Cupcake Pricing! Help!

Business By pearldust Updated 19 Jun 2010 , 2:54am by godsgood

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pearldust Posted 14 May 2010 , 12:28pm
post #1 of 13

I have a cupcake order from a friend who gets birthday cupcakes for her daughter every year from me. She normally orders 24 cupcakes but this time she ordered 30. I prefer making my cupcakes in batches of 24 only because the rest of the cupcakes & frosting go to waste. I normally charge $21 for 24 cupcakes.

I would rather her order 24 or 36 cupcakes but I need help pricing out 24, 30, and 36 cupcakes. I have attached a picture of the cupcakes she has ordered from me. Also, is $21 ok for 24 cupcakes? I appreciate your help!
LL

12 replies
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Reimagining_Confections Posted 14 May 2010 , 12:47pm
post #2 of 13

I wouldn't do an order for 30. I would bake in increments of a dozen only. So I would say she needed to order 36 if she wanted 30. Just the way it is. For price,maybe it is just me, but 87 cents or so a cuppie is too cheap. Not sure where you live, but on average most cuppies I have seen are around $2 to $2.50 depending on flavors and level of detail. They go up if you had decorations, fondant, fillings, etc. Definitely no cheaper than $1.50 each. My local grocery store charges $3 for 2(sooooo).

Cute cuppies BTW.

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Williamus Posted 14 May 2010 , 12:49pm
post #3 of 13

I don't know where you are located, but your cupcakes look really pretty...and I charge way way way more than you do. I charge between $2.00 and $3.50 per cupcake depending on how difficult and time consuming they are...I'm located in New York City, where things tend to be a little on the "expensive" side...but I think I learned the hard way, that if you think you are worth the price, you can command the price. With a little math you should be able to scale your recipes to make any number of cupcakes you need. If you have recipes that yield 24 cupcakes...multiply all the ingredient amounts by 1.25 and you should get 30 cupcakes. Hope this is helpful.

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pearldust Posted 14 May 2010 , 1:03pm
post #4 of 13

Thank you for your replies! I am located in Metro Detroit but I agree that $21 is too cheap. Although I think the local grocery stores here don't charge as much as what you mentioned. 6 cupcakes with a basic swirled frosting & sprinkles are about $8.00 (which is still more than what I charge.)

I think I will adjust my prices accordingly and only offer cupcakes in increments of 12. Thirty cupcakes is not worth it at all.

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karenm0712 Posted 14 May 2010 , 1:19pm
post #5 of 13

Agree with the other posters - you are not charging enough for your cupcakes! Also, I offer in increments of 12 - so she is going to need to order either 24 or 36, that's just how it is! icon_smile.gif

Love the choice of cuppies too!!

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cylstrial Posted 14 May 2010 , 1:22pm
post #6 of 13

The other thing that you could do if people do want odd numbers like 30, instead of increments of 12, is charge more money for those cupcakes.

You could just put something on your website about how you bake cupcakes in increments of 12. Should they want to purchase increments less than 12 will incur an additional fee. And then you would have to decide what would make it worth it. Maybe the remaining 6 cupcakes, you charge $3 each.

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indydebi Posted 14 May 2010 , 1:34pm
post #7 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by cylstrial

The other thing that you could do if people do want odd numbers like 30, instead of increments of 12, is charge more money for those cupcakes.

You could just put something on your website about how you bake cupcakes in increments of 12. Should they want to purchase increments less than 12 will incur an additional fee. And then you would have to decide what would make it worth it. Maybe the remaining 6 cupcakes, you charge $3 each.


And this is very common in the business world.

In one job I had, we had "standard" boxes of product in our warehouse, ready to go, usually boxes of 25, 50 or 100. If someone needed 60 items, they had to order 100 **OR** they submitted a request for a Special Production Run in which case they would pay a higher per-piece price to cover the costs of stopping our production line just to setup and run their special order.

In addition to this, you are not a storefront bakery where you can just grab 30 cucpakes out of the display case and then sell the remaining 6 to walk-ins who buy just one or two. She needs to understand that. Pretty much pose the question "What am *I* suppose to do with 6 leftover cupcakes?"

