The cake costs 12.58 to make. (not including icing, will add that to the grand total once its figured out)

if i were to be extremely rough with time:
10-mixing ingredients
40-bake
30-cool
5- crumbcoat
5- icing the cake
10- piping design/words
------------------
1 hr 40 mins

I doubt i would be delivering. but if i were, how much should i charge per mile?

how much should i pay myself per hour? im not and expert but im not exactly a beginner. There isnt anything to extravagant with this cake, merely a quick WHY SO SERIOUS and joker eyes/mouth.

What do you think?

What is the design?

Let's say the ingredient cost for the icing is another $5 or so, and round up to $18. Add 20 minutes for the icing and you're at 2 hours. We'll also say that you have $1000 in annual overhead and 50 orders per year, you live in a state with a cottage food law that allows you to legally sell baked goods made at home, and your wage is $15/hour.

Your cost would be $18 + $30 (2 hrs * $15/hr) + $20 ($1000 / 50) = $68. Add a 25% profit margin and you're at a price of $85.

If your state requires a licensed commercial kitchen -- assume kitchen rent is $20/hour and annual overhead is doubled, so your new cost is $18 + $70 (2 hrs * $35/hour) + $40 = $128, with a price of $160.

We charge $1/minute round trip for deliveries.

I can't justify paying yourself an hourly wage to sit around waiting for a cake to bake and cool! If your are a storefront or home baker, surely there are other things needing to be done, or just propping your feet up and relaxing ....

Profit margins for custom-order baked goods tend to be in the 20-30% range. This is dependent on the price the market will bear in your area, if you find that you have to drop your margin to 15% to be competitive with other retailers of your caliber, that's what you should do.

The $15/hour wage is also dependent on your skill level and the local cost of living in your area. In some areas a $10/hour figure might be more appropriate, and in others you could set your wage at $20/hour.

Annual overhead is a cost of doing business, typically a fixed cost that is paid once a year. For example, that $1000 figure could include $400 in insurance, $300 in marginal utility costs, $100 in web site hosting costs, and $200 for an accountant. Each order contributes to this fixed overhead, and the more orders you have per year, the less each order needs to contribute to pay back this overhead.

I question your time and cost. But I think Jason's additions will help account for loss in these areas.

1) At some point you have to book the cake, look at the contract, make a list for items to purchase or order for a cake, then shop for or place the order to have the things delivered. Yes, you may already "be at the store", but it still takes time to make sure you have what you need. And if you won't already be at the store, to drive somewhere, shop and drive home takes time and money.

2) There is also clean up time that is not accounted for. I don't wash my mixing bowls and mop my floor for free after a cake is done.

3) Speaking of cleanup, are cleaning supplies in that price or 12.58 for supplies not including icing? dish soap, paper towels, hot water, pine sol, hand soap, any gloves you'll be using. The cake board, maybe a box to put it in? I know it seems like, oh it's just a squirt of this and a pump of that, and a little bot of saran wrap for covering this or that... But you put it all together and sometimes it can be $2 or $3 on a small cake. Doesn't SOUND like a lot, but if you're talking about a less than $75 cake, it takes a good percentage.

Because of product acquisition and cleanup. Here is a general form you can look at http://www.cakeboss.com/contract.aspx

I'm not going to tell you what price to put on a cake, but what to think about when adding up your time and cost. Jason was telling you additional things that go in to your cost - like your annual overhead. Getting all of these numbers in order can really help build a good solid price of cakes for you. It will help you make sure you are not losing money on product, or on your time.

From the posts so far ive learned quite a bit. I wasn't charging for the dishes, cleaning supplies, driving time, boxes/rounds, or gas from the oven. And i hadnt even thought to make up a contract, or compare to local bakeries.

I've seen other pricing schemes that base the cost of a cake on number of servings. Is that just a quick way to calculate the price after you've priced a few cakes the more complicated way, thereby determining how much it should cost per serving? (I.e., The above cake was calculated at $185 in one example. If it served 45 people it would be close to $4 per person. Do you then just decide that all basic cakes are $4 per serving? Or do you do all these calculations every time you make a cake?) Or do some people just determine the average cost per serving in their local area an go with that? The more detailed way would obviously be more accurate but possibly take a lot of time. Thanks for the info!

Tara, cost per serving is an easy way to figure out how much a standard cake would cost.

You would factor up all your costs, supplies, overhead, labor and profit that it takes to bake a cake. If you typically do tiered cakes then base all of that off a 6/10 or what ever size you decide.

I'm going to grab a figure out of the air. Let's say after the math of everything to factor in, your 6in and 10in round tiered cake costs you around 185 to make. So if you take that amount and divide it by the number of servings, you need to charge 3.70 to cover the cost. Personally I'd round it up to 3.75 or 4, but that's because I like even numbers to work with, and that means you make a little more profit.

Next time someone asks you to make a cake that is lets say a 6/8 then you can just cake the servings that cake makes, which is 36 and multiply that by the 3.75 or 4. You can quickly do the math.

In the long run some cakes may cost you more money, such as if you make a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. But then also some cakes will cost you less to make, white cake, white icing, one tier instead of two. Some cakes may take a little longer to decorate, while others may go rather quickly. In the end they will all average out.