Hey I'm new to all this i've only been cake decorating for about a year and so far i've been making cakes for friends and not charging very much. but now i'm really into it and i want to take it further but i have no idea how to price my cakes!! can anyone help??

Look at different prices ranges for your area bakeries, your costs, your time, your skill level to help set your prices.

This is a repost from a previous post I made....

You really need to know how much money is going into the cake to know how much to ask for it in return. Don't short change yourself and don't try to compete with grocery store cake prices.

Take sometime and sit down to make a list of everything you use for
making a cake. If you bake from scratch you need a list of what you
use. If you use cake mixs, make a list of the things used for that.
Don't forget about your icing and fillings. Next you need to figure
out how much these things are costing you. Make sure you are using the
regular non sell price. If you are using fondant on a cake you need
to add that cost in as well.

I use cake mixes, so I figure the cost of the cake mix, plus everything
that goes in it, the filling, and 2 recipes of icing. These tells me
how much money I am spending to make that cake. To this figure you
need to add the price of your cake board/box. I will usually round up
and add a $2 or $3 at this point, to account for other things like the
decorating bags and such.

Now from here the general rule is to take the figure you have and times it
by 3. In my area sometimes I feel like that is too much, so you mostly drop it down to 2.5. NEVER EVER go below x2!!

So lets say that you came up with 8.50 as your figure (I'm just pulling
a number out of the air). 8.50x3 = 25.50 or 8.50x2.5 = 21.25 So then
you would charge 25.50 or 21.25 for a cake that requires one cake mix.
If you want to do a by serving price then you can figure out how many
servings a one mix cake pan would give you and use that as a guide. We
will use the 10in square (one layer) as an example. It usually uses
one cake mix and according to the Wilton guide it serves 25 (wedding
servings) or 15 (party servings) So you could say 25.50/25 = 1.02. So
that is slightly over $1 per serving. BUT remember wedding cakes cost
more to make than your regular every day cake. You have the price of your dowels/pillars plus cake plates. Plus these are usually cakes you have you deliever. I would probably go ahead and up that to $1.50 or $2.00, if not more.

Now if you want to get specific you can sit down and make a party
serving price and a wedding serving price, and when you do the wedding
figure go ahead and add in the dowels and/or plates/pillars to the
prices so they will already be figured in.

You can also call around to local bakeries to get an idea of what they
charge but please keep in mind that you do not have to charge less than
them. If you call somewhere like Walmart or a grocery store, remember
they buy in bulk and it does not cost them as much as it will you to
make the cake.

If you make specialty cakes then I would break your cakes down into groups. You could have your basic cakes for a price, your specialty cakes for a higher price, you may so have a dessert type cake that you would want to price a certain amount.

I know it sounds like a lot of work. And it kinda is. Just remember to save your math and figures. You probably want to go back every 6months or so to check your figures against store prices as some products go up over time. Once you sit down and do this, it is easier to go back in and plug in a new number.