Do you charge more money for a gourmet flavored cake than you do for your basic chocolate, white, yellow or stw. cake flavors and how much more? I got some great flavor ideas from the Gourmet cakes thread but am wondering how much more to charge for them.

Some of them do end up costing more to make. They also have some really different textures so you may want to try them out before you offer them to customers.

My standard cakes (boxed mix plus pudding, some kind of extract, extra egg) are all the same price. If I do a cake that calls for ingredients beyond those listed above, then I charge more. For instance, a hummingbird cake would require the addition of chopped nuts, pineapple, coconut, etc. so it would cost more. I use the old formula of ingredients times three to get my price, so all those extras would make the cake have a higher price.

I don't offer anything that is standard. Everything is premium and everything is scratch. And yes, I am considerably costlier than what would be considered average in my area.

I tried out Macsmom's Orange creamsicle cake a few days and it was AWESOME and let a few of my friends and family try it. They went crazy for it. It definately has way more ingredients in it than I'm use to putting in my usual cakes like choc. which I sometimes will add choc. pastry cream between the layers or strawberry that I may put a stw. pastry cream filling in and then just cover in basic buttercream ( I dont really consider these to be gourmet) and I do use a box mix. The Orange creamsicle cake was worth every penny in it but definately cost ME more than usual. What do you tell your customers when then ask why a cake like this cost more than say... a choc. cake with a choc. pastry cream filling?

Richard Feynmen said of his work," If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize."

That's why its called gourmet. If it was easier, it would be called vanilla.