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Ingredient cost PER cupcake?

post #1 of 22
2/5/12 at 7:59pm
Thread Starter 
How much, on average, does 1 cupcake cost you in ingredients?

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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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post #2 of 22
2/6/12 at 2:16am
It depends on the recipe. The premium chocolate recipes, top shelf liqueurs, and other pricey ingredients will up my cost.

And ingredients are not the only thing. Some cupcakes have cream cheese buttercream and others have German buttercream. And what about scratch fillings? I'm not charging ingredients to make a lemon curd. These are all time factors.

So an ingredients figure is your ingredients cost divided by the amount of cupcakes. This is only the first step in cost analysis.

If you use scales and have everything measured in grams and ounces, changing the amount of the recipe yield is much simpler.

My prices are set by three factors: Ingredient and packaging cost, set overhead fee per order, and my time. These three numbers must still be in line with market prices in order for the business to be viable. In other words, you can't just pay yourself whatever you want. Your skill and demand for your choices must be marketable.
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post #3 of 22
2/6/12 at 9:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by scp1127

It depends on the recipe. The premium chocolate recipes, top shelf liqueurs, and other pricey ingredients will up my cost.

And ingredients are not the only thing. Some cupcakes have cream cheese buttercream and others have German buttercream. And what about scratch fillings? I'm not charging ingredients to make a lemon curd. These are all time factors.

So an ingredients figure is your ingredients cost divided by the amount of cupcakes. This is only the first step in cost analysis.

If you use scales and have everything measured in grams and ounces, changing the amount of the recipe yield is much simpler.

My prices are set by three factors: Ingredient and packaging cost, set overhead fee per order, and my time. These three numbers must still be in line with market prices in order for the business to be viable. In other words, you can't just pay yourself whatever you want. Your skill and demand for your choices must be marketable.



Thank you for your reply. I agree with everything you've said.

However, I was just curious how much the ingredients cost on average for a dozen or one single cupcake. I was wondering because my chocolate cake is very cheap as far as ingredients go but my lemon is more than double the chocolate. So if you could tell me what ingredients tend to cost you for a couple recipes, that would be helpful.

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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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post #4 of 22
2/6/12 at 9:34am
chocolate cupcake costs me $0.42 ea including cupcake wrappers. lemon costs $0.45ea. Chocolate & lemon are 2 of my more expensive flavors.
"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle, I just wish he didn't trust me so much." ~ Mama T
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"I know God won't give me anything I can't handle, I just wish he didn't trust me so much." ~ Mama T
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post #5 of 22
2/7/12 at 12:16pm
I can't offer any numbers here, but I'm also curious about this as well. I've created a spreadsheet for myself to figure out what one cupcake costs me in ingredients. It's a lot of math!! icon_razz.gif Once I've gathered all of my numbers I'll come back and share what I have. Of course I'm just a hobby baker, but it still costs me to make a cupcake icon_smile.gif
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Hobby baker for now.....
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post #6 of 22
2/7/12 at 2:35pm
I was wondering something similiar to this just today...on cupcakes and cakes. I don't have my numbers in front of me, but I want to say my cupcakes range from .32 cents to .50 cents. Depending on flavor. Not filled. But I kind of wonder , for anyone that can answer, When you offer your flavors, say chocolate, vanilla, lemon red velvet, etc...as your basic flavors...but it cost you X amount for one flavor, and X amount for the other...do you just go with the more expensive one and keep it as that for a set price? It would seem to be too confusing to say vanilla cupcakes are this much a dozen, but chocolate or lemon are this...know what I mean?
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post #7 of 22
2/7/12 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSweetTreat

I can't offer any numbers here, but I'm also curious about this as well. I've created a spreadsheet for myself to figure out what one cupcake costs me in ingredients. It's a lot of math!! icon_razz.gif Once I've gathered all of my numbers I'll come back and share what I have. Of course I'm just a hobby baker, but it still costs me to make a cupcake icon_smile.gif



I could email you my spreadsheet if you want!
Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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post #8 of 22
2/7/12 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bridgette1129

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSweetTreat

I can't offer any numbers here, but I'm also curious about this as well. I've created a spreadsheet for myself to figure out what one cupcake costs me in ingredients. It's a lot of math!! icon_razz.gif Once I've gathered all of my numbers I'll come back and share what I have. Of course I'm just a hobby baker, but it still costs me to make a cupcake icon_smile.gif



I could email you my spreadsheet if you want!



Bridgette! I would LOVE that! Thank you icon_smile.gif
Hobby baker for now.....
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Hobby baker for now.....
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post #9 of 22
2/17/12 at 12:46am
I was just asked if I could do several hundred cupcakes for an event. My 3 best recipes are a ginger cupcake with lemon buttercream, a to die for carrot cupcake and a wonderful red velvet. I use the same cream cheese frosting for both carrot and red velvet. Just off the cuff I figured it would cost about $50 to buy all the supplies to do a batch each of these. Which breaks down (if I group them together) about .71 cents a cupcake. I was planning on rounding up to $1.00 a cupcake.
I am now wondering if I am in over my head! icon_smile.gif
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post #10 of 22
2/17/12 at 3:00am
My chocolate cupcake is $.08 each to make. With .5oz ganache inside ($.09) and 1.5oz SMBC on top ($.13), I'm still only at $.307. It's a scratch cc, FWIW.
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post #11 of 22
2/17/12 at 10:56pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by KoryAK

My chocolate cupcake is $.08 each to make. With .5oz ganache inside ($.09) and 1.5oz SMBC on top ($.13), I'm still only at $.307. It's a scratch cc, FWIW.



Wow! That's way less than mine.
Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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Started my business legally February 2012! Commercial kitchen and all!
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post #12 of 22
2/19/12 at 11:50am
For my cupcakes I come up with .53 per cupcake. That would be w/ filling or frosting and including the wrapper it's baked in.
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post #13 of 22
2/19/12 at 12:42pm
So I'm really curious why my cupcakes are sooo much less expensive than everyone else's. To the people who have quoted their prices: are you starting with a box mix or all scratch? And where are you buying your supplies - retail stores in small quantities or in bulk at places like Sam's Club?
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post #14 of 22
2/19/12 at 2:08pm
Scratch for me. My flavors i do are vanilla/chocolate/red velvet/lemon right now. my most expensive comes out to be the Vanilla..and thats the price i quoted on here. I buy everything from retail, so just regular prices at a regular grocery store. I'll look up my prices and list them out later if you'd like. Im really interested on how yours is so much cheaper too! BTW... How most recipes list out how many cups it makes..then you can see the wilton pan sizes and see how many cups per size...but how do you figure out how many cups are in a dozen cupcakes? maybe we are figuring it out wrong because i'm just kinda guessing how many cups of my batter it takes for the cupcakes. just a thought!
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post #15 of 22
2/19/12 at 2:24pm
I would guess one of the biggest cost differentials is flour, we buy 50# bags of cake flour at Restaurant Depot for $15. Cake flour at the grocery store can be easily be 5-10 times more expensive.
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