I am doing my first wedding cake in about three weeks! It was short notice. I have the details for what the bride wants in the cake, but I don't even know where to begin when it comes to pricing! I have only been doing cakes out of my home for about three months and I have suddenly become overwhelmed with future orders. This is the very first wedding cake that I have done, so I don't want to overcharge, yet I want to be able to cover my costs and possibly make extra to go towards buying supplies for future cakes. Please someone help!

How much do you estimate you will spend on ingredients for the cake, and how many hours do you think it will take (including prep, baking, decorating, and cleanup)?

It is a four tier round cake. I've estimated about $45 for all the supplies for the cakes and icing. I usually just buy all of my ingredients at Walmart or a grocery store. I think it will take me about 8 to 12 hours to bake and assemble and decorate it. I have been trying to fing something to help me what to charge. Thanks

Assuming 14 hours of labor (accounting for cleanup) at $10/hour and approx $25 in per-order overhead (liability insurance, marketing, accounting, etc), your cost would be roughly $210, and once you add a profit margin in the 25% range you have a price of ~$265.

Of course you'll need to do a sanity check against your local competitors, if the price is too low you can increase your wage and/or margin, and if it's too high you have some room to cut back, but don't go below your cost.

In your cost of supplies, did you figure in your cake boards and supports for the cake? Along with any other additional items you will be using, like paper towels, wax paper and so forth?

What size cakes are you doing?

And I always tack on extra time. When I think oh that won't take my but 30 mins to do, it always seems to take longer than I thought in my head it should.

I didn't even think to figure in for cake boards, supports, etc! I guess I'm just nervous considering this is my first wedding cake! I've done some research and there is one other business around me that does wedding cakes and for a 2 tier she charges $125. So since I am doing a larger one I'm gonna just make an estimate of what to charge. Thank y'all for your help!