How Much Would You Charge For This Cake?
Decorating By heiser73 Updated 29 May 2006 , 12:56am by ramona1992
Hi all,
I'm just having a hard time with cake pricing! I hate asking people for money and sometimes they don't seem like that is what they want to spend. So I was just curious what you would ask for this particular cake...its a full sheet, 6 cake mixes, with BC icing made with real butter, crisco, butter flav., vanilla, and heavy cream. The stars, diploma, and cap are all made of MMF. Thanks for you help!
That's alot of cake, I wouldn't go less than $60.00. I always make sure people know ahead of time what I'm going to charge them, nobody's complained yet. People know when they're paying for quality, that's why they come to you for fresh, homemade cake.
Hi! I'm not sure where you're located, but I'm in California, in "wine country", and I charge $85 for a PLAIN full sheet cake - border & optional message only. For simple buttercream decorations, I would add $10, and for your 3D grad cap (looks like fondant or gum paste to me - ?), that takes you a lot of time, drying time, etc... add about $15 for that, and then you have the "paper".... I would add $5-10 for that - just depends on level of difficulty.......... so, for the decorations you have added to the cake, I would have charged between $20-35 extra, for a total of $105-$120. You also have to think about the cake board, box, baking costs, gas & delivery time. Not that you should add more for all that - but feel good about charging money for providing all that. I offered free delivery for my first year of business, but now I'm charging $0.35 per mile, round trip, because of the high gas prices!
So, that's my scenario, and how I came up with it, was by finding other Bakers near me (phone book & online), and obtaining their price sheets. I started by averaging their prices to make a fair price for myself & my customers. I often give a 10% to 15% discount for repeat customers, I had little post cards made & send-out thank-you's to them when I have had a good experience working with them.
I hope this has been helpful, and good luck with it! Your cake is beautiful & you should NOT feel bad about charging - but I shouldn't talk because I feel bad a lot of the time & have a hard time charging as well! I always give my prices up front though. I also agree with the last posting. I don't care WHERE you are, do NOT give that cake away for any less than $60, but I'd like to see you receive at least $80.
Have a great day!! 
Obviously, pricing depends on where you live and the standards there... yadda yadda yadda.
That said, for a single-layer full sheet, I would START my price at $87.50. That's $1.75/serving based on 50 servings. I bake from scratch though, so I don't know if that would make a difference (I can't see why it would).
I would then charge the extra decorations individually, based on cost and time spent. Depending on how long they took you, maybe an extra $20 for the cap and diploma?
I may sound higher than a lot of people here, but I got so tired of doing cakes that quite honestly weren't worth my time. I may not sell as many cakes as the grocery stores do, but I am confident that my customers are getting their money's worth.
Living in L.A. If I was baking for $$$ I would use O Cakes guidelines. Eden Cakes has a good idea too charge by the servings, $2 and then do all the add ons. If you deliver add that in. Include your cake board, box, all the parchment you may have used, disposable piping bags, etc. ad infinitum.
Thank you all so so much for your help and advice. I think I'm going to sit down tonight and try to come up with some kind of pricing, like you all said so that I can tell them in advance. For instance, just come up with how much a basic full sheet would cost and have prices for fondant accents etc. I wish I lived in California though
People around here think $40 is a lot for a cake...especially since walmart has taken over. Thanks again!!
at least $100 for me, but then the price of everything here (even just basic supplies), is a lot more!
I think you should definately come up with a pricing guide. It'll help you out of some hairy situations with uncoporating customers. good luck on all yur future makes, you did great on this one!
Before I began CD, I was a regular customer of a local lady who did cakes. I remember ordering my sons 1st bday cake and was shocked to hear $40 for the horseshoe cake with dump trucks. I now realize she really really loves what she does, because I would not do that cake for $40! By setting a 'price guide' you are able to consistently charge your customers based on specifics....in case they ask for a breakdown....
Good luck...by the way, your cake is beautiful!
In New York City a cake like yours would be at least $100.00 dollars. To give you an idea, the 10" inch cakes with less intricate decorations go for $40.00 and up.
I had a very hard time giving customers a price at first. So I made a basic price list--so customers would know the MINIMUM price and that extras would cost more. This helped a lot to break the ice over money issues.
I live in a more rural area, and recently charged $80 for 2 half sheet cakes that were minimally decorated. This was only a little more than what could be ordered from a local bakery.
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