I have Alice Keeler's Cake Matrix from Lisa Kerbes, she was kind enough to put it on CC for us to use. I read the instructions and put in all my numbers to give me a total cost. I have a wedding cake coming up and it's just a plain white buttercream with buttercream filling and fondant pearls for the borders. She needs it to feed 100 people. After punching in all my numbers into the matrix it came out to $514.00. Does that sound right? Do you charge about that for a wedding cake, I will be doing a 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 inch.

Originally I told the bride it would be 350.00 including delivery and I stuck with that total. Which number sounds more correct? I want to start using this matrix b/c it's so convenient and easy to use, it has all the recipes, numbers, serving sizes, fillings etc......

thanks for any help! I havent charged for a wedding cake for 3 years.

Ginger

anyone????

I'm not to the selling point yet.. so unfortunately I can't answer your question from personal experience. However, I will say that $350 sounds low to me considering all of the tiers you are making. I would think that the $514 would be more accurate. Hopefully, someone else will get on here and give you the info you need.

I was wondering if you could post Alice Keeler's Cake Matrix from Lisa Kerbes in this thread or tell me where it is. Thank you so much!!!

I'm in Richmond, so I think that the pricing of our areas would be similar...I'd charge $350 for what you're describing, because my serving count for those tiers would be exactly 100 (I use a hybrid of Wilton and Earlene's.) I'm in the "middle of the road" pricing category for here, though, and I know that there are some people here who'd probably charge more, and some who'd charge less. I think the $350 sounds right based on the serving counts and the lack of any real detail work on the cake.

Oh my goodness, I don't know much about this, but that price does sound very cheap, considering its size because wedding cakes are usually very costly.. wel lthey are in the UK... it would be like £350 plus, over here.

Great! Thank you all for the info. Makes me feel better about the $350. I was starting to feel like I jipped myself out of some profit!!!

If you would like the matrix I will be happy to send it to you but please give me your email address, I don't know how to do an attachment on CC but I can in email.

Thanks again!!!

costumeczar, what is earlene's? Maybe I can look at that one too. I thought that 514 sounded high too, I may have done something wrong, I called a local bakery and their charge is 255 including delivery but they only do 3 tiers (14, 10 and 6). I wanted 10,9,8,7, and 6

ginger

IMHO Earlene's chart is too big. You will have lots of cake leftover and brides will be wondering why you sold them too much cake.. when you really didn't. Caterer's cut by Wilton's chart mostly. Remember that with bigger servings your price should reflect that.. you are selling the same cake no matter what the servings you need to get compensated.

I use Wilton's chart and round down to the nearest 5's. So if it says 38 I say 35.. if it says 12 I say 10.

I'd call that 105 servings and charge $472.50 plus delivery. I charge $4.50/serving for buttercream and $2/mile one way for delivery with a $25.00 minimum.

I charge $3.00 a serving for Buttercream.I also charge extra for the toppers and delivery so it would still be in the $400.00 range however different areras of the country can demand and command higher cake prices and have no problem getting that.

Ginger, Im in MD which is closer to you and let me tell you, thats VERY cheap. If you call local bakeries and act like a bride needing pricing you will find that most of them are atleast $5 and up. Then they charge extra for fillings, fondant, the cake board it sits on, and delivery and set up. Most of the brides I get are people who dont have that kind of money to spend on a wedding cake and cant believe that I ONLY charge $4 a serving.
Your best bet is to use the spreadsheet like I got from Cake Boss that has all your ingredients broken down by what it cost you to make the cake. Then you can manually figure in what you would charge as an hourly rate and then you can really see what it would cost you to make it and how much that you should be charging. You would really be surprised! I think right now that your barely covering your ingredient costs. That also depends on what and where you buy it.

I personally would have charged just over the $400 mark generally here we dont work in servings well i dont anyways... i charge for eg 10"(round) = $100 8"= $80 and so on then i add on a little extra for any decoration and i also charge a minimum of $50 setup/delivery fee so for your sizing it would be $400 for the cakes no decoration as such plus the $50 for delivery minimum dependingon the distance needed to travel of course..(this is in NZ dollars but the way i look at it is your $1 is equivalent to my $1 ifyou know what i mean)

I would love to have the Cake Matrix [email protected]
Pricing is always something I have a hard time with. $350 sounds low to me, but I'm in NJ, one of the highest cost of living states in the country.

If you would like the matrix I will be happy to send it to you but please give me your email address, I don't know how to do an attachment on CC but I can in email.

I would love to have the attachment. My email address is [email protected]. Thanks!!!

So I know how to quote someone in the white box when you copy the entire message.

But I don't know how to quote someone and get their message to appear in the white box when you are cutting out some of what that person said.

Make sense? Help! It's driving me nuts! I know to hit the quote button on their message and then what?

Thanks!!

In my area, that cake would cost around $700.

I agree that $350.00 is too low but I live in NY so Im sure here it would be over $600.00. I'd that the Matrix chart also plz my e-mail is [email protected] thanks

If youwouldnt mind sending me the matrix, I would appreciate it. [email protected]
thanks

Dont worry about not knowing how to use all the quote and attach features...youre a beautiful cake decorator...ya cant be everything!!

I would like the matrix also. [email protected]
Thanks

Hi Ginger

Can you send me the Matrix. My email address is [email protected]

Would you please add me to your list of people to send a copy of the matrix? [email protected] Thank you so much!

Can someone email me the matrix as well?
[email protected]

I would like the matrix also. Thank you. [email protected]

Just a reminder.

Not everyone is as nice as all of us. When you post your e-mail address you are leaving yourself vulnerable to junk mail, viruses, and other forms of mayhem. For security, you may want to use PMs for this.

The matrix is on Cake Central in the Business Forum I believe.. you can download it there.

Can you please forward the chart to me. [email protected]

can you please email it to me also? [email protected]

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-148801.html

This is a link to the Matrix for all those who want it. SInce it's here it would save the OP a lot of e-mailing.

Hi Gingersoave,
I'm in Ontario and my wedding cake was 4 teir, 14, 12, 10, 6 with buttercream and filling on each teir, including buttercream detail. Total for my cake was about $500. I only had 150 people at our wedding but I wanted a big cake!!
Can you please email me the cake matrix to [email protected]

Thanks

Let me see if I can add an attachment here. If not I will be sending out the matrix today. But in case you dont want to wait for me to email it to you here is the original post for Alice's Cake Matrix to download.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/c.....48801.html
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Alices Cake Matrix M.xls

woo hoo it worked!! so just hit the download button and you will have it! yippee!!! I feel computer literate!!!

But make sure that you read her instructions, it seems overwhelming but just play around with it and you'll get it, if I can figure it out everyone in the world can !!!!

good luck, and thank you ALL for your opinions. I think that pricing is the only part I hate about cake decorating. It freaks me out everytime I charge someone. But with the matrix I have a good idea and can alter anything, I altered the iciing recipe from 1.98 per batch to 13.92 a batch b/c I use sugar shacks recipe and it takes 5 lbs of pwd sugar rather than 2 lbs which is on the matrix. PLEASE look it over before you give anyone an estimate. That is what I did and got stuck charging 350 when I should have maybe charged 514 which is the number after I altered the cake and icing costs.

thank you all again, I JUST LOVE being part of the CC family!!!!!