With My Experience/skill Level? (Sort Of Long?)
Decorating By adree313 Updated 5 Jun 2009 , 9:58pm by adree313
i know you guys are adamantly against underselling our cakes (and ourselves, really) but i'm severely torn about pricing my stuff. i know my skill level is way more than excruciatingly below everyone else's on here, so i just have no idea how to price.
i've only done one paid cake, but have had offers for more jobs. the one cake i've been paid for was the ice cream cone one in my pictures and it was for one of my closest friend's mom. so when she asked me how much for it, i went completely blank. after a lot of back and forth with her, i finally got her talked into paying me what she thought would be an appropriate price. we settled on $25. i thought this was fine seeing as how it was just a 9x13 trimmed down to look like a cone and 6 cupcakes. i just don't know guys. what do you all think??
Hey there! We all start somewhere and I think your cakes look great! Sadly enough, I don't know how many slices you get from a 9x13. But I would start there. Sell each slice for 1.50 or 2.00. And then charge the same for the cupcakes. =o) I think that will be more worth your time and cover your expenses, etc.
yes, it was a single 9x13, filled and frosted with buttercream under the fondant.
so i looked it up and the wilton chart says (i think) that a double 9x13 is 45 servings. since i only did one 9x13 (22 servings?) and probably cut about half of that off to get the cone shape (about 10 or so servings) plus the 6 cupcakes... about 16 servings (it was only for 4 people, so that was MORE than enough!). sooooo... i guess that's about $24/$25 dollars (going with the $1.50-$2/ serving suggestion). so, i guess i was almost right on? ooooh my gosh. all this math!!
do you think this sounds right? a good starting off point at least?
Ugh! Pricing is the WORST! I am always underpricing then feel sorry for it later. Thanks for the tip about using a per serving price, it helps take some of the guess work out of it!
Never undersell yourself-to your friends here or to customers. $25-did that even cover supplies? What about your time? You should not feel awkward about having people pay for your time-you're worth it! And they are ordering something custom.
good luck!
The only thing about your figuring with your pricing is that you still had to bake the 22 servings plus 6 cupcakes, even if you only ended up with 16 servings. When people make a carved cake, they usually charge for the number of servings they had to make, not the number they ended up with.
Personally, I only bake for friends and relatives, but I do make them pay me for all of my supplies...and I usually add in two dollars for food coloring, dusts, etc...that I used while I was making it even if it didn't take a full container. The nice thing about doing it the way that I do is that I say no to anything that's not interesting to me 
because I'm not trying to make money from it, just increasing my skills.
[quote="Texas_Rose"]The only thing about your figuring with your pricing is that you still had to bake the 22 servings plus 6 cupcakes, even if you only ended up with 16 servings. When people make a carved cake, they usually charge for the number of servings they had to make, not the number they ended up with.quote]
you're right. i completely forgot about all the advice others have given about charging for everything you make. in that case it would have been 12 cupcakes and a full 9x13. so i was wrong 
oh well, lesson learned. and as you said it's all about the experience and increasing our skills. it's still very, very early in the game for me so i guess i shouldn't get too bent out of shape about anything.
thank you everybody! this site is seriously a life saver when it comes to all this stuff. you are all so great and nice. and i honestly think the little "warning this website is highly addictive" label should be A LOT larger... not that it would have kept me away
I know what you mean about wondering what to charge...I know that I am charging well below what would be charged by a bakery, but I am very inexperienced at this point, lol! When I have an order and the client is very surprised it is so much less than the expensive bakery, I am careful to tell them that as I get more experienced, my prices will come more into line with what other decorators are charging 
No, no! You still charge for all of the servings even though they don't eat everything. That's how the carving works. You're not going to just eat the cost (sorry about the pun). That's not fair to you. So 22 x2 = 44 ...plus the cupcakes. So see, that would be much more worth your time and really much more accurate in my opinion. I think right around 50 would be good. If you don't feel comfortable charging that, you could cut it back to 40 or so.
No, no! You still charge for all of the servings even though they don't eat everything. That's how the carving works. You're not going to just eat the cost (sorry about the pun). That's not fair to you. So 22 x2 = 44 ...plus the cupcakes. So see, that would be much more worth your time and really much more accurate in my opinion. I think right around 50 would be good. If you don't feel comfortable charging that, you could cut it back to 40 or so.
yeah, i remembered that now dully noted for future reference lol. so, now i have another question. say you ruin a cake (it doesn't come out of the pain... mess up with fondant...etc etc) while you're decorating it, thus making you have to buy more supplies. is the price of these supplies to come out of my pocket since i messed up? because it seems odd to me to charge for my mistakes. i have yet to have this happen (THANKFULLY!) but just something that has been in my head and would love to hear some answers for
No, no! You still charge for all of the servings even though they don't eat everything. That's how the carving works. You're not going to just eat the cost (sorry about the pun). That's not fair to you. So 22 x2 = 44 ...plus the cupcakes. So see, that would be much more worth your time and really much more accurate in my opinion. I think right around 50 would be good. If you don't feel comfortable charging that, you could cut it back to 40 or so.
yeah, i remembered that now
dully noted for future reference lol. so, now i have another question. say you ruin a cake (it doesn't come out of the pain... mess up with fondant...etc etc) while you're decorating it, thus making you have to buy more supplies. is the price of these supplies to come out of my pocket since i messed up? because it seems odd to me to charge for my mistakes. i have yet to have this happen (THANKFULLY!) but just something that has been in my head and would love to hear some answers for
I charge for what they ordered if they ordered a 9x13 I charge them for 9x13 .. If I screw up and have to make the 9x13 5 times to get a finished product I am happy with then that is my bad.. they pay for what they receive.. They are paying me to do something I said I could do they shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes.. Not that I make any .. Hahhahahah 
so, now i have another question. say you ruin a cake (it doesn't come out of the pain... mess up with fondant...etc etc) while you're decorating it, thus making you have to buy more supplies. is the price of these supplies to come out of my pocket since i messed up? because it seems odd to me to charge for my mistakes. i have yet to have this happen (THANKFULLY!) but just something that has been in my head and would love to hear some answers for
I don't sell cakes or anything...but if I were going to sell cakes, and I messed up, I think that would come out of my profit. I don't think it's fair to charge someone else for my mess up. Just my opinion though. =o)
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