ok, that makes sense to me. I can see adding more if it is an elaborate design or lots of roses, etc. Thank you!! Any other thoughts??

charman, the $15 figure came from this site as part of the calculation I now use. I do both from scratch and modified cake mixes (never just as the box says). I do not buy fillings as I have nowhere to buy them.

With retail, the "cost" should include everything - materials, labor (hourly wage paid to yourself and employees), overhead. You would want to divide that by x amount of cakes you are able to produce within a given time period. 4-8 hr day, it costs you $150, but you're able to crank out 15 or 20 cakes. The cost of each cake is then $10-$12, retail price would be between $20-$50 depending on your comfort area. Also, producing in bulk would be more cost effective as well as of course buying in bulk. That only will give you a larger profit margin.

ok, listen up...only going to post this once..lol

to cost a recipe.


get your reciepts..even if you use boxed mixes...

figure out

how much you paid for the entire thing....bag of flour, dozen eggs, jar of vanilla

( get the drift?)

Then....break it down to units that you're using...

if you buy a 5 pound of flour and you are using only 4 cups flour and you paid $1.99 for the bag of flour..

This is your break down. (5 pounds multiplied by 16 = 80 (ounces in a bag of flour)

then you can what you paid for the flour....$1.99 by 80 and you get the price per ounce, .0248, so you're paying a little over .02 cents an ounce...( when I get prices like that I always round up so then my price per ounce would be .03 cents) ( there is also a way to figure out the 'hidden' cost of things which I will explain)

so 4 cups of flour would be...4 x 8=32 ( you are going to be using 32 ounces for your recipe)

32 x .03 ( my price ) give me .96 ( which once again, I bring up to a dollar)

eggs are about .05 cents to .09 cents each ( after you figure out how much you pay for the dozen and then divide by 12 or 18 depending how you purchase them... If you buy liquid eggs...you figure out by the ounce too)

so, lets see if I still have you...

4 cups of flour @ $1.00
3 eggs @ .15
_______________________
so far we have ....$1.15 in ingredients. You break down everything like this.

When you have everything broken down ( and keep it consistant, if you use ounces ...make everything ounces)

you add up the cost of the ingredients that you are using.

multiply the total by 3% ( this is your hidden costs, figure right out of textbooks)

Then THAT total...you multiply by 33% ( industry standard)

THAT total could be the price you charge....if you're happy with it!

Dont forget to pay for your time also, add that in to the mix! you can find out what the minimum wage is in your state and figure out how many hours you spend making your cake from start to finish, if your price is too low and you're not happy....adding this into the mix will bring up your price!


sounds complicated but really its NOT...

just adding muliplying and taking the time to do it!



.

OK.....Can you walk me through this example please? I get the figuring the cost/cake completely.
I have calculated the to make a 9x13 cake the costs are: $7.33. This includes box, board, everything.
So I take $7.33 x .03= .22 to equal $7.36
Take $7.36 x .33= 2.43 to equal $9.79
And then you would add a fee per hour that you would like to make, such as $10/hr??? $9.79 is a crazy final price. Did I do that right, or am I missing something?????

here's a good article:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/sbe/terms/1,7548,325544,00.html

No the $9.79 does not include any fee for time. I was just wanting to know if that was the proper use of the formula. It would take about 2 hrs to bake & decorate-little more to make the icing-so a fee/hr would definately put the price up in a reasonable range!

I charge $39.95 for a 9x13 and if I have to do a "double" ( since I do naughty cakes, that putting another "detailed" cake on top..lol) I charge $49.95.



CAN U TELL ME HOW YOU DO YOUR NAUGHTY CAKES I JUST POSTED A REQUEST FOR NAUGHTY CAKES..THANKS

I also use a spread sheet to figure out my costs. I then did some research with some grocery stores. I find it much easier to answer my customers most common question "how much do you charge?" by giving them a per serving price. My cakes start at $1.25 per serving for classic flavor sheet cakes (filling and decorations extra) and tiered cakes start at $2.50 for classic flavors. Feel free to view my prices on my web site at www.jacquiscakes.com Feel confindent in your pricing and remember that you're offering a service that a grocery store can not provide.
Jacqui