Price This Cake! 2/14/2013

I would charge $220 for that cake.  Pricing cakes is one of the hardest things for a new cake decorator to grasp as well as training the customers what to expect.  There are many threads online (and in these forums) that can help, some people have a base price for a 2 tier cake and then add for fondant and how many decorations, some charge by the portion and then add for fondant and decorations.

 

The bottom line for you is:  How much did your materials, overhead etc cost.  How many hours did you put into the cake (including the planning, shopping, baking, decorating and possibly delivery)?  You should be charging at least minimum wage (if not more) and in this case at $60 you didn't charge anywhere near that.

 

You can also research other bakers in your area and see what they charge for custom cakes.  Walmart and Sams club and what they charge do not count as their cakes are not in the same category.  You should have your prices in the same neighborhood as the local bakeries or else you are underselling them and cheapening their work and businesses. 

 

Good luck!

By the way, that is a beautiful cake!

I love it! For me, I would charge for 50 servings, and it would be $175.

Your cake is very beautiful and yes you do not charge enough money!! It probably cost you more than sixty to make the cake when you include labor,materials and electricity!!! Wow you basically gave the cake away!! You definitely have talent in making cakes. Maybe someone else here will be able to give you some pointers. I only do caking as a hobby and do not sell them.

 

You should take your picture of cake to a baker in the area you live in and ask them what they would charge and what size the tiers are if you were to get a cake from them. Then you will know how much to charge for your cakes. That way you will be able to tell your customers that the baker in the area you live charges $$$ for the same cake. If you chose to be competitive with them you can undersell them but you need to charge more than 60 dollars. Good luck/Mary
 

I would have charged $200 for the cake.  I've been where you are and made a commitment this year to making my business be successful then I needed to value my work and time.  I've lost a few orders but at least I wasn't spending 10 hours doing a cake for $100.00!  With your talent you'll get there pretty fast!

Did you make tinkerbell? That alone would be $45 for me. I put the cake at $225. It is a very nice cake!

 

I'd rather do 1 cake for £150 than 3 cakes for £50.

 

It's not how many orders you get that's important...  it's your profit.  And doing a lovely cake like that for such a low price means you really won't be making any profit at all!!

 

It's taken me a while to finally realise that my time is precious to me!  I won't take an order for a couple of pounds profit.  I'd rather spend time with my kids or doing things around the house that I keep meaning to do.

 

Someone I know has a fab saying...  The person who works for nothing will always have plenty to do.

 

Suzanne x

Thanks Relznik, I have found a new signature line!  It's the straight gospel! 

 

What I did while I was still in the practicing and learning stage is this:  For my friends and family I would do their custom cake for cost of materials and if they felt like giving me a tip to kick in for some of my time, well then great.  This applied A: If I had the time, and B:  If it was a cake that I wanted to do that would look great in my portfolio. 

 

I would make sure to tell my family and friends "If I was selling this cake on the open market, I would sell it for XYZ amount.  But for you, I will do it for the cost of the materials"  This way they wouldn't go and tell friends of theirs that they got this gorgeous cake for only $60 or whatever the materials cost, they could tell their friends how much the cake would cost them if they would like to order from me.

 

I also agree with the poster above, I'd rather do less cakes and make a decent profit, rather than more cakes and have no time and no profit. 

Thats an awesome cake! Kudos!

**head - work table**

$60? That's barely $1.00 per serving. And, it looks great.

No wonder people have trouble paying my professional prices. Why would they?

Seriously, the cake is adorable. They got a steal.

By the way $315. That 45 servings plus fondant. I'm assuming tink is not hand made.