i have been trying to revamp my pricing using Alice's pricing matrix, Do these prices look in-line or am i way off base? any input would be extremely helpful, thank you
Round (double layer) Price
Size Servings Buttercream Fondant
6" 14 $20 $30
8" 25 $30 $40
10" 39 $45 $55
12" 56 $60 $75
Square (double layer) Price
Size Servings Buttercream Fondant
6" 18 $25 $35
8" 32 $40 $50
10" 50 $55 $70
12" 72 $75 $90
Servings based off of Wilton Serving Chart @ 1x2 pieces
Party Cakes (single layer)
Size Servings Price
9x13 Sheet 32 $35
11x15 Sheet 45 $40
12x18 Sheet 54 $55
Servings based on 2x2 servings
So are you saying that if a bride came in to order a 2-tier wedding cake and picked out a 12" and a 10" (serves 95), that your price for a wedding cake for 100 is $105?? 
I see the same with the squares ..... a 12" and an 8" serve 104 for $115??
My vote goes for way underpriced.
But you're saying your 10" round serves 39. The Wilton wedding cake chart shows a 10" round serves 38, so these appear to be figured on wedding cake sizes.
If that's the case, have you figured out how you are going to explain to a bride why the 10" cake she is buying for her wedding for 25 is going to cost her more than a 10" cake for a birthday party of 25 would cost?
My pricing is based on a standard serving (1x2x4 for non-sheet cakes, and 2x2 for sheet cakes) and a price per serving. If they want to cut it bigger then they can pay for more cake.
When you go into a restaurant, the meat in your meal is a standard serving. Just because a Jethro Bodine comes in and is used to a bigger piece of chicken, doesn't mean the restaurant is going to give it to him at the same price. If you want more than that, you order and pay for more. Same with cakes.
Don't create problems for yourself.
(i do already have pricing on my website, not this new stuff) so you have a base price, say $2.50 a serving. Do you use this for both wedding and party cakes? sould i charge all cakes but sheet cakes at the $2.50?
sould i charge all cakes but sheet cakes at the $2.50?
Yes! That would be your base price. If a customer (bride or birthday) wants more intricate designs, then you can always charge additional for the extra labor/materials involved.
For example, for an 8" round I have that down as sixteen 3"x1"x4" servings for $32 for BC and $48 for fondant (I charge 50% more for fondant). But, if the customer wanted the cake decorated in the Lambeth style, I would charge $48 for BC and $64 for fondant.
Here is how I have my pricing broken down. These are the base prices and it doesn't matter what shape they get it in (rectangle, square, round, hexagon, oval, heart, petal, etc.) All these prices are per serving
$1.50
One layer cake
Buttercream icing
$2.00
Two layer cake
Buttercream filling
Buttercream icing
$2.25
Two layer cake
One layer filling
Buttercream icing
$2.75
Two layer cake
Three layer filling
Buttercream icing
All of these prices include minimal decoration (border, writting, and buttercream roses), my basic cake flavors, and basic fillings.
If they want fondant, ganache, or one of my specialty cake flavors or specialty cake fillings then I have an additional cost per serving based on what they want.
All of my serving sizes are the same as Indydebi. 1"x2"x4" and 2"x2"x2"
Charge a base price per serving.. mine is 2.00 per serving for celebration cakes and 3.00 per serving for wedding.. this is basic design (think borders and some simple flowers and writing).. no fondant. I charge more for wedding cakes because it includes a filling other than butter cream in one of the three filling layers whereas the celebration cakes do not.. they just have buttercream (unless you want to pay extra 
). I base my pricing on the 1"x2"x4" serving size for round cakes and 2"x2" for a sheet cake.. and like the pp said.. if they want to serve bigger slices.. they pay more to accomodate that.
With this pricing you would have the following:
6" 14 $28
8" 20 $40
10" 34 $68
12" 48 $96
9x13 Sheet 24 $48
11x15 Sheet 35 $70
12x18 Sheet 54 $108
I use a module based on indydebi's serving method
http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules/Forums/files/cake_serving_guide_219.pdf It is a good way to serve up a cake. 
HTH's a little bit.. 
I am saying I price all of my single layer cakes as 2"x2" and all of my double layer cakes as 1x2x4
A sheetcake can be one or two layers. I round cake can be one or two layers, a square cake can be one or two layers. These is why I do NOT like to use the term Sheet. I use "rectangle" instead.
Here is how I have my pricing broken down. These are the base prices and it doesn't matter what shape they get it in (rectangle, square, round, hexagon, oval, heart, petal, etc.) All these prices are per serving
$1.50
One layer cake
Buttercream icing
$2.00
Two layer cake
Buttercream filling
Buttercream icing
$2.25
Two layer cake
One layer filling
Buttercream icing
$2.75
Two layer cake
Three layer filling
Buttercream icing
All of these prices include minimal decoration (border, writting, and buttercream roses), my basic cake flavors, and basic fillings.
