I run a licensed cake business.  Some of my competition charge more for tiered cakes than single tier cakes.  Others charge the same cost per serving regardless of the cakes configuration. from what I understand everyone charges more for exceptional decorations etc.  My question is, what do you do.  more for tiered? same for 50 servings doesn't matter if its tiered or not?

How about 3D? how much more (in general) do you charge per serving?  Do you have a minimum charge for anything carved?  I always have a hard time quoting 3D cakes. 

suggestions? inputs?  I want to hear it all!

I think the simplest way is:

cake price quote = (raw materials and supplies) + (overhead fraction) + (estimated hours * $___/hour)

As a decorator, how much do you value your time? ($20/hour)?

You can also break down the hours and charge less/more for baking, torting, filling/icing, versus designing and decorating.

APricing has been pretty thoroughly discussed on here. Were there too many threads when you did a search?

I have done the work of costing it out, factoring overhead and hourly wage etc, etc.... that wasn't my question.  I was just curious what all of you do as far as tiered and not tiered goes.  I can understand the argument to or not to charge more for tiered.  Personally, I can ice a single tier in about 10 minutes but if I am adding the time it takes to stack it and the additional cost of the materials to do so I think a tiered cake should cost more per serving than a single.  I was just interested to hear what all of your ideas on this was. (an other local decorator that I am friendly with feels a cake is a cake and a tiered cake to feed 50 should cost the same as a single tier to feed 50).  It's a friendly debate between us.  I end up doing many more single tiers than she does probably because I charge less for them.

I know pricing has been discussed to death but I didn't see a recent conversation about the tiered or not tiered pricing difference if any... maybe I used the wrong search terms but everything I saw was years old or was just people looking for the easy way to find their prices.  I don't necessarily want numbers... just yes's and no's. :)

Also, I realize that pricing is relative to your area so this is just purely out of curiosity of who thinks a 50 serving tiered cake should cost more than a 50 serving single tier cake.

I don't personally have experience in the matter, but I agree with you. after all you have to bake a whole other cake, and if it's two tiers, it's possibly two different fillings, and your support structure. andlike you mentions icing and assembling time.

cake is a cake...and she is a decorator???? Cake is more then cake. Cake alone is a science that can take years to perfect. Decorating is an art, one that can take a lifetime to perfect.

AI charge more for tier cakes ..takes more time and more materials...

Well, that's why in my first response, the price for the entire cake is calculated according to the total number of hours you think it will take to execute the design. This takes into account the fact that sculpted and tiered cakes take more effort, time, and skill (and different supplies and structural support) than sheet or single tier cakes. Just divide the total and you get the per slice price.

This way, you end up with a standard pricing system and don't have to justify an arbitrary "change" in pricing between tiered and non-tiered cakes. 

AIt depends on your process. If you mostly do tiered cakes and you have a process down where the labor involved in a multi-tiered cake is equivalent to a single tier cake with the same number of servings, then the price should be comparable.

AVery good point. I try to make the same one.

Mechanics have a standardized "hourly" for labor. Although it make take a beginner longer to (insert kewl car maintenance term here) or take half the time for an expert, they typically charge the same fixed time.

Skill level must be considered. It's not fair to charge someone 6 hours if the average would only be 3.

A

The true market value is typically reflected in the price of legal businesses only, that's the price you should aim for. If you are including illegal businesses in your pricing analysis you are contributing to the devaluing of the local market.

AIn a perfect world, there would be fair market value to consider. The market wouldn't be oversaturated, there would only be a few decorators in each area, all licensed and priced high because our art should be. They'd all network and be friends, and no one would undercut. Society would return to the time when you either paid a LOT for your outrageously awesome custom cake, you made it yourself, or you went to Walmart. We would command and dictate what fair market value was, based on what WE wanted. PERIOD. I'll stop dreaming now.

AYes, that was nearly incoherent rambling, but it's very early, so cut me some slack, k?:-D

A

The difference between an amateur and a professional is that a professional is paid for their work while an amateur is not.

AThis is not my thread. This was not my question. I made a comment on the OP's thread. i did not ask for help here.I did not ask how to price my cakes. I have taken everybody's advice and made the changes on my website so I don't see how you say I think I got it all figured out I just thought that was a very demeaning. I also don't see how making a comment about my military service is bragging?

Soooo, does anyone on here charge the same as say...Ron Ben Israel?   I doubt it.   Skill level should play a great deal in pricing.  I mean...you could spend 24 hours on a cake that will end up on Cakewrecks.  Would it be worth $240 just because you spent the time but couldn't back it up with skill?
 

AThere are really two metrics at work here: quality and efficiency. If you can't execute a product at a higher quality level than cakewrecks, you probably should get some more practice before you start selling cakes in the first place. Above that minimum threshold, there are different levels of quality that will command different prices because they target different markets.

The efficiency metric takes care of itself in terms of pricing. Assuming you set a price based on the market you are targeting (which is often dependent on the quality level of your products), you will pay yourself a relatively low hourly wage if you aren't very efficient. As you improve and get faster, your hourly wage will automatically increase without changing your price.

Exactly what I have been trying to get across. As for the market maybe I am not a premium wedding confectionaire...but there is a large market for the types of cakes I do. Who else is going to make a unicorn eating rainbows and having butterflies fly from his rear end? Yes, that is an actual order that I have for next Saturday. It may be ridiculous but it will make my customer very happy and it will be delicious.

A

I'm gonna go with both!

There's no way I could charge for my hourly time.  Call me an amateur, call me a non-professional, call me foolish...call me whatever...but it takes me FAR longer than many to make and perfect a cake.  Perhaps with time I will get faster and more efficient.  That being said, I love doing it and I'm still paid well for each cake, so there's no undercutting.  

I had no idea that how we all charge for cakes is such a contentious issue!   I think each of us just has to use what works best for us at the time.  What works for me now in pricing my cakes may not work for me later.  As I get faster, I will factor in the number of hours it takes me to make a cake.  But for now, I don't think it is fair for me to do so.  And I don't think that makes me less of a professional.  I am very good at what I do, just not as fast as some others may be.  So to sum up my opinion...do what is best for you.  There is no set answer that works for everyone.