So I'm some what a new home baker but have found a real passion and flair for it and very quickly have been getting requests from friends and family. How do you price up your cakes? For example what would you charge for this cake I've made over the past 2 days..
Most of use charge by the # of servings involved. W/o knowing the size of that cake (which is great!) it's hard to tell you. So very much is involved in priceing - the area you live in; how much you have invested in ingredients, and much, much else. Sculpted cake like that one should start no less than $4 per serving and probably more if you live in a high cost of living area.
I charge for the cost of the ingredients and supplies and then how long it would take me - not by servings. It's hard to determine servings when you have such odd shapes. A shoe isn't too bad to figure out, but custom cakes have custom prices.
Add up all the time spent on the cake, give yourself an hourly wage (say $15 an hour) and add that to the cost of all ingredients and supplies. 10 hours, plus $75 for supplies and ingredients would be a $225 cake. Maybe you want to charge a bit more....like $20 an hour, so $275 for the cake. Just make sure whatever you charge, you are happy with it and feel appreciated. If you give these away (anything less than $150 is criminal!! 
), you will eventually resent the whole process.
Beautiful job, @Veeska ! I agree with @640Cake that it is important to charge enough that you feel happy with the transaction. If you start out under pricing your cakes, your customers will expect to continue paying a fraction of their worth. Educate them up front as to the cost of a fabulous, bespoke cake. The ones who agree to your quote will become valuable customers and the ones who do not are weeded out before any problems arrise. When I give someone a price for a cake, be it a stranger or a dear friend, if they accept, I am happy and make their cake, if they do not agree, I am happy and do not make their cake.
When making/pricing sculpted cakes one charges for the total # of servings of the cake(s) you have to bake to create the sculpture. Some people deduct a guess of how many servings are lost in the process of producing the final creation, other's don't. Charging by the hr of how long it takes one to create something isn't all that fair as some people are much slower &/or more of a perfectionist than other thereby charging more for their creations. Yes, this is the time to educate the public.....you don't have to go into great detail, just state something like "oh that is very detailed; it will take much time and talent to create so it costs (around?) $XXX.' But in the end you have to be happy, as others have said. DO NOT think "oh I'm just a beginner so I have to keep my prices low (or can't charge what the 'pros' do) " words to that effect.
That's great advice thank you, I'm almost making loss/breaking even with my cakes az ive little confdence in my abilities being a novice, when I manage to fulfil the brief I'm then to late to change severely underpriced charges, I need to be more confident in myself I think xx
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