Well way over 100 cake and nothing to show for it? Well a few pans and alot of gels.. But really, have you ever just saved and saved and saved and purchased something really big with your profits? I really need help figuring out my profits.. I cannot get that matrix thing to work for me.. I dont have excel.. So therefore I have to rack my brain to figure this out.. Does anyone have another way of figuring out how much one cake cost to make? I have just been rounding off and adding a few cents and dollars here and there.. But never an exact figure.. How do you make your profits? How do you save your money? Expecially if you buy bulk or like me, buy stuff as I make money.. How do you manage your "cake money"? weekly, monthly??
Just curious..
Ok, this takes some time but I sad down one day with my recipes and some grocery store rcpts and figured out what an egg costs... 1 cup of flour, etc... so then Iknew that 1 recipe of BC cost $4.70 and my carrot cake is $2.75, etc..
You only have to do it once and then it's right there to reference whenever you need it. I could not get the matrix to work either. As for big purchases, I always put my 'cake' money in a jar and then it feels more like I earned it rather than just buying groceries.
I really want some 3" deep pans so that is what I decided to invest in.
I am just starting this so I will let you know how it goes. I am starting this month with a "check book" style or keeping track. I am giving myself the $350.00 I made on my last wedding cake as seed money. Then I am going to subtract my ingredients and add in my profits as a running total.
I know EXACTLY what you mean! 
My cake money's almost always GONE as soon as I get it...wish I was more disciplined with that part of things.
When I do a wedding, however--I make double sure I don't cash the final check until I deliver. That way, at least I've got something to show for all those hours of effort!
HTH,
--Knox--
I did something similar to CakeDiva and that is all well and good. I even have a spreadsheet that tells me cutomer, occasion (so I can send a postcard next year prior to the BD), price paid, blah, blah, blah. The part I have the biggest problem with is logging how much of those ingredients I used for each cake (3 batches of icing, $2.00 worth fondant, etc). I downloaded the matrix some time ago on our other computer, but I have yet to use it. 
So, in reality, I often times have no idea what (if any) money I am making and I am right up there with you Brian's Baker...plus I have only officially been doing this since March of this year...so I have an excuse...I DON'T HAVE TIME- but I know I need to make it or have someone do it for me.
Good Luck!!
I did the same as cakediva, figured out how much each ingredient costs, figured out how much each recipe costs (need to remember the conversion from cups to oz to tsp and Tbl) plus cake boards, ribbon, fondant, anything that can be individually priced. I then add 15% for misc items like utilities, luster dust, parchment, etc. This is the cost of the cake, then add the cost of labor. HTH
I have a software program that I bought for $10 after downloading a demo called Mastercook. You put in the recipe, what you've paid for a dozen eggs, etc. and it will calculate for you the cost per slice of whatever cake, the cost per serving of whatever recipe. Best $10 I've spent in a long time.
Mastercook huh? I'm going to look for that! I deal with same problem everytime I do a cake! But, they are all so different, costs for ingredients change....it becomes such a hassle! Thanks!
frider, is there a website for that? sounds great! I'd like to check it out.
I used SO much aspirin figuring costs when I started doing cookies. My first customer was a commercial account needing 20 dozen a day, so I'm starting off right away with buying 50 lbs of flour. Ever try to figure how many cups in 50 lbs of flour???????? It's possible, but please dont' make me do it twice! 
It's a great exercise, tho, and forced me to really scrutinize suppliers. My grated orange peel went from a cost of over $3.00 an ounce to $0.17 an ounce just by switching where I bought it and the volume I bought it. It was interesting to discover I could buy 25 lbs of the mini M&M's for cookies cheaper at Walmart in the individual bags than I could at Sysco in the large bulk bag!!!
So if there's a program that will do it for me, I'm there! Thanks in advance!
frider, is there a website for that? sounds great! I'd like to check it out.
This is the website: http://www.valusoft.com/products/mastercook.html
I have a software program that I bought for $10 after downloading a demo called Mastercook. You put in the recipe, what you've paid for a dozen eggs, etc. and it will calculate for you the cost per slice of whatever cake, the cost per serving of whatever recipe. Best $10 I've spent in a long time.
Frider I'd be interested in locating that software program if you have that information.
Frider, I went to the site, but for some reason, I could'nt get it to download. Maybe I'll try again later.
Sweetcakes
I went to the bottom of the page to the discussion board and it said the program has been discontinued.
Any ideas on how we can find this program? Let me know if you find it somewhere else ok?
