How do CC members price the cost of a cake? How do you take into account your supplies like eggs, butter, etc and calculate? Help!!
Lil_Belle Junior Member
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 42
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Birthday: Dec 13
Posted:
Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:41 pm
I price by serving. I know others do too but everytime I've done it that way I always end up making some profit. But I guess you could just do the math of how much 3 eggs would cost, but that would drive me insane XD. hope that makes some sense
Joined: May 26, 2004
Posts: 2489
Location: traveling the U.S. in my R.V.
Birthday: Nov 08
Posted:
Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:58 pm
It's really not that hard to X3 your ingredients.
If you buy a dz eggs for $1.32 (the present price in my area) you divide that by 12 then X how many eggs you use per recipe. That would be 11 cents per egg; 2 per box mix = 22 cents for eggs.
A 5# bag of sugar will tell you 'approx' how many 1/2 cup servings per bag (or some similar info) - let's say 20 half-cups and you pd $2.39 for the bag - that would make each cup of sugar cost 24 cents. Don't forget to add in the cost of your board, the covering for it (doily), the box, etc.
Then add up all those #. Let's just say it comes to $4.21; X that by 3.5 to pay you for the oven, electric etc used and some time for your talent:)
So in the case that cake should sell for $14.74. I would round that up to $15 just to be sure I didn't forget something in the formula. Also keep your prices even so you don't have to keep lots of change on hand.
How many of you will go to another store because they are selling something for $14.98 or even 14.69 and the one you are at is selling the exact same thing for $15??
I dare say not many of you:) Now you don't have to keep loose change on hand. Makes it soooo much easier.
With a cake you want to charge by the serving, if that amount comes out to something like $123.56 are you going to charge that? Wouldn't it be sooooooo much simpler to round it out....either up or down?
The good thing about working out the costs is you only have to do it once -- that is until your prices go up a great deal.
Lil_Belle Junior Member
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 42
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Birthday: Dec 13
Posted:
Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:08 pm
kakeladi- a dozen eggs are only $1.32?!?! I'm so jealous, here it's around $5 stinky California...
WOW kakeladi, you go girl, I gbet you were a math wizard in school. I just have a set price per slice and I made my daughter do the math.
And I agree....1.32 for eggs? Dang girl... ship me some at that price.
Patricia
plbennett_8 Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 05, 2007
Posts: 702
Location: Louisiana
Birthday: Aug 24
Posted:
Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:15 am
loriana wrote:
Hey abed, I made a Home and Hobby matrix I will attached below. Good luck! PS- you will need to have Excel 97 or higher.
Thanks!
HerBoudoir Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 18, 2008
Posts: 616
Location: Eastern Shore, Maryland
Birthday: Oct 18
Posted:
Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:27 am
I'm far from a professional baker, but I do sometimes charge to make special occasion cakes for friends/co-workers.
One of the big things I keep in mind if I'm not going to use all of a unit of an ingredient in the recipe is "am I going to use all of this elsewhere?".
For example...if I need 4 eggs for a recipe, I'm not going to hit them with the cost of a dozen eggs because I know I'll use the remainder. Same with flour, sugar, etc.
However, if I'm making something like a cheesecake, while it doesn't take a whole box of graham crackers for the crust, I'll charge them for the whole box. I don't buy graham crackers on a regular basis, and chances are, I have no use for the rest of the box.
Once I have the cost of ingredients, I add on what I want to make per hour times the number of hours it takes to make it (in my case, I charge $10 an hour for my time, which is very reasonable I think).
It adds up really fast, particularly as I do everything from scratch with best quality (or as much as is reasonable) ingredients.
mommyle Forum Addict
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 565
Location: In the Kitchen, Calgary AB
Posted:
Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:16 pm
This is the pricing that I use. This gives you the cost of the cake. From there you need to decide if you also charge by the hour, add extra cost for decorations, etc. If you have any questions just PM me.
Joined: Sep 13, 2007
Posts: 243
Location: Space Coast FL
Posted:
Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:29 am
loriana and mommyle,
Thanks so much for posting your spreadsheets. I have only made cakes for family and friends (just one paid cake so far) and have always wondered how much it actually costs me to make it (supply-wise). Thanks again.
abed Junior Member
Joined: May 04, 2007
Posts: 92
Posted:
Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:54 am
thanky you so much for all your wonderful advice and the great spreadsheet. That really helped a lot!!
yes, thank you for sharing your spreadsheets. That is exactly what I was looking for.
indydebi Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Jul 07, 2006
Posts: 14221
Location: Indianapolis IN
Posted:
Mon Apr 28, 2008 7:44 am
I do not like the "times 3" system. If I did the "times 3", then I'd be selling wedding cakes for $97 instead of $300. I'd be selling my drop cookies for $0.58/dozen instead of $6/dozen.
when figuring your costs, please remember that "costs" are more than just ingredients: time (payroll), utilities (cost to run your oven and refrigerator, mixer), insurance (if you're delivering cakes, you should have a commercial insurance policy or you are running the risk of actually driving with no insurance), cleaning supplies, etc etc etc.
"cost" is more than just flour and eggs.
cakebaker1957 Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 13, 2007
Posts: 830
Posted:
Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:23 am
mommyle wrote:
This is the pricing that I use. This gives you the cost of the cake. From there you need to decide if you also charge by the hour, add extra cost for decorations, etc. If you have any questions just PM me.
Hi im trying to print your list and when i do its ittty bitty cant read it give me a quick lesson on editing this If you would
Thanks told you im not computer smart
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stinky California...
