Cake Pricing...do You Charge By Cake Pan Size Or By Person?

Business By MarisaA Updated 20 May 2007 , 6:53pm by MarisaA

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MarisaA Posted 20 May 2007 , 11:06am
post #1 of 6

Hi all,

I'm just starting out at home. I'm still not good at figuring out the best way to price my cakes at.

I called a few bakeries to see what they charge and some of them charge by the cake pan size & others charge by slice per person. I asked the bakery what cake size do I need for 25 people & I'd like a chocolate cake with fondant covered.
She suggested a 10' round for 19 servings @ 2x2 servings for $80 or for $85 a 10' square 25 servings. Some bakeries simply said it's $4-$5 a person.
I hardly ever do buttercream covered cakes, all my cakes are covered in fondant. icon_smile.gif That's what everyone likes.

My question is what's the best way to price cakes by pan size or by person? What do you charge for fondant covered cakes? cake pan or per person?

Thanks in advance,
Marisa

5 replies
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Hippiemama Posted 20 May 2007 , 11:19am
post #2 of 6

I'm not charging for cakes since I'm just starting out.

But I wanted to let you know how places price around here. Most of the specialty bakeries are by the person with an increase in price for fondant or very detailed cakes. The mass produced places are just a flat rate according to size.

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berryblondeboys Posted 20 May 2007 , 11:23am
post #3 of 6

Well, I'm too lazy to figure out price per serving! LOL I charge by cake pan size and extra work that might be involved.

Melissa

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indydebi Posted 20 May 2007 , 1:52pm
post #4 of 6

If you charge by pan size, then you are already charging per person .... you just need to know how many persons are in the cake!

(http://www.wilton.com/wedding/cakeinfo/cakedata.cfm ) I use the wilton chart to determine number of servings. If you sell a cake for $60 and it serves 15 people, then you are, in effect, charging $4 per person.

The bakery that told you $4-5 per person for the 10" square cake that serves 25 was saying $80-100. The bakery that told you $85 for a 10" square cake that serves 25 was telling you $3.40/person. When shopping or selling, I believe you need to at least know the number of servings so you (and your customes) can do a proper comparison.

To me, having a base price per person helps everyone. I never have to quote a cake (or a buffet, or a chocolate fountain or an appetizer table) from scratch EACH AND EVERY TIME because I have a base per person price. The customer doesn't have to waste my time with "how much is it for 50 people? how much is it for 100 people?" because they can do the math before they even call me. They avoid the situation of seeing a price for a 10" cake and then wondering "how many does that serve?"

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leily Posted 20 May 2007 , 3:23pm
post #5 of 6

I have my prices listed per serving. And I have my serving sizes listed also. So if they want a bigger slice then they can order more servings.

I am right there with indydebi. If they see a per serving price they are going to have a pretty good idea of how much it is going to cost by how many people they want to feed before they even call me. I also don't like to have per size because when looking at a list a 6" round vs 6" square the square is going to be more b/c it feeds more, but to list all of my sizes out like this with a price is just to much.

My first question is how many people do you want to feed. Then I look at all of my pans and servings and tell them, these are your options for sizes and shapes and this is the closest I can get to your servings.

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MarisaA Posted 20 May 2007 , 6:53pm
post #6 of 6

Thank you ~ Thank you ~ Thank you ~ for all your great advice and information.

icon_lol.gif
Greatly appreciated,
Marisa

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