How Much Should I Charge?

How much will the ingredients cost for the cake? About how many hours will it take to complete? How much overhead do you have (license fees, insurance, etc.) and how many orders do you have per year?

Is the cake going to look like that or will you do a better job?

You need to cost out your ingredients/overhead.

Ask ten people here what they would charge and you'll get ten different answers.

What is that? A treasure map? Bark?

The price you would ask for the cake would vary from place to place. For instance, the price you might get for a cake, such as the one you pictured, in NYC would be vastly different from the price you might get in Two Egg, FL. That said, calculate your costs and think of everything from toothpicks to parchment paper, wear and tear on pans to electrical costs, etc. Decide how much per hour you would like to be paid for your skills and multiply that out by the amount of time it took you to make the cake. Will you be delivering the cake or will the client pick it up? Add delivery costs if they apply. There are all kinds of business costs including insurance, permitting, inspections, rent. Set up a spread sheet in Excel and caculate out every cost, estimate where needed. It doesn't hurt to ask local bakeries what their going rate is for a fondant covered cake. Keep in mind there are economies of scale and a large scale operation like Walmart can do things a whole lot cheaper than a small mom and pop operation. The idea is to make cakes for profit. If you are trying to run a for-profit business it is important to get a price that puts you in the black not the red. Sorry I couldn't give you an exact number and I know it is a painful process trying to figure out costs but it is well worth the effort if your goal is to make money with your cakes. I found it useful to write down everything (equipment, food products, boards, ribbon, etc) I used while making an actual cake and listing them out. I had to "guesstimate" things like plastic wrap and paper towels. Once you get all your costs, including your time, add it up and plus it by whatever amount you think is a fair profit. It could be 10%-20% or more...or less. I hope this helps. Others will have more good advice to add to this. Listen to their wisdom as they have been down the road on which you now find yourself.

Looks like bark to me. If I made a cake similar to that, based on my area and skill level, it would be $4.50 per serving.

Hope that helps.

Looks like bark to me. If I made a cake similar to that, based on my area and skill level, it would be $4.50 per serving.

Hope that helps.