I recently did the giraffe cake ( http://cakecentral.com//gallery/1916473 ) in my gallery as a favor to a friend for ingredient cost (which was a deal, considering things like utilities, paper towels, soap, etc. were not included). The cake itself is the blocks, and the giraffe body, the rest is RKT. In my area, basic fondant cakes start at $4/serving. My ingredient cost was $160, and after the fact, I guesstimated work hours, at a meager $10/hr, would have put this cake somewhere around $400...first off, for those in similar markets, does that price sound right? And, how would I estimate those work hours when quoting a price? I started with an 8" square and a ball pan, but didn't use all of the 8"...but those pans give you, let's say, 52 servings, including the piece I didn't use. (32 + 20 (unsure about ball pan)). So obviously it's not a $4/serving cake, it's more like $8 a serving), but how would I have known that? Also, the cake flavors are premium: one is a nutella cake with nutella filling and fresh roared hazelnuts, the other is a white chocolate (organic, btw) cake with cheesecake filling and mixed berry (organic) chambord filling.
On a side note, this cake is a great example for another post, called "why you don't make cakes for friends," as a week later, she still hasn't covered the ingredients. I'm ready to tell her what a $&!?$(@$& good deal she got....

I would say...never...never do cakes for free to friends or anyone else for that matter...Since it is a 3D Cake..I charge $5.00 per serving but other high end places charge way up to $12.00 a serving.You have to take in account the other non cake items like RKT treats ,hardware to make stand...electricity,water etc..so I don't think that cake would not be too far off of $400.00.Probably a bit higher.

I have the same problem with pricing the specialty carved cakes! Esp since I am just starting out, I am not able to anticipate how long a certain design will take me, or how much ingredients it will take (like the RKT), SO pricing by how much I want to make by the hour? Without knowing how many hours it will take before hand? How do you do that when giving a price quote!?!? I charge $75 for my "Tangled" cake (in my gallery) and DH thinks I WAY way undercharged because of the cost of the support and other materials involved....hmm I can't wait to see what others say!

I hate pricing 3d cakes and I suck at it too. I try look at the detail, time and "wow" factor. For fondant, I charge $4.00 and above per serving. For example, I am doing a simple 3 layer 6" cake that I am very slightly carving to look like a coffee mug. For that, I will charge $4/serving. Now my Lamborgini...I (should've) charged $7.50 per serving. It also depends on your location. I emailed a very famous cake shop up north for a price of an 8" fondant covered cake I saw in their gallery....$300!! You may not get $7 a serving if you live in BFE. Gotta take a lot into consideration after you price out your expenses and time.

Your giraffe cake is adorable! Great job

Pricing complicated cakes is hard for me too. I did a "Tinkerbell" cake last February for my granddaughter's birthday and since it was a gift, didn't keep track of everything. Yesterday I got a request for a quote on it and I'm sure I underquoted at $325.00. Based on the Wilton party serving chart it would have served around 80 people and I charge $6 per serving for fondant and $5 per serving for buttercream I should have quoted $400 to $480. Hate pricing Sometimes the actual costs of the cake is more on the detail work rather than the costs of the ingredients. Just my opinion

cofectionscc, I just love, love, love your tangled cake, mind if I borrow the design? (How ever I won't be charging $75 for it, more like $350)

Oh and I start at $6 a serving for carved and 3d cakes and go up from there. It all depends on the design and how much work it entails. (of course many times I have underestimated but I learn from my mistakes)

Thanks for all the input! I think, after this experience, I can safely say that the shaped cakes should start at about $7-8/serving, but I guess it will just take trial and error. Maybe i should consider having a standard minimum hour work for shaped cakes like this one? Like say a shaped cake will incur 10 hours of work?

I know someone who charges $50/hour. She does not disclose this number but it is how she comes up with her prices. The $50/hour is for her time, expenses, ingredients,---everything.

$160 seems high for out of pocket cost...hm....unless that cake is huge, I'm not sure how you spent all that to make the cake?

Anyway I price pretty high per serving and have a $200 minimum order (which won't get you a very big cake, and often fully sculpted cakes I'll just price $300 on up). I loosely think about $8 serving as a minimum and then add up the servings, check out the work, and think about how much I want for the project. Harder projects I price up higher...its all subjective. I try to be fair still, so sometimes I still don't get nearly the profit on a sculpted cake as I would for a regular tiered cake because the tiered cake has so many more servings that can add profit.

That cake is really cute and if you go all organic, I can see the cost being high. I can spend as much $45 alone on just butter for one cake and it's not even organic butter. Scratch baking cost. I can only imagine how much scratch baking cost with organic ingredients. And just a suggestions, if you do, do another cake for cost of ingredients, have them buy them. I just did one for a friend of mine and she had to get everything and bring it to me. She gave me a $100 to order all the things I would need to support and decorate the cake way before the cake was needed. This gives friends in an entire new persepective for what cakes cost. Her cake retail would have been about $450, so after her expenses, she knows she got a great deal!

I'm sorry. And to answer your question, I don't price them by servings cause in the carving your going to lose cake and it's kind of hard to figure out how many servings a giraffe or car may have, but you do know if you'll have enough cake. I charge by how long it looks like it'll take me. Also with flat rates, you don't risk losing any money with the servings way. For example, if someone asks for a cake shaped like a car for 25, you know that will be a small cake and hard to make, which may require you to make a bigger cake and then lose out on the servings. HTH.

I'm thinking anything that defies gravity should automatically have at least an extra $100 or so added to it just for that...lol.

Oh and btw, I am SO PROUD of how STABLE I made that tangled cake!!!!! I am so taking pictures to share next time! That thing could have been flipped upside down and would not have moved!