Hello fellow bakers... I'm new to baking cakes for order and know that I haven't charged enough for my first 2 cakes. Can you offer your insight as to how much you would charge for the attached cake?
9" heart - 2 layers of chocolate cake (box mix) filled with chocolate mousse (jell-o instant), chocolate ganache icing with buttercream flower decorations.
This cake was for a co-worker/friend so a charged $20, but know thats too low if I make it for a non-friend.
How much did you cost you to make the cake? No only ingredients, but extra stuff like the board and so forth?
How long did it take you to make the cake? How much is your time worth?
How much profit would you like to make on the cake?
Cost was about $5 and time was about 5 hrs. So for $20 I covered my costs and made a little for my time. With more practice I will speed up and have my baking/decorating supplies more organized. I'm trying to figure out how much my time is worth. At this point I bake at home so I don't have the over head of a rental kitchen or location/staff (just my household utilities). Btw, I'm in Southeast Wisconsin.
I can't offer much help on this since I'm a hobby baker right now and also trying to figure out how much it costs me to make a cupcake or cookie. However, I can offer a tip on how to determine what your time is worth. I have two children and I'm a stay at home mom. A friend was talking to me about how much my time was worth and she told me to factor in what it would cost me to hire a babysitter to watch my children while I worked on the cupcakes and cookies. That helped me immediately know somewhat what my time is worth. I pay our sitter $15/hour so right there I know my time is worth AT LEAST that much 
I can't offer much help on this since I'm a hobby baker right now and also trying to figure out how much it costs me to make a cupcake or cookie. However, I can offer a tip on how to determine what your time is worth. I have two children and I'm a stay at home mom. A friend was talking to me about how much my time was worth and she told me to factor in what it would cost me to hire a babysitter to watch my children while I worked on the cupcakes and cookies. That helped me immediately know somewhat what my time is worth. I pay our sitter $15/hour so right there I know my time is worth AT LEAST that much
Off-topic, but you pay your sitter WELL 
I don't know how the economics are in your area, but that's a nice pay. Our minimum wage is $9.04.
Trust me, Bridgette, I know 
I live in Nashville and the normal rate around here seems to be about $10-15/hour. Our sitter is really great with the kids and for several other reasons we decided she was worth it. Our previous sitter asked for $10 and she was great too, but then she got pregnant 
We seem to have that effect on our sitters....they all go and get pregnant.
BTW, I PM'ed you about that spreadsheet!
Trust me, Bridgette, I know
I live in Nashville and the normal rate around here seems to be about $10-15/hour. Our sitter is really great with the kids and for several other reasons we decided she was worth it. Our previous sitter asked for $10 and she was great too, but then she got pregnant We seem to have that effect on our sitters....they all go and get pregnant.BTW, I PM'ed you about that spreadsheet!
Hahahah you could advertise as a fertility service
Please don't take this wrong, but how did a chocolate iced cake only cost you $5 to make?
Cake mixes in my area are running $1.34 for BC and a bag of powder sugar is 2.28. The 4 eggs I use would be .39.
That is already 4.01, not including the oil for the cake mix. That does not include a filling. And even if you didn't use powder sugar in the icing, chocolate and whipping cream are not cheap either. I spent 3.74 on the Walmart brand of whipping cream this weekend.
You also have to count for the board you used, the foil you used to cover the bowl, the coloring you put in your icing, your bags you used to make the flowers.
You may not have the overhead that a shop has, but you have to remember to seperate out things that you have in your kitchen all the time from the things you use in a cake. Sure you have eggs and oil on hand already, but when you use them for a cake, you are infact taking that money away from your family grocery budget. When you have the oven running to bake a cake, you are adding money to your utilities. So plus remember that your cost for making a cake is alot more than just the cost of your cake mix and powder sugar.
As far as how much your time is worth? Only you can decide that. I do feel it should be at least min wage as it takes away from your time with your family and your life. As you improve and get more cakes uder your belt you can increase that amount.
I love my family and friends, they are the people I do cakes for 99% of the time. Thankfully they don't take advantage of me. They realise that my time is vaulable to me, especially since I work both a full and part time job.
Please don't take this wrong, but how did a chocolate iced cake only cost you $5 to make?
I had the same thought. The cost of ganache alone was 5 dollars. One thing to keep in mind. If you buy 1 pint of whipping cream for $3 and only use half of it. Your cost for that cake was $3 unless you can use it on another cake before it expires. When you are first starting out there is more waste which is money out of your pocket. I generally make a batch of ganache to use all the whipping cream and freeze the left overs. I try and do this with most perishable items. That way I can use it on a later cake.
One thing to keep in mind. If you buy 1 pint of whipping cream for $3 and only use half of it. Your cost for that cake was $3 unless you can use it on another cake before it expires. When you are first starting out there is more waste which is money out of your pocket.
Another good point.
Good insight and information...Thank you.
and YES after taking into account some of the ingredients I over looked the cake did cost more than $5.
FYI; my first figure didn't account for the 1 cup oil, the 2/3 c cream as I used the rest to make a meal for my family, the chocolate chips were left from baking for the fam, the frosting decor was left from another cake earlier in the week (the total frosting made was accounted to that cake, as I didn't know I would be doing this one), 1 cup of milk in the filling.
THANK YOU for bringing these items to my attention; this is why I put the call out for your thoughts.
It is very easy to forget to count the things we have on hand as a normal staple or things left over for other projects.
The best thing to do is make a list of your ingredients and prices and go price shopping.
You also can't forget about water, electricity, and items like soap and other cleaning supplies, and paper towels (I go through a LOT of paper towels when I bake). Basically, any consumed resource needs to be accounted for. It's a lot more than what most people think.
If I had made that the cost would be much higher than $5, so I'm glad that other people brougth that up already.
I bake from scratch, and for that combination of ingredients and fillings I would have charged at least $80. That's just an estimate off the top of my head, if I sat down and really looked at it it might be more than that.
Yup, I have some homework to do before I make any more cakes need to chart out the each cost for ALL my ingredients and extra costs. I knew I under charged for these 1st two and i'm ok with that. Just won't take anymore till I get my homework done. (btw I'm not making a biz out of this yet, just working through the kinks and learning)
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