I'm starting to do research on starting a cake decorating business (for years down the road! lol). I've been calling local bakeries and going on their websites. Some have per slice charges and others say every cake is different and you would have to meet for a quote.

Do most of you charge "by the slice" (with decorations extra) or add up the cost of ingredients/labor/etc. and determine a price from there? (I apologize if there's a thread for this already, I did search and did not come up with anything..please redirect me if there is)

It seems to make more sense to charge by the cost of ingredients, because different flavors will cost different amounts to make.

If I'm not mistaken, this is how Alice's cake matrix is set up??? Does anyone know how the "cake boss" software is set up?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

When bakers give their per slice price, the cost of ingredients should already be built into that amount.

If I were going to start doing this as a business, I would have figured out how much flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, flavoring, etc. go into making my cakes, divide that up by the number of servings each cake provided, and that would be a portion of my per slice price.

I would also know my operating costs... such as electricity, hot water, soap, sanitizing products, disposable products used in making the cake (gloves, toothpicks, paper towels, disposable piping bags), licences, gas used for shopping and delivering, etc. etc. and that would be a portion of my per slice price.

I would also know the amount of time I usually spend on making cakes, determine how much I would need to earn to make it worth it for me to do the cakes rather than spending that time on something else I might want to do, and that would be a portion of my per slice price.

I would guess that in most cases, bakers would have added those costs up for a number of cakes and used the average for their per slice price... if your customers tend to order the recipes with the more costly ingredients, then your per slice price would be closer to (or at) the cost of those more expensive recipes.

And yes, many bakers do charge extra for various premiums... carrot cake, cream cheese frosting, certain flavors or fillings, fondant, gumpaste flowers & figurines.

So, I guess in answer to your question... it's not an either/or. Knowing the cost of your ingredients is the basis for knowing the correct per slice price to charge.

HTH

- Leisel

Duplicate post. See also http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-665688-.html