I really need some help here. I am pretty new at selling cakes and just got my first order. The person has asked for a cake that I recently made. I dont know how much to ask for this particular design. Its a 6 inch by 4 inch cake simple butter pecan cake with coffee buttercream and covered in fondant. Attaching a pic for u guys to look at. Really need help pleaseee.

Forgive me I thought this was your work. Something like this would probably start at $9.00-$12.00 a serving. That is a beautiful cake!

thank u. How much would u charge for this cake?

Yes this is my work. They liked one of the cakes that I had recently made for my son's teacher. They want exactly the same cake.

Thank u so much. I just try to do my best.

AI'd charge at least $100 for a 6" version of that. Don't be surprised if you tell them the price and they say it's too much. People don't expect to pay more than about $25 for a cake, so unless they know how much custom cakes cost they won't want to pay that much. Don't back down and lower the price, though. Just because they can't afford it doesn't mean it isn't worth that much.

If you are planning on doing this as a business you need to work up a spread sheet.

Figure how much all your ingredients cost - 1st price

Figure out how much you personally should be paid per hour for your time and how many hours it will take you to make the cake. Don't forget to include  mixing and baking time! - 2nd price(depending on your area this can range from $10-$16 per hour)

After that, figure out how much your 'business' should make, a minimum of 20%, up to 30%.-add up the first 2 prices and then figure 20% of that cost. This cost will go to buying new equipment, tools, etc. -3rd Price

Add all that up and that will give you what you should charge for your cake.

You have to take into account the area you live in. It honestly doesn't matter what someone is NYC would charge for that cake, because if no one in your town is willing to pay for that you wont be selling anything. BUT, DO NOT try and compete with grocery store cakes-remember that you are making everything from scratch. Its a tricky thing to figure out because you don't want to undersell your work(because you are VERY talented) but you also want to be able to actually sell cakes.

thank u costumeczar, I really appreciate your suggestion.

Thank u jules87. U have explained it so well. Thats exactly what I am going to do now. Thank u so much.

That comes to $146 for me. If that's an edible image on the tag, it would add $10.

Yes it is all edible.

AAs in using an edible image printer.

thank u so much Apti, these links are so informative. Thanks

You are very welcome!  Each of those links has been helpful in my "learning how to cake" journey.     I appreciate each person who took the time to write and photograph and draw all this wonderful information and share it freely!

Thank u everyone for all of the great suggestions. I have finally decided not to price the cakes according to per serving. Instead I just took out a basic cost of the cake per size for both butter cream and fondant covered cakes plus a little profit. And I have separately priced each item like if they want a rose so add that cost to the cake and so on. I think it makes it easier this way for me at least.

memonakhalid I'm glad to here that you are doing what is best for you. While we all can offer our opinions and ideas it is ultimately up to you as to how to price your cakes.

We all live in different areas, work with different markets, and pay different costs for ingredients.

The reason I answered with the $12.00 per slice (6-8) is because of you outstanding sugar flower talent, the thinness and detail of your ribbon, and clean fondant work which all give you room to up charge.

Even if you offer your customers BC or fondant cake for basic prices of $3.50 to $6.00 per serving (in your area) with the flowers and ribbons being an extra charge, and they will definitely want them after seeing your pics, you  stand a chance to make a nice profit.

Good Luck with your cake endeavors!

AYou watermark your work, but haven't done any kind of pricing research? Odd.

AZCouture, I watermark my pics because some lady was using my pics to show as her own work. Took me a long time to get it removed from her site. I didnt want the same issue to arise again so taking precaution. I have always been baking cake for my own kids and friends for fun. Never actually thought of selling them till I just recently was asked by a few people for a quote.

thank u so much enga. When I actually calculated the cost of this particular cake it did come out to $12 per serving. I just wanted to make sure that my prices are not too high but after doing a little more research I found out that its not the price I am telling people its the people themselves. They want regular grocery price for professional cake. They just dont seem to understand what actually goes into making a personalized cake. I think those kind of people are better off buying a cake that is kept in freezer for days and months and then iced with a boxed icing which have tons of preservatives in it. For now I think I am better off making it for my kids and friends only. I will love to cater people if they are willing to appreciate the time and effort I am putting into making the cake for them.

AIt's not out of line, a price like that. But I wouldn't refer to anything that small in terms of per serving pricing, it's just too much for most peoples brains to process.

My small cakes are generally around that much, and talk pricing as "cake to serve xxxx will be in the range of xxx to xxx". It's easier for people to process a whole dollar amount for their beautiful little cake, rather than what it's costing them per slice.

Smaller cakes are a PITA, and should be priced accordingly, no doubt. It's taking you just as long to make as a 10", you're spending just as much time with the client regarding details as a larger cake, etc.

Most of us have highminimum orders to cover our time, because slinging five $50 8" round cake orders out every weekend would be ridiculous, for a small shop anyways. I'll take the one 2 tier cake for $250...get it? Either way, minimum order, and don't talk about it in per serving price. I wait until well over 50 servings to do that.

Yeah thats pretty obvious so I told them the price of the full cake as it is instead of per serving because she wanted a cake for a birthday party. I even offered to sit down and discuss how much she is willing to spend so we can design a cake according to that. So lets see if they reply back. I have my fingers crossed till then.

AYou should ask Jason Kraft! He's really smart about this kind of thing. I'm kind if surprised he hasn't posted on here yet! Maybe he will shortly.

AI'd get a solid confirmation about what she will spend before making any appointments or sketching anything. Time is money. I'd hate to spend an hour with someone and not be sure I'd be handed money afterwards.