How Much Do You Charge??? Please Help!
Decorating By brea1026 Updated 16 Feb 2007 , 4:34pm by brea1026
I am very new to cake decorating and am finding that I have no idea what to charge for my cakes. I living in the Phoenix, AZ area so there are a lot of options for people to choose from as far as cakes go. Today I had my first "real" cake order for a baby shower for my old office. So far I have only made stuff for friends and family. I could not believe how nervous I was driving over there to deliver the cake today! I was a mess! The cake turned out pretty good and was a big success, so that did wonders for my confidence level. I was just wondering what sort of prices you all would normally charge. I am so afraid of over charging that I am afraid that I am never going to make enough to support this hobby of mine. =) I ended up asking for $20 for this cake but I am thinking that next time I will ask for $30 for a similar one. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!
$20 is definitely undervalued. Your supplies alone cost over $25 (is that a 10 and an 8?). How long did it take you to make the cake? How much do you think your talents deserve per hour. I hope more than minimum wage....... If you JUST went by how much per hour you deserve plus add the supplies, you are up to what... $50 at least!
How large were the layers? I usually average the Wilton Party and Wedding servings and charge at lesat $3.5 to $4 per serving for fondant, sometimes more depending on difficulty level.
You way undercharged! Another rule of thumb, your actual cost x3 is a good place to start as well.
Nice job!
These were a 4 layer 10" and 4 layer 8' cakes. I made the whole thing yesterday and besides the baking time, it probably took me about 4 hours (making the 2 batches of MMF and the buttercream and fillings took up the most time)- so I see what you mean about the value of my time. I need to keep that in mind next time.
I usually start off charging for cakes based on labor alone. Then, I start adding costs of supplies, time, and the amount of decorating it will take. Remember that you control the amount of time you put into the cakes, so if you aren't committed and too modest to charge reasonably for your cakes, you might want to rethink your positions. Here's a little summary of my charges to give you an idea:
For single Layer cakes( no filing. Just frosted or iced: round 8-10 inches my labor charges are $25.00 if the total cost of the cake adds up more than $50.00 I give a $5.00 discount. For wedding cakes three tear minimum my labor is exactly $200 and my basic cake is $350.00 so total is $550.00 for a "regular" wedding cake with the minimum of flowers and borders. Anything they add on I charge 20.00 additional per hour plus materials. If they want flowers and borders I start out with 40 bucks with a minimum of 8 flowers, 1 border, and the name and occasion it's for. Each additional flower or border I charge 2 dollars more. For each additional layer, depending on size I charge 10-15 dollars...so if they want a two layer birthday cake with the minimum of flowers and borders. I charge like this:
1 layer cake(40.00)+I additional layer ($10)+4 additional flowers(4@$2=
1 layer cake 40.00
add on flowers(4@$2.00) 8.00
additional layer 10.00
cost of labor 25.00
Sub-Total 83.00
discount 5.00
total cost: 78.00
Rough guess $28 seems pretty close to me...... Lots of little things you tend to not think about - when you look at it do you realize how expensive vanilla is? I never really took it in to consideration until I was making 22 cakes for centerpieces for a wedding and had to make all that meringue buttercream! It really adds up.
How do you figure the supplies cost so much. To me I think the cake is pretty cheep to make. What am I not adding up?
According to my excel spreadsheet (time and again I've found it to be pretty accurate) it would be 8 boxes of cake mix and 4 batches of frosting. plus a couple of bags of marshmallows and sugar.......
Cake Mix: $1
Eggs .25
Oil: .01
Frosting: total: 3.71
clear vanilla $0.21
meringue powder $0.50
clear almond $0.33
clear butter $0.21
Crisco $1.17
Powdered Sugar $1.17
Color 1 $0.13
I live in a small rural area and my price list I just developed would have been at least $60.00 and that doesn't count your figure on top of the cake.
I went by the ingredients x3 and round up to the nearest dollar. The biggest thing to get over when pricing is to realized it's OK for them to say no. You'll get other orders and they come fairly quickly.
You will get better at this I promise. I have only sold 4 cakes but already have my 2 biggest cakes booked for June.
I understand how hard it is to get your prices together when you first starting out. I to this day under price my work as I mostly deal with friends and family and they were getting free pratice cakes as i can't eat cake and have no small kids to let eat cake as I learned. So it is hard to ask $60.00 for a cake you know you spent less then $20.00 to make but like others are saying you have to add labor and the fact is that the boards boxes whatever you cover the boards with need to be added in and your gas bill for running that oven
I did advance to not turning my oven on for less then 25.00 then I add 5.00 flat for paper goods (boxes, foil, boards, slip gards so on) after that is where I fall off pricing but good luck that would of been a $60.00 dollar cake
I probably would have charged 70-75 for a cake that size....now if it were for friends or something I would have given a discount.
well lets put it this way i stressed and stressed over a cake for someone- came up w/ $45- thinking they would freak and they came back saying thats all????
which is not what i want - a fair price yes but they even thought it was undervalued ......
another greta tip i heard here is even if you want to charge less because its a friend or whatever bill it out as what fair market value would be and then show a discount.
reason being -it is hard to raise your prices once you set a standard that people expect.
yeah trust me I know .... way easier said than done its easy to give advice but I am not good at the $ asp t either 
-plus you should prob. add something for delivery
I charge $40 for a 10" round (approx 4" high) iced in buttercream, so yeah $20 is slightly underpriced for a tiered cake. Even the grocery store would probably cost more for a 10" & 8", they would have been just 2 seperate cakes, not stacked. The best thing to remember is you are NOT in competition with grocery/chain stores. If you get serious about it & continue to hone your skills, you have to get over the pricing issue. If you keep pouring so much time & effort into it for pennies, it will eventually burn you out & take the fun out of what you're doing. Remember that you are making a CUSTOM cake, not just a frozen sheet cake anyone can buy at any grocery store.
Hi Brea,
I live in the Phoenix metro area too!!!
$20 is WAY WAY cheap... that cake should have been a minimum of $50+
Wow! Thank you so much for all the great advice! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I didn't even think about all the little details (energy bill, vanilla, etc). I think I had thought it cost me about $13 to make, but now I am thinking the actul price was closer to $20, so I guess I didn't make anything at all! =( I know that I need to just get over it and start charging realy prices, but it is just so hard. The most difficult thing for me is to look at my work and not to just see all the mistakes and think "Oh, this isn't worth anything." I know I am still learning and should give myself a break.
You all have been so helpful and encouraging to me these past few months. Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Happy Firday everyone!
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