Can you please tell me what you would charge for this cake?

I have been told that you don't charge extra for the RIT. Is that because you have already priced your cake high enough to include the cost of it? I know that you have less to do to decorate the cake when you use the RIT, but it is time consuming to do those. And this cake has 10 of them on it. Two characters and another palm is on the back.

Just wondering what your opinion is. From what I remember this is probably 8 and 6-inch layers.

Thank you!

can you post a link to it? Attachments in the forums aren't working right now.

Also what i RIT? .... oh.. wait Is it Royal Icing Transfer?

I'm sorry! I just uploaded it and it can be seen here:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1944044

Now, please tell me what you think.

In my opinion your cake price should include decorations. I do think there are things that do deserve a additional price, like gumpaste flowers, but in general if I was going to add a cake, I'd like to know up front with out a lot of math how much it is going to cost me.

Often times doing Royal Icing Transfers, FBCTs or Chocolate transfers are taking the place of other decorations on the cake. In the above example, if you didn't do them you'd just have a cake with grass and a few flowers. So I'm guessing that there would be some other decoration you would have to do in place of them. If I do a FBCT, then I usually only have to do some writing, borders and maybe some dots with it, so to me it is part of decorating the cake, not an additional part of decorating it. If that makes since.

Your cake price should include items like this. Some cakes will be quick and easy to do, like a cake with 10 roses and some writing, and other cakes will be more time consuming, like one that needs a transfer done on it. You'll make more in labor cost with the easy cake, a little less with a more time consuming cake, but in the end they average out.

I would suggest you look into the copyright posts on CC though. You can't legally reproduce copyrighted characters on a cake that you are getting paid to do.

The copyright issues is not what I'm wanting to know about. It's the pricing and I'm just using this cake as an example to help you understand my question. Just pretend it's other characters of the same size and same quantity. I was wanting to understand how it works when you have additional work.

I understand what you are saying and in my mind wouldn't make anything if I go by what you are saying and go with my base pricing which is $55. It's the time that gets you. And in my opinion, people don't want to pay you for your time.

What would you charge for something like this? Do you think my price is just too low?

My price would be 2.50 per serving for buttercream. My charts say a 6 inch feeds 8 and a 8 inch feeds 15 so that is 24 servings. 24 x 2.50 is $60. I would charge for my time to do the RIT. I would say 70-75 for this cake. I live in a rual area, prices are higher in big cities.

Don't post questions with pictures of copyrighted characters on this forum unless you want comments about their legality. It's a valid observation.

Having said that, you should have a per serving base price for cakes that you work out adding in the variables that go into a cake...say $3 per serving for basic frosted cake, no extra decorations, $3.50 with fondant, $4 with RIT, etc. You'll have to figure your time, ingredients, supplies and overhead to get your numbers, but once you do it will be easy to quote prices. A little calculation in advance makes pricing sooo much simpler and you are less likely to under sell yourself.

I think $55 is about right. People don't want to pay for your time, so that just comes with the territory. I agree 100% with TexasRose.

The only thing I charge extra for is 'excessive' gumpaste roses or (like say 50 roses on a wedding cake) or gumpaste figurines - and even with the extra charge; caking (or any art) just doesn't pay that well. I try to use little toys whenever possible (like in the rubber ducky cake in my photos). The duckies cost me $4, gave me a super clean look, and saved me a lot of time vs. if I had made fondant duckies. Also, in a case like a Dora cake (as TexasRose mentioned) you won't be violating any copyright laws by using toys.) I can find them often at the dollar store.

Not to offend your work, but if you keep practicing and make 'cleaner' looking cakes, I think you could charge maybe $80-100 for a cake like that. Also, depending on the area you live - you may be able to charge more, or not as much. For example, the same cake would cost more in San Fransisco than small town Iowa - just because of the cost of living difference.

HTH

Good luck

If you aren't factoring in an hourly wage or making anything for your time then you need to reconfigure your pricing stucture. The time involved is part of the price.

With a 6 and 8 in round, I use the Wilton wedding chart for all of my servings, so it would be 36 servings for me. Times that by the *very low* rate of $2 a serving it would be $72 for that cake. Times that by 2.50 a serving and you are looking at $90 for that cake. S

o going by those numbers, yes I think your price is too low. At $55 that is only $1.53 a serving.

In the end it doesn't matter what Baker A, B or C would charge. You have to charge what it costs you to make the cake, for your time as well as enough to make a profit. This will vary from region to region, state to state as well as city to city.

If someone doesn't want to pay you what your time is worth, then they need to go somewhere else for the cake. Why should you give up your time away from your family and your life to work for free for someone that wants something awesome for a very small price tag?

I was giving numbers based off of servings sizes, not the decorations or that exact cake. Minus a few situations, I don't think each cake should be individually priced.

Yes, I see your point. But, the better you are - the more you can charge.

