Okay, I know every area varies with pricing. I'm in MN in a suburb of the Twin Cities about 20 miles from St. Paul, small town almost rural area, population 30,000. Not sure if that will help or not, but figured I'd throw it out there.

Here are my questions:

1.) If you normally do cakes that are 2 layers of cake, 1 layer of filling, but someone wanted 3 layers of cake and 2 layers of filling instead, would you charge extra and if so how much?

2.) Do you charge a certain amount for tiered cakes? Here's what I mean. Suppose someone wanted a 10" cake and a 12" seperately. Then suppose someone else wanted a 10" cake stacked on top of a 12" cake. Would you charge them differently? If so, how much?

3.) How much do you charge for delivery and/or setup?

4.) Do you charge differently for sheet cakes that are for weddings versus sheet cakes for other events like birthdays assuming everything else is the same, for example decorating, flavors, etc?

I'm just trying to get an idea of how others do it.

Thanks in advance!
Angie

Angee
Everyone has their own way of pricing. The best way is to call around to several bakeries and see what their cost per serving is for buttercream and fondant designs. I do delivery locally 10 mile for 50 anything special such as gumpaste flowers, bows, figures I price based on design. For my buttercream cakes I charge 2.75 per serving and 4.25 for fondant designs. I have adjusted the prices also if a customer asks for box mix I deduct .25 for box mix only in buttercream.
hope that helps. Sheet cakes I have done as low as 1.50 per serving but that was for family or basicaly at cost

I've called several different places, but really there's only 1 legal bakery within a 30 mile radius and they only do edible image sheetcakes, very basic 8" round with no decorating both of which they charge 1 basic price for and very out-dated buttercream wedding cakes which they sell per serving, but very cheap. I don't think they do many cakes. I think the majority of their business is donut and pastry type stuff along with a deli. The only other "legal" places to get a cake are from grocery stores or Wal-Mart. I've used info from other farther away places in MN and have narrowed down my prices that way, but didn't know if I should charge extra for the above things or if that would be included in the prices I've already established for the cakes themselves.

Angie

Angie,

I live in a small town rural area too, except in Ohio. I am charging $2/serv for BC cakes and $3/serv for fondant cakes. Prices stay the same whether it's for birthday or a wedding. If they need bigger portion sizes, then they need to order more cake. As for stacking versus non-stacking, I don't change the price. Dowels just aren't that expensive.

As for adding an extra layer of cake and filling to your normal 2 layer cake/ 1 layer filling concoction, I would figure out how many servings the one layer of cake would cost and add it on to the total. For example, if an 8" 2 layer cake feeds 20, I'd assume a 1 layer cake would feed 10. The customer would pay for 30 servings of cake.

So does everyone base their per serving prices off of wedding cake sized pieces?

That's what I do. I have one serving chart that I use for all cakes. I tell people this 8" cake is designed to serve 20 people.. if you think you will need more cake we can go to a 9" or 10" to suit your needs. Like (indy)Debi says.. you can't go to KFC and say that your idea of a serving of chicken is 5 pieces and expect to get it for the 3 piece price.

I charge no different for party and wedding cakes.. it's all the same cake. I charge a base price of $5/serving and flowers and figures and such are priced per job. All of my cakes come with fondant. I make all of my cakes 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of filling (torte two 2" layers). Delivery is $2 per mile one way (this includes set up).

I don't make sheet cakes so I can't help you there, but if the sheet cake is double layer with filling then no.. the same price. For a single layer un-filled I would discount a little. For weddings I do kitchen cakes which are just undecorated tiers. and they are $4/serving with orders of 100 servings or more.

HTH's.

Im having the same problem with pricing.
My inlaws are Bakers/Decorators and they are saying that my prices are too cheap!
But i dont feel comfortable charging too much as im really just starting out. So i might try the Per Serving prices, for the next few orders i have coming up.