So I will be doing a Quinceneara cake for the end of July and I was wondering about the pricing. I had originally quoted her a price of $495 but it was for another cake design. She saw my pink corset cake with leopard and zebra print( in my pics) and the girl wanted that cake instead. Only purple and with zebra print only, and covered in bc with fondant accents and roses. The size of the cake is 8, 10 double and 16inches. I had quoted her 2.50 per serve on the other cake and it came to $495. This cake is different, more complicated plus the flowers so I thought $525. is that ok you think? Any input would be great! Thanks!

How much do you anticipate spending on ingredients for the cake, and how long do you think it will take for prep, baking, decorating, and cleanup? Also, how much are your overhead costs (licensing, insurance, accounting, utilities, etc.)?

I figure around $90 to $100 for costs, and about 17 hrs for baking, prepping, cleaning, decorating etc. i guess I hadnt considered all the other overhead costs.

If Kansas has a cottage food law that allows you to legally sell homemade food, your cost for labor if you paid yourself $15/hour would be $255. If you have $1000/year in overhead costs and have one order per week, that's $20/order in overhead. Add $100 for ingredients and your cost would be $375. You'll be adding a profit margin to this to get your price, and that's really dependent on what local market prices are (which you should have found out when you put together your business plan).

If Kansas does not have a cottage food law, you would need to factor in the cost of a licensed and inspected commercial kitchen plus increased overhead costs. If a rental kitchen costs $15/hour and you double the overhead you are looking at a cost of $650. Again you would need to check market prices, for example if you added a 20% profit margin that would give you a price of $780, which may or may not work for your customer. If the expected price for your target market is less than your cost, you need to either lower your costs or target a different market.

Ok, that is very helpful!