I agree, but that doesn't mean you take a hit on labor either, to a point. I mean if you takes you two hours to ice an 8in cake then isn't fair to charge for all of that time, when with experince you could do it alot fast. You have to be realistic about charging for your time.

Also, with experince you can charge more for labor and with you being able to do it faster, you will end up making more, because it won't talk you as long to do it. So that just gives you bigger profit.

But set that aside for a moment...
Let's say with the $55 example from above, that it takes 6 hours to do the cake. At $7.25 an hour, min wage where I am, that is $43.50 of the $55 that goes toward labor costs. So that leaves $11.50 for cost of doing the cake and profit. Unless is it really cheap to make a two layer cake that amount probably doesn't even cover the expenses.

I'm just saying.... it's unreasonable to say that you don't take skill level into consideration. This cake: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zEtDnR6MWeU/ScpmUMmzYTI/AAAAAAAAACg/3KEwBjUCF7g/S660/pink%2Bbow%2Bcake.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mycookiemama.blogspot.com/&usg=__6epGE6hwHAsihoLBcUvqg1jUGO8=&h=336&w=398&sz=39&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KrrcTHtuy_ZHbM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=168&ei=hG5dTfqzA4zksQOQ38zdCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbow%2Bcake%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D685%26tbs%3Disch:11,0&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=945&oei=4W1dTdW46osQPx1dHbCg&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=71&ty=93&biw=1280&bih=685

Should not cost the same as this one: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sUbLeE432vc/S3DcvEhdLVI/AAAAAAAAA3s/tOsKpHrMuw4/s400/The%2BKnot.com%2B5%2BStylish%2BWedding%2BThemes%2BDots%2BCake%2BPink%2BPolka%2BFondant%2BDessert%2BPink%2BWhite%2BOrange%2BRed.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://theslightlyobsessivebride.blogspot.com/2010/02/valentines-day.html&usg=__FBToFJIuagTupaQQnJ3qpLRXAjo=&h=300&w=300&sz=27&hl=en&start=145&zoom=1&tbnid=13I4kUMq3ypy4M:&tbnh=162&tbnw=162&ei=P29dTduJN5K-sQP237nVCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpink%2Bpolka%2Bdot%2Bbow%2Bcake%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D685%26tbs%3Disch:10,3943&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=469&vpy=234&dur=6213&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=164&ty=95&oei=IG9dTeCDPIS6sQOvyNnQCw&page=8&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:145&biw=1280&bih=685


I'm assuming the OP is a home baker and therefore doesn't qualify for minimum wage standards. Maybe she barely makes a profit on a cake but she gained a lot of experience from it and can make the next one even better, and maybe charge more on the next one.

So, if she charged $55 for the Dora cake, and it probably cost her about $20 to make it, she made a profit of $35. Not amazing, but neither was the cake

I'm not going to judge people's skills and how much they should charge for that specifically. I'm looking at this as a generic pricing question.

I do think, even if you are a home baker, your time is worth something. I work a full time and part time job, so my free hours are mine. If someone wants me to spend hours of my time working on a cake for them, they I see nothing wrong with charging them.

I'm not telling the OP, or anyone, they should start out charging $5 a serving. But I do fully believe that if you are doing cakes for sell you should charge what it is worth, including your time. If you worked for a bakery you would be paid for your time.

I don't agree that she would make a $35 profit on a $55 cake, there are more things that should factor into price than just the cost of ingredients.

Personally, as a consumer, I'd be willing to pay about $35-40 for that cake. Not that it looks bad, I just feel like that is the price I'd want to pay.

For me if I would do that cake it would be $100. Without the copyright issue, my tiered cakes begin at $2.75 per serving and no I wouldn't charge anything extra for the decorations.

Oh I forgot about the copyright issues. As a consumer, my first response would be so? However, if you explain to them that tehre are added expenses they might be ok with it.

With that in mind, $50-$60 would be a more comfortable price range for me.

Oh I forgot about the copyright issues. As a consumer, my first response would be so? However, if you explain to them that tehre are added expenses they might be ok with it.

With that in mind, $50-$60 would be a more comfortable price range for me.

I think it's a really cute cake and very well done. I'd easily pay $ 85.00 for that cake

[/quote] Just because someone is a home baker does not dictate that you should or should not get minimum wage.[/quote]

Wow.
My answer is: I don't do anything for free. Yes I would charge for the time and materials to create RIT.

Can someone explain RIT to me? I couldn't find it on the acronym list.
Thanks,
Shanter

Royal icing transfer

This has been very informative and helpful. Thank you!

This cake was made a few years ago. Not great by any means especially when compared to the work that I see on this site. However, I want to think I have improved some since then. You improve slowly when you dont decorate many cakes to begin with. And not having the self-confidence doesn't help either.


Shanter, RIT - Royal Icing Transfer

Wow and I thought it was only nurses that ate their young !