I am trying to get everything I need together to sell cakes from my home and my biggest glitch in getting ready to launch is to understand pricing. I get how to estimate the per serving quantity of a cake (I am using the Wilton chart) but it is the up selling extras that I am having trouble comprehending. So my pricing questions are a little more specific.
Do you add a price per flower (gum paste or fondant) Do you give people so many free flowers eg first 10 flowers included any extras $2.00 sm or $2.50 lg per stem .
How do you decide which fillings should be standard and which would get a higher price, and by how much more?
Lastly if using a foam piece instead of cake, how would you charge for that?
Do you have any other tips to make pricing more readily comprehended ?

thanks everyone for helping with this!
brenda

Hi Brelene,

First off I would get the Cake Boss software as this will help tremendously in determinig your ingredient cost which in turn will help with pricing...I charge $3.00 a serving for basic buttercream...$5.00 serving for fondant and 3D cakes...I wouldn't give any flowers for free but charge for every stem you use..Free= loss....Cake dummies(Styrofoam is just as expenisive as a regular cake so charge the same.) Doesn't matter if it isn't edible or not..the same amount of decorating is needed...Standard filling to me is Buttercream..I don't use creams or fruit fillings as I am a strictly a pickup only business and creams/fruit fillings can slide in transit in warm weather so I steer away from it...never had a issue with offering just BC.After a few cakes you will see the time it takes you to do and up your prices accordingly.Lastly I use mixes so you have to decide if you want to be scratch or premade...Scratch is way more..but if that's what you prefer you have to make sure your ingredient cost is calculated in...HTH...