If they want fondant, ganache, or one of my specialty cake flavors or specialty cake fillings then I have an additional cost per serving based on what they want.
All of my serving sizes are the same as Indydebi. 1"x2"x4" and
2"x2"x2"
Hmmm... I've never see it done like that.... but it makes sense. Thanks for sharing a different idea.
I have a base price for Wedding Cakes - well, for any tiered/stacked cake for that matter but I also have pricing for all others (Topsy Turvy is completely separate pricing). I have tried to adjust the servings accordingly too (wedding slice/party slice).
For all the party cakes (not tiered/stacked) I do price them lower than tiered/stacked cakes but this is for basic balloons or buttercream flowers only. I priced these cheaper because I started in a high production bakery and can whip these out sooo quickly. For all other flowers - I begin with the lower pricing and then just price the fondant/gumpaste flowers additionally that way they're paying me for each flower they'd like on the party cake.
I know there's so many ways to do this but thought I'd share what I do...
Number of servings is IRRELEVANT to the size of the cake. I can cut an 8 inch cake into 2 slices or 100 I guess. Since you are using my matrix if you go to the last tab then you can change the size of a slice which will change the number of servings, but the pricing still works out the SAME regardless if you have ($40 for an 8inch cake = $20 a serving if you cut into 2 pieces or $1 a serving if you cut it into 40 small pieces).
So, with that in mind, clearly a party serving would cost more than a wedding serving, hello... it is a bigger piece of cake!!!
I think your prices looked pretty reasonable. I've abandoned buttercream (yes I'll still do them) and price everything at fondant, but don't charge extra to do the fondant (other than the added ingredients). So my 8 inch cake is $45 but it is fondant (no discount if you don't want it fondant) birthday or wedding. I'll just tell them "if this were for a wedding it would serve 25 small pieces. Which works out to $1.80 a serving (satellite cake, not tiered), but you will probably want to cut it into larger pieces so you can serve 12-15 people with larger slices. Then don't even mention what the price per serving is, hopefully they all passed their math classes (as a math teacher I just like to live that pipe dream) and could figure out the price per serving for a larger piece (now $3.75, but again, it is a bigger piece!)
Pricing can be a daunting task....find a rule of thumb you're comfortable with and that makes sense to you and stick with it! All of the feedback you get here on CC, while helpful, can confuse you even more!
I personally do charge more per serving for wedding cakes than my tiered party cakes, regardless of how many they serve. 99% of the time my party cake orders are a 1-call deal.....with wedding cakes I do taste samplings, multiple phone calls, emails, meetings, etc., THAT is why my wedding cake servings cost more than regular cake servings in my business.
Again, that's my justification and I'm sticking to it....it works for me! When you find what works for you....stick to it!
Good luck!
pricing is also confusing for me.....i'm working on convincing myself that there are actually ppl out there that will pay $100+ for a birthday cake.....i, myself, could not and would not......but i need to stop letting my hard work go for such cheap prices!
i agree, that all this advise may confuse u more.....u also have to take into account that pricing varies depending on your location.....do whatever works for u and makes u feel good about what u're making at the end of the day!
pricing is also confusing for me.....i'm working on convincing myself that there are actually ppl out there that will pay $100+ for a birthday cake.....i, myself, could not and would not......but i need to stop letting my hard work go for such cheap prices!
You should stop focusing on whether they would pay $100 for "a cake". You should focus on how big that cake is.
$100 for a cake to serve $10? Pretty expensive.
$100 for a cake to serve 200? Way underpriced.
They are not paying $100 for "a cake". THey are paying $100 for enough cake to serve X-number of people.
And yes, there are birthday parties with more guests than some weddings.
sould i charge all cakes but sheet cakes at the $2.50?
Yes! That would be your base price. If a customer (bride or birthday) wants more intricate designs, then you can always charge additional for the extra labor/materials involved.
For example, for an 8" round I have that down as sixteen 3"x1"x4" servings for $32 for BC and $48 for fondant (I charge 50% more for fondant). But, if the customer wanted the cake decorated in the Lambeth style, I would charge $48 for BC and $64 for fondant.
Ok - dumb question - what is the Lambeth style?
http://www.winbeckler.com/sculptures4.asp#Lambeth%20Grooms%20Cake
Scroll down to the last cake on this link... It's an incredible look!
wow - that's incredible! I've never seen anything like it before, do you get many requests for that type of work?
OK, so everyone here is basically talking about charging per serving, but what if you do more elaborate cakes with things like fondant figures and 3D images, etc. Do you charge more for the extra time to do all this on top of what you charge per slice or is it all the same no matter what?
You would charge more for the extra design elements. For example, you would charge $X.00 for a small fondant figure, and then go up incrementally for medium and large. The same goes for gumpaste flowers, fondant package bows, etc.
You could also charge more for design elements that while not complicated but just time consuming. For example, I would charge more next time for the fish cake in my gallery because putting the bubbles on was very time consuming and I discovered that the easiest way to put them on was with tweezers.
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