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KHalstead Posted 14 May 2010 , 1:38pm
post #8 of 13

You know you guys can freeze leftover batter?

I recently had an order for 12 mini cupcakes in STRAWBERRY! I hardly ever get orders for strawberry cakes. Anyhow..........I knew I had this order coming up in 2 weeks for these cupcakes and I was making cupcakes for my DS birthday and he wanted strawberry cupcakes to take to school. He only needed 9 cupcakes for the whole class and teacher lol. So I froze the remaining batter in a tupperware bowl, and laid a piece of wax paper on the surface of the batter and then put the lid on the bowl getting out as much air as I could. I froze it for 2 weeks and then scooped out the batter completely frozen to make the minis and they worked PERFECTLY!!!

I'll attach photos for you!

By the way, the grocery stores here charge $.50/each for a cc w/ a swirl of bc and sprinkles. I used to charge $.75 and just recently upped it to $1.00/ea (so I'm twice the cost of the grocery store)

Your grocery store is charging over $1.30/ea for those cupcakes so I definitely (if I were you) wouldn't charge less than $1.50/cupcake and even that seems awefully LOW for your area! That would be a basic cupcake with NO decorations, just a swirl of icing. Piping flowers, plus the cost of the candies for the centers would be more
LL
LL

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TexasSugar Posted 14 May 2010 , 2:07pm
post #9 of 13

To me a cupcake is a serving of cake. If they are filled and decorated then they should be treated like a serving of cake with the same price.

If they are unfilled cupcakes I would not sell them for less than a $1 and would probably go up to $1.50. For a filled and decorated cupcake I would start at atleast $2 for the swirl and more for a different decoration.

I also wouldn't do 30. To me this goes along with a cake serving 24 and a person only needed 20 servings. They still pay for and get the 4 extra servings, because that is how the cake is designed. You wouldn't cut off 4 pieces for them, so why should you end up with 6 extra cupcakes because they want a weird number?

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Williamus Posted 14 May 2010 , 2:23pm
post #10 of 13

I guess that I"m the "odd man out" in that I will do thirty cupcakes...I just weigh out the ingredients I need to make the amount I need. My cupcake recipes are for 36...and I scale them up and down to give me the amount I need. Sometimes I don't mind the extras...I eat them myself LOL

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rosiecast Posted 14 May 2010 , 4:50pm
post #11 of 13

Tina, those look yummy!!!

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cylstrial Posted 16 May 2010 , 12:08am
post #12 of 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by KHalstead

You know you guys can freeze leftover batter?

I recently had an order for 12 mini cupcakes in STRAWBERRY! I hardly ever get orders for strawberry cakes. Anyhow..........I knew I had this order coming up in 2 weeks for these cupcakes and I was making cupcakes for my DS birthday and he wanted strawberry cupcakes to take to school. He only needed 9 cupcakes for the whole class and teacher lol. So I froze the remaining batter in a tupperware bowl, and laid a piece of wax paper on the surface of the batter and then put the lid on the bowl getting out as much air as I could. I froze it for 2 weeks and then scooped out the batter completely frozen to make the minis and they worked PERFECTLY!!!

I'll attach photos for you!

By the way, the grocery stores here charge $.50/each for a cc w/ a swirl of bc and sprinkles. I used to charge $.75 and just recently upped it to $1.00/ea (so I'm twice the cost of the grocery store)

Your grocery store is charging over $1.30/ea for those cupcakes so I definitely (if I were you) wouldn't charge less than $1.50/cupcake and even that seems awefully LOW for your area! That would be a basic cupcake with NO decorations, just a swirl of icing. Piping flowers, plus the cost of the candies for the centers would be more




Tina - did you have to bake the mini's a little longer since they were frozen? That's so cool though! I had no idea that you could freeze batter!

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godsgood Posted 19 Jun 2010 , 2:54am
post #13 of 13

Pearldust, I'm in metro Detroit also, and I charge a minimum of $1.50/cupcake. That is no filling, no special decorations or designs, only a swirl on top. ANYTHING else adds to the price. Also, for small orders I only bake by the dozen, but for large orders such as weddings, I will do the exact amount they ask for. I just eat or share any left overs. Where exactly are you at?

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