Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums and I desperately need some input on pricing. I recently received an order for a wedding cake, well actually 9 seperate cakes that are 9" each. They want one cake for each table, they just want them iced and simple trimming added since they will be adding fresh flowers to them. Having said all that, my question is how much should I charge for the cakes. Im really not good at charging, family always says I charge to little, so if anyone can help it would be great...thanks in advance!!

How long is it going to take you to do 9 cakes? If this is something new for you it might take a looong time start to finish (start at shopping for ingredients and end with cleaning your kitchen and delivering the cakes!) It depends on where you're located, because some places are more expensive than others, so you might want to call around to a few bakeries and see how much a 9" cake would cost with basic decorations. I personally would charge around $80 a cake, based on the serving count, but my chart says that 9- 9" cakes will serve 225 people at 25 servings each. They probably don't have 25 people sitting at each table, so they can probably do smaller cakes and be fine! I don't care if they only have 8 people at each table, if the 9" will serve 25 that's what I'm going to charge. You also have to keep in mind that you'll need to have nicer boards for each individual cake, and that you'll have to deliver them, so don't forget to charge for that. You might want to discuss the serving count with the bride, though...I did one wedding with individual cakes, but I think it was 6" cakes on each table if I remember correctly. Don't be surprised if this person doesn't get the cakes from you, regardless of what you tell her price-wise. There's a lot of discussion on these boards about customers who are used to going to the supermarket and getting a cake for $15, so if that's what she's thinking she'll be horrified if you charge her anything close to what your time is worth. If she balks at your price, don't take it personally, it's just the cheapo mentality...And don't start thinking that your time is worth less. The supermarket cake that costs $15 is brought in frozen and sometimes pre-iced, so it isn't like anyone at the store has to put the same effort into decorating them that you'll be doing!

Ditto to everything costumeczar said!!

Where brides screw up in thinking that a "simple, little" centerpiece cake will be cheaper, is they think they can buy an 8" cake to serve 8 people.

But an 8" cake is DESIGNED TO SERVE 24 people! So they are buying THREE TIMES the amount of cake they really need.

They are welcome to cut the cake into as many or as few pieces as they want. But they are going to pay for the number of servings the cake is DESIGNED to serve.

PRicing example:

8" cake serves 24. Times my rate of $3 per serving = $72 per cake.

Bride plans 9 tables. That's $72 per table = $648.

Assuming there are only 8 people per table, that means she is planning on 72 guests ... let's round it to 100 just to keep it simple.

A traditional 3-tier cake to serve 100, times my $3/rate per serving = $300.

So she can spend $648 for individual cakes. Or she can spend $300 and STILL have enough cake for her guests.

Remind her that she also has to buy 9 cake cutting knives to put on each table (she's not going to let them cut a wedding cake with a butter knife is she??? ). And those cost, what .... $10? $20? $30 each? times 9 tables?