's the update on the sample I dropped off of carrot cake.

Turns out the shower is for 48 people , so I'll probably stick with at least 2-$2.50 a serving and be able to come out OK. It's a Halloween theme, complete with ghosts, bats, etc. For a baby shower...?...I know--but it should be fun to do. I'm not a halloween person, but whatever.

I'll keep you posted, and of course whether or not she decided to actually order this cake--since we still haven't talked price...more of a "let's get some ideas together and get back to each other" over the screaming kids in the background, barking dogs (all hers) and both of us short on time this afternoon.

so that's the news.

I price party cakes and wedding cakes the same. The only "cheaper" ones I have are basic rounds and sheets which I rarely sell just one of those. Usually its one of those with alot of custom picture drawing on it, or one used as a base to a 3D cake. I look at the cake, no matter what its for, and figure out if its going to be expensive to make or time consuming and then estimate my price according to that.

I think your rent is what is hurting you the most...you will probably like others said, have to set a minimum and also really try hard to market weddings.

I'd like to do more weddings too but I have so many kids cakes pix that people just assume its my specialty.