You Rock!! That's exactly what i needed. This is going to make it so much easier to figure out now.
Thanks for the help.

suzanne

It really is alot of work! I went to four different stores in the area around a month ago with pen and paper and price compared every possible ingredient i would need for my cakes, icing, cookies. It had been sitting on my desk for over a month. I just didn't know where to start. Then i was called a few weeks back to make a cake for someone, and i think i really undersold myself. It upset me enough to seriously start thinking i must get moving so that it doesn't happen again. So this week i started tallying all the ingredient costs per batch. Today i've been trying to figure out how much each size cake would cost with my labor. The chart the above poster shared has been very helpful. BUT>> I'm sooo confused and am overwhelmed..thus me coming here for a break. When i figured out the cost of a 18"square, not filled, not including board and box and i'm coming to around 75.00. I'm not sure if that's right or not. Math has always been a weak point for me. I just emailed my husband and told him he needs to help me out. I'm sooo not good at math, and this is just confusing me. I'm second guessing all my figures. I don't want to undersell myself. I put my wages at around 15.00hr. I dunno. Maybe i can get this done by the end of the month if i keep working at it.
It would really take the stress out of it if i had numbers to give people upfront. But there are sooo many variables when it comes to cakes and cookies. fondant or buttercream, filled or not, gumpaste decoration or buttercream and on and on and on. How can i possibly figure every little detail out? Now i know why i have put it off for so long.

suz

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I used to do this quarterly ..... all info compiled on one giant spreadsheet.

now ... with prices changing DAILY, I have to update the spreadsheet with every receipt and invoice I get.

You've got to stay on top of these price changes..... especially now with the market so volatile.

It's almost just a case of semantics.

Let's say you charge $3/serving for wedding cakes, and you charge $35 for a 10" round, 2-layer. If you divide the number of servings in a 10" round (35, per the wilton chart), then you are charging $1/serving for the 10" round .... (unless they tell you it's a wedding cake and then you are charging them $3/serving ).

Originally Posted by sweetcravings

When i figured out the cost of a 18"square, not filled, not including board and box and i'm coming to around 75.00. I'm not sure if that's right or not. Math has always been a weak point for me. I just emailed my husband and told him he needs to help me out. I'm sooo not good at math, and this is just confusing me. I'm second guessing all my figures. I don't want to undersell myself. I put my wages at around 15.00hr. I dunno. Maybe i can get this done by the end of the month if i keep working at it.

Maybe I am looking at this as an easy way out, but can't you just figure out your price for ONE cake and not how much you spend on every cake? Once you know how much you spend for a basic size cake you can figure out how much you need to make on that cake, and then figure your price per serving. Even if you want to charge a per cake price rather than a per serving, you really should know your per serving. Other wise your prices won't be consistant.

Those that have sat down and done there prices, is this correct or am I off?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetcravings

It would really take the stress out of it if i had numbers to give people upfront. But there are sooo many variables when it comes to cakes and cookies. fondant or buttercream, filled or not, gumpaste decoration or buttercream and on and on and on. How can i possibly figure every little detail out? Now i know why i have put it off for so long.

Yes it does very much take the stress off when you don't have to pull out a number off the top of your head or you have time to sit and talk yourself in to charging less. With a price list you will be more set in your prices and not cheat yourself.

While I do think there are variables that do need to have different prices, I think keeping it simple is your best bet. You don't want to confuse yourself or the customer if you are going getting very nit picky or have a added/seperate charge for every little thing.

When I buy a donut, I want to know the cost of the donut as a whole. Please don't tell me it will be $2 for the donut, $1 for the glaze, and $.50 for sprinkles. I just need to know the donut costs me $3.50.

Indy always says her prices are the same no matter what flavor or decorations. She does all buttercream so that does factor in, but the idea, in general, is a good one. If you have a really simple cake with very little decorations and a more detailed cake with lots of buttercream roses, then in the long run it evens out. The simple one takes less time, there for more money for you time, and the other would take more time, giving you a little less money for that time.

I (personally) do think that fondant does deserve a higher price because it does add to the cost of making the cake.

I wouldn't charge more for a 'filling', because you are using something in between the layers, either buttercream or fillings. So I would just factor that cost into the cake. If your fillings cost a little more than buttercream does, then when you use buttercream you are making extra on the cake.

I don't think you should charge extra for all the different types of decorations with a few exceptions.

In general I wouldn't have different/additonal charges for the little design details. You don't want to go well if you want basketweave the cake will be xxx and if you want the same size cake but no basketweave and roses it will be yyy and if you want the same size cake with basketweave and roses it will be zzz. You want to say, a 10in round cake with decorations is aaa.

If you are doing an extreme amount of detail you may want to add an addition cost. If you are doing alot of fondant details, molded figures or something along those likes you may want to add an addition cost. If you do gumpaste flowers then you may want to add an additional amount. The differences in those is that some of them take a much longer time to do, talent and so on. It is something above and beyond what they could get on the average cake. You can't walk into walmart and get a gorgous gumpaste bouquet on top of the cake.

You can always have a "Please note prices are based on basic decorations. Very detailed or intricate designs may have an additional fee" at the bottom of your price list. That way if you do get a cake that the design work is going to take you 3 times longer than what a normal cake would be then you can factor that in.

I used to agonize over pricing, I made a list of every possible detail like fondant swags, fondant pearls, brush embroidery, etc. and what would charge per tier for each item. it was crazy, even I couldn't figure out how much a cake would cost.

I also didn't want the brides to feel like they had to have less polka dots on the cake to save a few bucks.

my DH suggested that I offer 2 prices, one for "simple" and one for "intricate or elaborate" then determine what fits into those categories based on the amount of time it would take.

I feel so much better talking about pricing now b/c I can look at a cake and say " I would do that for $x.xx/ serving.

I have much more confidence when it comes to quoting a price now. Obviously I have times when I wonder should I have considered that simple or elaborate and then what about a cake that is "super elaborate"?

Nothing is set in stone though, thats why my pricing says "starting at $x.xx/serving"