Need help pricing this cake....PLEASE

How much are you spending on the supplies/ingredients?

How much is your time worth? How long will it take you to make it?

How much profit do you want to make off it?

You don't have to buy the supplies to know what it will cost you. Arm yourself with a list of what you need and make a trip to the store and get some prices.

The problem with asking pricing questions is that there isn't a set number we can give you. There are way to many variables out there.

Your location plays a factor in it. If you are in a large city chances are you can price higher than someone in a small town.

Baking from cake mixes and scratch cost differently. Baking from expensive ingredients costs more. Buying in bulk lowers your costs. Buying supplies in a higher cost city can cost more than buying in a small town.

How long it takes you to work varies as does hourly wage.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to take some time and really figure out what you spend making a cake. It can be very surprising when you start adding up all those numbers and really see what you actual spend on a cake.

You can always call around to bakeries where you live and see what they with charge for the cake, but then you do have to keep in mind their expenses and supplies could cost more or less than what you would be spending.

I actually was wondering how many of you price your cakes based on cost & time OR based on # of servings????

I am in a small town, and people tend to look @ you like you are crazy when you charge $85 for a 3 tier (6,8,12, 12 being dummy) basic cake (no one around here ever thinks outside of the box) bc & fondant decorations.

They want Ace of Cakes @ WalMart pricing.

I am in a small town also. My basic wedding cakes start at $2/serving. I know that is low compared by many on CC, but in my area is about the going rate.

That cake would qualify as a basic cake for me.

Your cost/time/profit become your price per serving.

Im just grabbing numbers out of the air here

Lets say your cost for an 8in round cake which serves 24 is $10. And it takes you 6 hours at a $10 an hour to do it.

When you divide $70 by 24 (number of servings) you know you need to charge at least $2.92 to cover your cost and time.

If you charge $3.50 per serving, then you will make a $14 profit on the cake.
If you charge $3.75 per serving, then it is a $20 profit.

You dont actually have to price out every cake, you just need some base numbers to work with. If you do mostly tiered cakes, then I would figure the cost for a 6 and 8 or a 6 and 10 and then use those numbers to figure your price per serving. That way the pillars/dowels are built into the price. So then if you do a cake that is a single tier then you just make a little extra profit on it.

Another thing to remember, when figuring your cost do not use sale or discounted prices. It is nice to buy things on sale but sometimes you may not be able to, so then you are shorting yourself. And if you do get things on sale, again that is just extra profit for you.




Yes people do. The key there is to not give in to it. How much is your free time worth to you? If you arent doing a cake for someone that doesnt want to pay what your time is worth, what else could you be doing? To me I would much rather be doing something I want to be doing, than doing a favor for someone that cant understand that my time and talent is worth more than $20 for a huge elaborate cake.

I am so glad to see you phrase it this way. Too many people would figure "I spent $10 on ingredients, sold it for $70, so I made $60 profit."

No .... profit comes AFTER payroll. As I tongue-in-cheek phrase it "pretend you are a REAL business.....!" and have to write a check to an employee for that payroll. You charge $70 for the cake. You write a check for $60 for payroll (actually you write it for more when you figure the employer taxes that need paid). You write a $10 check for supplies. Your profit, or I should say The Business's Profit = ZERO.

to Texas for pointing this out!

Just want to say that I am going to book mark this page and post a link to it, because you explained it really well here Texas Sugar. Hopefully that will help cut down on retyping it

Woo hoo I got a thumbs up from Debi!

I can honestly say, working for my dad has opened my eyes to all the stuff involved in running a business that you really never think about. When you do payroll you learn there is a lot more to the labor 'costs' than just what you make an hour.

Also you realize that there really isn't any profit, because that just goes back into the business to pay all the other bills there are like rent, ins, phone, internet, office supplies, cleaning supplies, postage, credit card charges, and so on. And then when all that is handled you really hope you still have money in the bank for when this or that breaks or needs to be replaced.

Balancing the checkbook is always fun cause you watch the numbers dwindle down, then jump up when there is a deposit made, then watch them start the dwindling process all over again. And some of our bills will make the check book go from a nice amount to a 'umm, we need some money to come in before you pay another bill' amount.

Leily, feel free to cut and paste it.

that drives me nuts! i work at a grocery store bakery but its a made scratch bakery. so we always get people coming in wanting a wed cake for under $100.. they want all this beautiful work done on it but then they crap their pants when you tell them how much it is. i get the 'but its just cake' response. so annoying! i love my cake shows but i hate when people think i can magically make it for $20 bucks...

"Oh! you wanted "just a cake"!! Walmart .... Aisle 8 ..... knock yourself out."

See ... THEY can make it for twenty bucks. But when they throw in the extra expense of paying someone ELSE to make it FOR them, of taking that "just a cake" in a pan with some icing slapped on top and converting it to a tiered work of art, of paying someone for their talent ..... for some reason they think the person works for free.

And you know darn well THEY won't work for free.

Indydebi, you are so funny and fiesty! I love it! I came to this forum because I am making 175 cupcakes, and 1 three layer 8 inch cake and just wanted to find out how much I could have charged if I was making money on it. I am doing everything for free because it is my niece. Anyway, I loved the "Oh, you wanted just a cake... Walmart aisle 8, knock yourself out!" comment. That's awesome.

i simply use the wilton cake cutting guide and start pricing at 3 dollars per serving. this is a basic cake with buttercream icing, I charge 50cents more per serving for smbc , mousses, dollar more per serving for fondant, fresh fruit, certain decorations....I make it clear all the extras cost such and such amount....it keeps them in their budget, and keeps them from trying to get me to make a million dollar cake for peanuts, its fair any way you look at it, dont forget to charge for delivery and setup, i charge 25-75dollars for that, although I just delivered a cake to Times square in nyc, and charged 260 delivery, its 120 miles one way

Some wise soul here wrote that when you go into a restaurant, and order a lovely, delicious dessert, what would you expect the price to be?

Our local, small town restaurant charges $4.95 for a piece of cake.
One layer, chocolate fudge, with a tablespoon of chocolate drizzley goodness.
Little dollop of whipped cream on the side.
I'm guessing it's an 8" round, cut into many many many pieces.
People buy it by the bucket load.

Even at 15 servings, that cake would price at $75.

That sticks with me.
And because it makes sense to me, I can explain it to folks when they come asking for the $30 cakes.
No, I don't get every order, but that's ok.

HTH someone else like it did me