[quote="indydebiI told him, "You can't get Twinkies for 30 cents a piece!" So he tried to get me to serve Twinkies instead (he lost that one, too). [/quote]

That's hilarious indydeb!!

So, along the lines of pricing, how do you all come up with your prices? Because, I do feel like I undercharge and my time and hard work are worth more, not to mention I am a stay at home mom of 3 and expecting our 4th in just a few months...When I started doing cakes (about 4 years ago) I knew there was no way I could compete with Wal-mart, and my customers expect and deserve better than that, so I worked at a local bakery for a month to learn a few "tricks of the trade." Since then, I have pretty much adopted a few of their habits (and recipes as well), and I just use their price list...when their prices go up, so do mine. But here's the thing, it is a small 2-person bakery that mostly does cakes, and cookies, yet they ofcourse get their ingredients bulk so much cheaper than mine are. The local cake pro at the nearest cake shop once told me that I didn't need to feel obligated to compete with their prices because my cakes are of a higher standard, fresher, and cost me more to make,etc. (as we now know to be true). I guess I've just been afraid to raise my rates higher for fear of losing business. For a 1 layer 9x13 it's $21, Party cakes are under a dollar a slice...to give you an idea. So do you all use the pricing matrix or spreadsheet, or do you do the cost X 3 method? What have you used to regulate your prices? Thanks for the help!

I've never done a wedding cake and I've only sold a few but the most was for $100 - it is the full sheet with the IAFF logo on it. It was for the 75th anniversary of my husband's fire fighter union for their station. I think they were surprised about the price (not to mention I sold it to a bunch of men!) but I got compliments on it and everyone seemed to like it.

I'm probably terribly unscientific. First, I figure out the cost of the cake and since I use mostly organic and high quality ingredients, the actual COST of a cake is high. An 8 inch round costs in material alone abotu $15. then, I figure how long it takes me to make that cake - my average is 4 hours. So, that "pays" me about $8 an hour, but if i were FASTER (and I will get faster with practice), I would like to get about $10 an hour for my time.

For me I HAVE to look at it that way, because otherwise I feel like I'm working for free.

that diaper cake I just did cost me $30 in ingredients and took about 5 hours to make (because I was doing something new and I'm still slow) and I charged $85 for it. For that cake I "earned" $10 an hour.

I would be afraid that if I charged only by slice or ingredients x3, I'm disregarding the TIME that goes into. Now, if I only made one sort of cake or all make cakes took the same amount of time, I would charge a base fee and not customized charges, but let's say I wanted to make a cake with tons of flowers and all these extra details. it could take me 15 hours of labor on that... would I still only charge $45? That would be craziness!

melissa

i just stared making cakes but i have sold one (i am working on getting it in my pics) to my dad he wanted me to do a small pound cake so i did a 2 layer 8inch square and charged him $15 i don't know how to price cakes.. if you would give me input on how you come up with your $ amount it would be great...

Melissa, I totally understand what you're saying, thanks for explaining. I LOVE your cakes!! Wow!

I charge $1.50-1.75

I just got the base rate at the bakeries near by. Then I asked myself, "If this were a plain cake would I make ANY money?" The answer is yes. Then I charged extra for fondant (becasue Satin Ice is expensive!) I personally LOVE royal icing flowers so I would talk people into using them ... insane but it was MY choice!
Now I use MMF and feel like it is a free bonus for covering mistakes! But I am also single, live at home, and have a mother who will wash out my icing bags! So I guess I would HAVE to charge more if I were paying for rent, electricity, and a maid =)

My husband and I were married in 2001. For nearly 1 1/2 yrs, I searched for a baker that would create individual square cakes for all of my tables. We were using them for our centerpieces. We also had a 3 tier cake. We finally found a wonderful lady outside Marshalltown, Ia. She created 48 square cakes and a 3 tier. The square cakes alternated between 3 different designs. All the cakes were raspberry cake on the botton, vanilla cake on the top, and lemon cream for the filling.
My cake lady also had to rent 2 vans from Enterprise and drive nearly 2 hours one way, to make my dream come true.
IT COST $1,500!!! I would do it all over again...not to sure she would though!
I loved it and I highly recommend my cake lady!

OK, so I got curious as to what my price is per slice, and for my Butterfly Wedding cake I made $1.36 a slice. I feel like a fool! And I thought that was too much, no wonder she booked me right away with zero hesitation after the tasting. And to make matters worse, that was with filling and delivery.

Dominique - love love LOVE that cake!! What did you use for the butterflies? Rice paper?? Awesome cake, I wouldn't have done it for less than $2/slice. Plus if they want filling I charge an extra .25/slice, and I have a delivery/set-up fee of $50 additional, more if it's a far drive...and I'm still the cheapest around, lol!

Thank you so much, yes the butterflies are rice paper. I am definitly re-thinking my pricing. From now on I'm going to make sure I am fair to the customer AND myself.

Our prices start at 5.50 p/person and go up to 12.00.

So for the most expensive cake on the books for this year is 2k, which just booked and trumped the $1,500 Tiffany box styled cake.