Thanks!
I do like CakeDiva. I figure the costs of everything, then add it all up.
It is time consuming BUT as was said once you do it it's done. I wrote done everything I used in my cakes and icing and the next time I went to the store I wrote down the costs and sizes of the products. 1lb of powder sugar vs 2lbs of powder sugar, same thing with the crisco and such. After you do the math at home you can figure out which one is a better buy and saves you more money. Also I always charge the full price for the items I buy even though I try to buy them on sale.
Once you know how much you spend on the items you have to figure out how much of them you use in your icing. Again time consuming, but it helps. If you use a 1/2 cup of oil in your mix then you need to know how much a 1/2 cup of oil costs you.
Here is an example:
Mix: $1.75
Egg: 3 (.24)
Oil: ½ cup (.24)
(Water)
Total cost: $2.23
(Buttercream)
(water)
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla: (.15)
1 teaspoon Clear Almond: (.15)
1 teaspoon Clear Butter: (.15)
1 cup Crisco: (.40)
1 Tablespoon Meringue Powder: (.33)
1 lb Powder Sugar: (1.46)
(pinch of salt)
Total cost: $2.64
So the cost for one cake mix and two batches of Buttercream (One to ice one to decorate) is $7.51
Okay now don't forget about the other things you use when making a cake...
Cake board: .32
Cake box: .95
Cake board cover: .20
Now we are at $8.98
At this point I go ahead and round up and add a little to include the small things like those bits of icing color gel, decorating bags, too picks and such.
Lets say you spend $10 - $11 making a basic size cake that uses one cake mix (or cake recipe). Keep in mind this doesn't cover fillings or fondant. So you would have to add those into your figures as well.
Now that you know how much it costs you, you can have a better idea of what to charge so that you are actually making some money and not just barely covering your costs.
The general rule is that you want to charge 3 times what it costs you to make a cake. So if you follows that you would want to charge around $30 to $33 for cake using one mix.
Sometimes if you live in a smaller area that may be a little too high. You can go 2.5 times it. But never charger less than 2 times it!
Every 6 months or so you want to go back and check out the prices to see if they have changed. Sometimes things go and and things go down and you want to adjust for those things that do go up. I also use non sale prices, because while I try to buy things on sale sometimes you need it now and can't wait for a sale. If you use the non sale prices and get it on sale you are just giving yourself some extra pennies. 
If anyone is interested, ebay has a guy on it that has several new copies of the computer program it's a buy now for $11.45 with free shipping. Just do a search for Mastercook. Just thought someone might be interested.
download http://www.valusoft.com/navigation/tryit.html but when I tried to download it I was told I was out of the area that they supplied to so I couldn't download it. Beacuse I am overseas I believe. Interested if anyone else can download it.
I just bought one off of ebay...7.75 for one still in the box. Had to pay S&H which brought the total to $13.75 but still not bad! Just do a search for Mastercook.
Sweetcakes23
I was going to suggest Mastercook, also. I bought mine at Best Buy. I bought the deluxe version for around $20 (it includes soooooooooo many recipes.) It really is awesome. All you do is put the cost per unit (ex .96 for a 5lb bag of flour) and it will calculate it for how much you used in the recipe. You can create your own "cookbook" with your own recipes, and can also import recipes from the internet. It is great being able to very easily figure out down to the penny how much your ingredients cost.
Edited to say...I just looked on bestbuy.com, and the software is available to buy. Just do a search for Mastercook, and the two versions will come up.
I just downloaded the mastercook but it is only a trial I will try to get it on Ebay
you just need to really figure out your pricing and dont sell yourself short....i've only been doing this for about a year and i've already turned a nice profit...put it into my savings account theres still more to go around to purchase supplies and ingredients...
if you dont price right, you'll never pay yourself...would you work that hard for someone else if they didnt pay you??
So TexasSugar...you pay 1.75 for your boxed cake mix? What brand is that?
I buy DH at Walmart or Meijers for 92 to 97 cents a box....
That was the price at the local Albertson's a few years ago. I never paid full price as I always tried to buy it on sell, which was $1.19. I know currently shop at Walmart which has alot better price on it.
Those were just examples pulled from an old file. I know currently add in pudding to my cake mix and I don't use the same buttercream recipe. I just haven't sat down and figured the new math out yet. My cakes are just mostly for family and friends, so I usually use $10 as my 'cost' and go from there.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=br_ss_hs/104-1431269-8748725?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=mastercook
answered my own question. This tells what software each version is compatible with.
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