I just "cakebossed" my new carrot cake recipe and even I am shocked. $3.92 per cupcake with a basic swirl! I went back and tried to recalculate but no show. It is what it is. Now I'm kinda "scurred" to cake boss the Italian cream cake

It appears the only place I may be able to cut costs is in materials (bulk boxes and inserts) as I refuse to change the recipe.

So what's your most expensive cake?

One million dollars.

It' an impossible question - just like the "how much do you charge" question, because what I factor into the cost of my cake has no bearing or relevance on what you factor into the cost of your cake.

But I can say - I make pretty high quality cake and not even my carrot (for JUST ingredients) are my COG that high. If you sell cake you need to start buying in bulk and wholesale, otherwise you'll never make a profit.

Yeah, even with the recent increase in food prices the cost of my ingredients is no more than 15% of my retail prices. So if the COST of one cupcake is $3.92 that would mean about $26 per cupcake?? (If I'm doing that right)

Where are you shopping? Holy cow!

I LOVE that one million dollars response LOL!!!

So many assumptions:
Let me clarify:

I'm not asking because I need help with my pricing. I was curious what each person's most expensive cake is. No where in my post did I ask for help with pricing. Simple question: how much is x? Meaning the answer would be unique to each person.

The $3.92 is not the COGS, it's the selling price. Where did you both get that it's the COGS?

You know what they say about assumptions?

Oh, and my most expensive basic cake is probably about $5.50 per serving for fondant. That would include whatever decorations they want other than something super-time consuming.

Well, I guess if you mean what's the most I've charged per serving for a wedding cake - around $14 I think?

Thanks for the responses ladies.

@ Costumeczar I totally get it now because I REALLY wasn't expecting that price when I was clicking away at the ingredients and materials. Yep, I can relate with the brides now

I charge , $6.00 for my basic cupcake. They are more work than decorating a larger cake . If they have elaborate decorations I can go as high as $15 . I really never know why people think they should be a cheaper option.

We have charged up to $10/serving for cakes, although our multi-tier cakes usually end up in the $5-7/serving range. Cupcakes have gone as high as $5 each but are usually $2.50-3.50.

I should add for cake , My price per serving is based on a 1 inch by two inch by four inch piece. and that starts at Five dollars for a fairly plain decorated cake to up to 15 dollars for elaborate decoration and large amounts of sugar flowers that I specialise in .

I'm not as talented as most of you. My basic fondant cakes are $5.00/serving.

For cupcakes, my Black Forests are $4.00.

My most expensive homestyle cake is my German Chocolate at $89.00 for a 9 inch cake.

I am the highest priced in my area except for those who are cake artists.

Sorry vcgea, I think those of us who don't use Cake Boss thought that it only kicks out the cost. I thought it was the COGS too.

Chellescakes, I pay $7.00 for a single cupcake from a lady in the somewhat depressed market of Martinsburg, WV. She is my favorite baker. I don't even consider this market as viable for my business, but she does just fine. If it is worth it, they will pay.

The term is discretionary income. That is the amount left after food, shelter, and clothing, etc. It is what is available for non-necessities. Disposable income is income after taxes. Obviously in the baking business, when researching demographics, we need to look at the area's discretionary income. My only reason for posting this is because of all of my posts about researching demographics for business plans and market research in the business forum.

Good point!

On the point of disposable income, I have found with the Global Financial Crisis , and the carbon tax that is about to be imposed on us in this country, people are not buying houses , or being as extravagant with big ticket items like Big Screen TV's and Holidays, but when it comes to having a party or wedding , they are quite willing to spend more as sort of a reward or being frugal in their day to day life.

I work only on word of mouth advertising ,I don't need to advertise elsewhere as I have enough work to keep me busy. I have often been told by people that they have been 'saving up' for one of my cakes , since such and such event.

Cellescakes - to be fair, we have not had any GFC fallout to deal with directly as Australians. I run my business the same way, word of mouth. I turn down more jobs than I take. I think our economic resilience has a lot to do with simply avoiding the GFC's recession effects thru sound economic management. Something to be proud of!

The carbon tax too is being generously offset with govt assistance. Again, people are not doing it tough here at all, as it is in the USA where most CCers are from.

Some things you can't approach with a *per serving* mentality. If I told someone my grand piano cake was $30/serving, they'd die. I would too. It ceases to be a per serving cake when you're doing something like that, and is better discussed as "this highly detailed project with realistic blah blah blah....will be xxx$ total".

I don't think I'll get charging per serving, like AZCouture says, if you have a very elaborate cake, loads of suagr flowers, hand painted etc its going to seem like an outrageous amount 'per slice'. We just charge for the cake over here, we don't divide it into servings, although UK standard servings are smaller than the US so it would seem like less.