But so far my most expensive cake to date would be $8,000 for a 3 ft long convertible pimpmobile that I made while working in Santa Barbara. It was super cool, it had cheetah interior and gold details. It was a wee bit stressful just cuz of how much they were paying for it, I had to make sure I got the smallest details to give them their monies worth.

The most per serving I've ever gotten was $10.25. It was for a small cake for only about 80 people. It's the one in my gallery with the cala lilies.

When I did wedding cakes for sale (I just do competitions now), I averaged $800 to serve about 150.

Michele

Wow! This has been an eye-opener. In my photos, the single layer 11 x 15 sheet cakes with the single grad cap I charged $35.00. For the one with two different schools on it I charged $40.00
The baby in the tub sheet cake I only charged $30.00-it probably should have been more with all the fondant, but.....Like most here I am leary of saying a higher price,especially when friends are calling. I need to get over that!!
For wedding or groom's cakes I have been charging $1.50/slice but I am going up on the next orders to at least $1.75.

I am working now on a 12" square 2 layer poker table cake that I quoted at $40.00. It probably should have been $60.00 at least but once again...I chickened out! I spent 4 hours yesterday hand painting the cards and had a blast doing it. I think that's part of the problem with my pricing--I realy have fun doing it and don't know how to charge others for something that's fun for me.

So far the most I've charged for a cake is like $6/serving and that is for some of the more detailed 3D ones. I can see in this thread that I have some room to raise prices eventually. haha.

MCook, I'm so astonished at how you price your cakes!!!! I just looked at your cakes, and you are SOOOOO much more worth than what you charge!! I know about the fact of loving what you do but sometimes you also have to think about the time taken away from your loved ones because you are so engrossed in earning $40 for this project that will prolly last you days to finish.

I got a cake order last Saturday, which is due next Sunday. It's my birthday tomorrow so I was thinking if I accept this cake order, that means time will be taken away on my birthday weekend. So I charged her more than what I normally charge and I was hoping she would back out. To my surprise, she didn't even bat an eyelash and said YES!!

Just think about it the next time you price a cake.

fooby,
Thanks sooo much for your complements. According to your "countdown" you have been doing cakes for only 5 months--unbelievable! I looked at yours,too, and you are dang good! I have my last Course 2 class next Monday then we start Course 3. I can't wait to get through that class so we can start the Fondant & Gumpaste class. There is only one instructor and she does her classes "in order"---the F&G is what I realy wanted to take but decided, what the heck, I know I can learn something new from all the courses..and I have!

I am going to try to attach the picture of the cards I painted. How much extra should I have charged for a cake with these?They are 1" x 3/4".

Marcia,

Thank you for the compliment. I'm still honing and working on my craft. Still need a lot of tools that's why you and I need to charge more to buy our toys With regards to your question about price, the 12-inch cake would prolly be $60 + xxx amount for all the extra work you had to do (hand painted cards, chips etc). You said you did the cards in 4 hours. Let's say you charge $10/hour so that's $40. So $60 + $40 = $100!!! Nothing less than that girlfriend!!

Here was I thinking the $200 I was offered for my tree stump cake was a lot! Most of mine start at $60, and mostly range up to $100. But bearing in mind I can spend 10 hours or more on a cake (here the minimum wage is $10.75 per hour) in the end I feel like I undercharge most of the time. Now if I was doing this as my main job I would have to charge more. I can't even imagine the pressure of charging $1000 for a cake!

The most we ever charged for a cake was just under $3000. It fed 250 guests.

In my ideal world, we would have 3 of those a week.

Our average wedding cake is only around $500.

the most i ever got was $375.00 for a wedding cake that we saw one close to the one I made on line for $1175.00. My dd has taken over as my manager so I let her do all my pricing. As I was messing that all up!

My average wedding cake is about 350.00. Not many BIG weddings in this area. The size orders I get mean I can do 3 or 4 a weekend without too much stress. (Not that I always have 3 or 4 a weekend!)

Just a thought to people that thought they charged too much for a cake...
think the opposite way...

You're not making a $500.00 cake, you're making a cake to serve 150 people.

Also, if your couple practically leaps with joy at the price you charged, you need to reconsider your pricing!

My average wedding cake is about 350.00. Not many BIG weddings in this area. The size orders I get mean I can do 3 or 4 a weekend without too much stress. (Not that I always have 3 or 4 a weekend!)

Just a thought to people that thought they charged too much for a cake...
think the opposite way...

You're not making a $500.00 cake, you're making a cake to serve 150 people.

Also, if your couple practically leaps with joy at the price you charged, you need to reconsider your pricing!

I am a hobbyist that doesn't do wedding cakes. I do my cakes for mostly friends and coworkers. I know I undercharge but I also use a doctored cake mix that I pay $.88 for at Wally World. However word of mouth is now getting me friends of friends and I do charge a little more for those cakes . I have told my friends and coworkers never to quote a price because they are getting a discount and I can't charge the same to a stranger. I charged $120 for the chocolate grooms cake in my photos and I figured I had $28 in ingredients and supplies. It took me about 4 hours total time so I made $23 an hour. I will probably add about $20 if I do it again when strawberries are not in season like they are now.