Just started really playing around with cakes and such and now have several people asking about my prices for cakes, cupcake bouquets, etc. I have no idea what to charge or what is a fair price. I would appreciate any input I could get on this. Thank you so much.
And no one here can tell you. It depends on your area, cost of ingredients, overhead, payroll, profit desired, etc. Good luck!
hope that's not true. Was hoping for at lteast a little help from people that know. I am just starting out so obviously I'm doing it out of my home and have no employees, etc. Just curious how much others charge per slice, per cake mix, more for fondant, or how they charge, etc.
Are you in a place it is legal to do this out of your home?
I would start by calling around & to the places that sell cakes in you area. I would start with supermarkets & then call some bakeries. Then start somewhere in the middle. As your reputation grows, you can always increase your prices. And be sure to check with your local health department to see if it is legal to sell from your home. Good luck to you! 
See if you can get pricing for the other bakeries and home based businesses in your area and compare your work to theirs. You don't want to under cut them and you don't want to overprice either. I live in a small community and don't charge what some of the other people on here do so it really does matter where you are and what people are willing to pay. Hope that helps!
And no one here can tell you. It depends on your area, cost of ingredients, overhead, payroll, profit desired, etc. Good luck!
hope that's not true. Was hoping for at lteast a little help from people that know. I am just starting out so obviously I'm doing it out of my home and have no employees, etc. Just curious how much others charge per slice, per cake mix, more for fondant, or how they charge, etc.
What I mean, is that the price of my cake may be different than yours. Ingredients are going to cost differently in any given area. I don't know where you are from, or any information about how you are running your business, what your liability cost run, etc. It also isn't obvious that you are working from home, as in many areas, this is not legal, so you may be renting a kitchen. Also, you are an employee, hence payroll. There are tons of great posts in these forums that describe most of this in detail. 
crazycakeamateur
When I was planing to open a smoothies place, I went to different places around my area, high end areas and middle income areas to see their product, sizes, flavors and prices, and comparing it to mine. Seeing their's gave me an idea for my prices and size. When I had the information , I found out how much it cost me to make each kind of smoothie, and then I multiplied by three, and got my price! 
I did not wanted to deal with different sizes so I only served one size and had seven flavors: chocolate, vainilla, cookies and cream, mango, banana, strawberry and sunny delight flavor plus gatorate ices. At the present it is closed. It was good while it was open, ran with it for seven years. We do not see your work, you have no pictures. Pictures would give us some ideas as to prices, as it is .... go and check your area, and take into account if your work is up to parr or not to the bakeries in your area. Also who will be your client?. Product prices are not the same everywhere, this is why you can not be given a price range . Check the web sites of the bakeries of your area, most of them list their prices. Since you will be working from your home and are somewhat new in this, your prices should be a little less. Some of our CC friends have mention that you should check first if you are permitted to do so.I think it is a very good idea... I myselft only do cakes for my family and friends, because here in my city is not permited. Oh, how I wish I could 
I hope this helps you some. I wish you luck
CIAO
You may want to start out just having people buy the ingredients and doing the work for free. It will give you lots of practice and time to think about whether or not you want to start a home business. Whatever you do, stay within a reasonable price of the locals home businesses.
as others said, there are many post about pricing in the forums, but check out this one here. TexasSugar has great detail all in this one thread on how to figure pricing.
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-694973-.html
But the first things i would do:
1) call your local health dept and find out if it's legal to sell goods baked in your home kitchen (you dont' have your location posted so can't help you with that answer right now)
2) Get the cost of all of your recipes
HTH
If you have other questions don't hesitate to ask!
Thank you to all that replied. I didn't think of it as such a big thing right now and didn't realize I should see if it's 'legal'. I live in Illinois. My mom decorated cakes for a living while I was growing up and always did them out of our home. She did very well at it. She never had a liscense or any of that. My cakes aren't much to look at right now as I have just started playing around with the idea. It's just that several of my friends have seen them and have asked what I would charge so I was curious what the 'going rate' was. I will call around today to the local supermarkets and such and see their prices. I do think I can do as good or better as a lot of the cakes I have seen from those places (walmart, county market, hy-vee, etc.) because they are usually pretty basic cakes with some plastic things thrown on once in awhile. I know there are other people in the area that sell cakes from their home and have never said anything about legal issues so I would assume it was ok. Thanks again. I will post pics soon....just a little embarassed at my newbie work.
AFAIK Illinois does not have a cottage food law, so in order to sell cakes you would need to build a separate commercial kitchen on your property according to your state's requirements or rent an existing commercial kitchen or kitchen incubator.
Before you proceed any further in terms of advertising or pricing you need to find legal space to make your products. Of course you can still continue to practice on dummies and/or give cakes away for free in the meantime.
Jason is correct - I live in IL and no cottage law exists here. I bake only for friends and family who reimburse me for my ingredients. Unless you have a "Legal" commerialized kitchen or bake in one you cannot advertize or sell your cakes. Like I said, I do mine for family and friends and until I marry my man in Ohio I'm able to get that little bit of practice in and hopefully by the time we marry I'll be in a position to be able to start a business there. Good luck. Start with your county board of health. That's who handles those things here where I live in IL.
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