How much do you charge per serving on wedding cakes?

I believe that cake is cake - whether for a wedding cake or a party cake, so I don't have different pricing. I have, however, decided that I will be adding an additional $25 to all orders that include a tasting or live consultation. I do 95% of all my orders via email, so while it takes up my time, I can do it at my leisure vs. driving somewhere and blocking out 1-1.5 hrs of my time.

I also don't differentiate pricing between birthday and wedding cakes. Same baking time, same amount of icing, same decors .... same price.

Have you checked what your local market is charging for cakes (real bakeries, not grocery store chains).

I also plan on having one price whether it be a wedding cake or party cake. I'm not at that point *yet* but this is something I've thought about.

Now, my question is this. Say you make a 14" round cake - one for a wedding and one for a party. Let's use $3.00 a slice. Do you charge the Bride/Groom for 63 slices or 78 slices and vice versa for the Party People. No matter how you look at it, cake is cake, icing is icing, etc.....it costs you the same whether you cut 63 slices or 78 slices. Or do you cut all your cakes one way?

If so, do you cut wedding size pieces or party sizes pieces or something in between?

If not then basically you make more money off of a wedding cake vs. a party cake when you use the same per slice price for both wedding and party cakes, right?

If anything it would seem you should charge more per slice for the party cakes rather than the other way around

Now I just confused myself

Trixy, I use the serving chart to determine pricing, not necessarily to determine the number of servings, although they are coincidentally the same or very close.

A 10" round serve 38 (I round to 35) per the wilton chart. I use this number to determine my price. I tell a client, "This cake will serve 25-35, depending on how you cut it." They are not interested in how I came up with the price. They just want to know how many people will it feed and how much does it cost.

They are welcome to cut it any dang size they want, but they are paying for the number of servings the cake is designed to serve. (Insert my KFC analogy here! )

I don't charge differently for wedding. I do charge differently in my deposits. Special occassion cakes $25 deposit and $50 for wedding cakes.

Thanks Debi! You are amazing. That makes total sense to me. I can't thank all of you enough who are experienced and willing to share your knowledge with those of us just starting out. I hope some day I can help someone out in this business as you all are doing for me.

By the way, I went to your website. I love it!

Thanks again!

I charge the same for all tiered cakes, be it for a wedding or party, and that starts at $6.50 per serving. Single cakes are different, but satellite tiers for a wedding are "wedding/tiered" pricing.