Just before I found this wonderful site (about 5 weeks ago), I decided to come up with my own prices by looking at other websites. I came up with this chart which included serving sizes too. I have a few questions for all you experienced CCers out there:

1) Is a serving only 1 layer.......2"tall? Don't we all make cakes that are bigger than 2"?
2) The prices range so dramatically. I know it is recommended to price compare in my area. I have ONE main cake shop and then Wal-Mart, grocery stores, etc... do you recommend anything else?

ANY and ALL comments are welcome. Maybe someone else out there has the same question. I'd love to see what prices I should charge for the square, heart, and oval pans.

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I love the support I've seen on this site.

I have mine price guide on my web site, feel free to take a peek. I price by single and double with serving sizes listed. I am told that I am on the low end.....

florimbio- I hope you are charging more for those kids cakes than your price list indicates
wow!!! what a ton of detail !!

love thw surfing cake -way cool !!

Florimbio - PLEASE tell me those prices are PER SERVING!!

I hope you don't charge $40 for any kind of cake for 50-60 people!! You must really love what you do, but you should be charging a BASE of $2.50 per serving, and for what you are doing I would charge at least $4.50 with all the fondant work - WOW! Beautiful work!

Giving this a bump.
I know there has to be more of you out there with some suggestions.
BUMP

I still struggle with pricing, but in order to actually make it worth my while I go by this:

$2.50 per serving base price
with some fondant work goes up to $3.50
sculpting, full fondant work goes up to $4.50 or higher depending on the detail

I almost always use the 3" pans, unless it is a shaped pan or square - don't have the 3" in those yet. Sometimes I torte sometimes I don't.

I do this as a side job, still developing a customer base, still working on pricing, but I just downloaded the pricing grid and will work with that next.

I tend to do a lot of fondant work, because that is what I enjoy, sometimes I give what I call a "Portfolio Discount" to people so I can make the cake I WANT to make, charge them closer to what I know they want to pay, but they realize the true cost. Then if they call back for more cakes I know they are willing to pay the price. I did this for the Christmas present cake - and she insisted on paying full price anyway! It was for 35 people and she paid about $160 for it.

My prices are a bit deciving, The price chart is just for the basic cake I charge more for fondant work. Like the others have said, I am not charging enough, but I just start going and the creativity goes. I just love to add all the little details. I am a bit obsessive. Plus, I am in the boonies...

But thanks for all the sweet complements. I could not have done one cake with out my cake central buddies.

Aggie, I'm about 3 hours north of you, but if you want to get the feel of some prices south of DFW, copy my price page.

www.freewebs.com/sweetthistlebakery

Thanks, that price guide does help so much. I also like your statement about pricing cakes.

BTW, I used to live in the Metroplex. I was born and raised in Fort Worth. My parents are there and my husband's parents are in Rendon (near Mansfield). Love it up there but can't stand the traffic! Also, I just read about your kitchen- CONGRATULATIONS, are you sure you want to move next year?