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!!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

kakeladi
maybe I missed something, but why do you multiply times 3.5? just wondering.

I'm with Debi.. the multiply times 3 isn't good enough. I want to make a decent hourly wage.. doing the times 3 doesn't do that for me.

THANKS THIS IS LOTS OF HELP HERE TO. BUT OUR EGGS ARE 2.39,BUT I BUY GOOD OLD COUNTRY EGGS FOR 1.00 DOZ. THEY GIVE PIES A RICH FLAVOR.

Ooh.. I love the organic, free-range eggs from our local farm.. they are araucana chicken eggs so they have the pretty green shells and the yolks are bright orange and sooooo good. They sell them for $3/dozen though.. (well $2.75 but I always just give them $3). I save those for breakfast though.

Thank you so much for sharing this!! It is very helpful.

so for those of you who don't like the x3 system, what do you do to ensure you are covering your overhead. I figured how much the ingredients cost me, but how do you know how much power, gas, water, labor, etc. thanks

I sat down and figured out how much I would like to make on my cakes.. I sat down and nailed down my serving chart and how much my recipes cost me to make. How long it takes me to shop for them, mix them, bake them, level-torte-fill, decorate. I based it on an 8" cake. 20 servings.. about 3 hours total for a basic cake.. some cakes are quicker and some take longer, but it all evens out. I charge $4/serving for BC and $5/serving for fondant and I am going to raise them next year. With the increase in gas costs and ingredient costs it has to happen. It costs me about $1/serving to make most of my BC cakes and a bit more for fondant. I charge 4x's my costs. That way I make a decent wage.

Thank you all for your matrixes and formulas for determining costs. My hubby has been telling me for a long time I need to sit down and do that.

I think I will sit down now and give it a whirl trying to make my own matrix with my costs. You have provided great layouts.

Thank you all!

The every changing costs of milk, eggs, and GAS!!!!!! It's really going to be difficult to recover costs without charging an arm and a leg for a basic decor cake. Delivery fees are going to go up!


Amy

Tell me about it! I offer free delivery within a 20 mile radius and I am going to have to stop doing that because of the gas costs.

Just curious there on the other side of the nation from me, what is a gal of regular unleaded? I have $3.75 Shell station in my town. Diesel is $4.59!!!!! Good thing my DH is leaving for a few months this week. Keep that cost down!!!!

It's $3.59 here where I live in Ohio for unleaded.

Gas was $3.53/gal last time I looked.. it's too depressing to look everyday.

Hit $ 3.79 today in suburban NYC.

I win!! lol.. It was $3.95 last night at the "cheap" gas stations here is So Cal.

DING DING DING!!!!!! We have a winner! My niece lives in San Diego and calls me giving me temperature/fire updates and gas price updates!

I would still rather deliver a cake than have someone come pick it up and have it show up destroyed or smashed in any way! Just have to raise the delivery fee and consider if it's really worth it to deliver or even make a cake for someone who lives outside of 10 miles OR less!


Amy