Hi everyone. Just thought how helpful it would be for myself if not others, that when we post a picture of a cake that we have made for a customer/client etc that we could also list the "price" that the cake was being purchased for. Would be really helpful to know what the going prices are for all the time and effort that we put into our cake decorating. Sometimes it's hard to judge what we should be charging people.
What Do You Think???????

you mean like this??:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-710216.html

xx

Flour, 3.00 pound; eggs, 2.00 dozen; butter pound, 3.00; milk, 3.00 gal.; vanilla, $18 per 8 ounces; custom decorated cake, priceless.

The only issue with that is that many different things factor in to pricing, your location, what you bake (scratch vs cake mixes), your ingredient costs (premium ingredients or not, buying in bulk or not), your overhead, your experince...

The best thing to do is figure out what a cake costs YOU to make, how much your time is worth to you and how much profit you would like to make on it.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-694973-pricing.html+varies

Caker A could be baking from a non doctored cake mix, use buttercream under fondant, make their own fondant and charge XYZ for an 8in cake.

Caker B could be baking from scratch with premium ingredients, use ganache under fondant, and buy a name brand fondant and charge ABC for an 8in cake.

Caker C could be baking from a doctored cake mix, use ganache under their fondant, make their own fondant and charge LMN for an 8in cake.

So while three cakers are all making the same size cake, their ingredient costs will be varied, and that doesn't even take in account that Caker A may be from a state/town where cost of living is more expensive so she/he pays more for their ingredients. And maybe Caker C buys in bulk so they can actually cut down on their ingredient costs some.

Maybe Caker A is able to bake out of their home with less of an over head cost, while Caker C has to rent a kitchen to bake from and Caker B has their own store front.

While it would be nice to get an idea of what people charged for a cake, you can't solely base your pricing system off of others.

Not only everything that TexasSugar said, but it also depends on a persons skill level. For example, if TexasSugar did a cake and posted a list price of $800, that doesn't mean I could automatically charge $800 for the same design, because were nowhere near the same skill level.

In my rural area it is next to impossible to get what a cake is worth. The nearest town is 30 miles away and most people would rather drive there to purchase an inferior cake from Wal-Mart because it is a fraction of the price. I was recently asked to do an intricately decorated WASC kitchen cake (two layered 12" x 18") to serve 100. It was for friends so I knocked the price way down to $159. They almost had simultaneous heart attacks. Wish I knew how to educate people without sounding obnoxious!

Back to midgysquidgy's original question, yes, I would enjoy seeing prices posted of various cakes. I think that is of interest to all of us no matter where we live.

I understand that we are all at different standards of talent when it comes to cake decorating and that there are other factors to consider in pricing. I still think it would be interesting if we listed the price as well. I agree that if a cake was sold for $800 that due to my or others standards we would not charge the same.
Yhanks for your replies.

I took a look at your photos, midgysquidgy. Your cakes are gorgeous!

Thankyou for your comment "bakerann"

Thank you all for your input in figuring out this cake pricing.