Charging for undecorated cakes

We price undecorated cakes the same as cakes with basic decorations.

My starting price for a simple 8" butter cream cake with a border is $25. I charge the same thing for an undecorated cake as well. 

Janani65 you change about $1 a serving? How do you make any money?

I charge $2.75 for a simple design and for a dessert style layer cake, I charge $1.90 a serving, since I don't even smooth them.

It is the Price here. If I'm doing a custom cake I charge about $1.75 per serving. and double the amount for fondant.

FYI: My servings for a 8' is about 15 pieces from the 

Wow, how do you get an 8' cake through the door? Lol very few people go by party sizes, and those who do will eventually burn out. I don't know your skill level, but I suggest that if you are licensed, if it is required, start trying to raise the bar in your area. Those prices are terrible, and I wouldn't turn my oven on for $25 for a 24 serving cake.

Hey my mistake 8" :)

I have thought so too... This pricing I learnt from an experience baker here. I hardly abide by. Her per serving price is $1.65. I'm doing a 3 tier birthday Cake today. I went by the wilton wedding cake serving size and charged per serving. Her cupcake is $1 and I charge $1.75 each. Was thinking I'm charging too much. Good to know I'm not. 

Have you calculated your hourly wage based on that price? For example, if the ingredients cost $10, overhead is $5, and your markup is 20%, you have $6 left for labor. So if you can complete the order in 30 minutes (including prep, baking, decorating, and cleanup) that's a respectable wage of $12/hour, but if it takes you 2 hours start-to-finish you are making $3/hour.

15 servings is about right for a party cake (which is what a single 8" round would usually be).

For ingredients it's cost me about $7. I'm doing from home. So, the only overhead I have is electricity. For everything I take about 1.30 hours. 

 

My initial price for 8" was $35 for 20 servings. When that lady told me She charges only $25 I got a little concerned. She is actually my teacher and she has been doing that for several years now.

 

Almost all the cakes I did were custom cakes which required a lot of work. So I have not actually charged this price from anybody. Pricing is still confusing to me. I learnt a lot from reading cakecentral forum. That is how I actually did my initial pricing. Any advice on pricing I will take with a lot of gratitude. And when I calculate pricing I pay me $10/hour. 

 

 

My cakes are here in the page if you'd like to see. www.facebook.com/Sugarmagiccakes 

You are legally required to at least have a business license from your municipality. There is also the money you pay for an accountant (or accounting/tax software), money spent developing your web site, and advertising expenses. There's also business liability insurance...it's not a legal requirement, but it is dangerous to operate a business without one (especially a business where you sell food).

I checked with the Ohio health department, they assured I don't need license. However, I need to get the insurance. I need to account for advertising, that's something I forgot. I'm still starting out. So, website and the accounting software expenses are yet to come.

But I really need to get the insurance. I read in several posts in cake central about that.

why can't my county be like ohio

 

sigh

 

 

if you have renter's insurance or home owner's it's as easy as a phone call to your ins agent

they might come take some photos no biggie at all

 

best of the best to you!!!

I have renter's insurance... Will call them first thing tomorrow morning... Thanks K8memphis... I was going around checking other insurance options... just two months in the business... I must say everything I learned about the business, I learnt from cake central... When in doubt... Always check with cake central members... .

Sometimes even my husband asks me 'did you try asking cc members' .

Liability insurance is very reasonable.  When I was working out of my home (licensed so no worries) I had a one million dollar policy and it costs under $300 for the year.