What Would You Charge For These Cakes?
Decorating By wendysue Updated 5 Sep 2006 , 3:38pm by wendysue
Opinions appreciated. I know I don't ask enough for my cakes, but they're usually for family and I don't want to give people the impression that I'm trying to take advantage of them... people don't realize how much work goes into a cake! So, what would you charge for these?
(made from an 11X15" sheetcake)
(8" and 10" rounds)
(4", 6", 8" tiered, and a 6" eggless cake, gumpaste accents)
Some of you can't see my cakes, so I've added them to my gallery photos.
I don't see the pics?
Kelly
Click on the red x, click show properties and copy and paste the url and the pics will show up. I can see them now.
I have no idea what to charge,though. They look great!
Did you make the decorations for all of the cakes yourself?
2.50 per serving for the airplane.
3.00 for the monkey, if all the decorations are handmade.
2.75 for the others.
Discalimer: I don't do childrens cakes. I only do occasion cakes for the restaurant and wedding cakes.
I think you need to figure your costs and add the hourly rate you feel comfortable charging. Let's say you estimate your raw cost at $12, and the cake took you 4 hours to complete. If you were a rather novice decorator working at a bakery or grocery store, you'd earn about $8-$9 per hour. 4x8+12=$44. If were an experienced chef at a chi-chi restaurant you'd earn $18/hour but, it'd probably take you more like 21/2 hours, so 18 x2.5+12=$57
There's your range. I have a $50 minimum ( $4 per serving)
If you can't see the images, they're also on my blog: http://cakespace.blogspot.com/
I don't know why they aren't showing up for some of you? 
I'm showing the Airplane cake, Curious George Cake, and the Princess Cake. My husband always tells me I'm giving my cakes away. Not sure I completely agree with him, but I don't want to completely sell myself short either.
The Curious George cake has some gumpaste accents, like the banana tree and the bananas, but he's a toy that we paid $10 for. The lei is from Party America and the leaves on the tree were gumpaste, but that didn't work so I used tissue paper attached to floral wire.
The princess cake is all buttercream and gumpaste.
Thanks again for the feedback!
On sculpted cakes, do you consider size first? Or do you just say, since it's sculpted I'll start at $50? Just curious about that. The airplane didn't take me very long to make and the supplies maybe ran me $15. It's not a very large cake. Would have been the equiv. of two boxed mixes.
I agree with Mac's prices if it's for strangers, family would get a discount. : )
Yes the airplane isn't very big but it's 3-d and you had to carve it and do extra stuff. It's not about the servings.
Loved your cakes btw. How much did you charge?
Embarrased to say, but $25 for the airplane, $55 for the Curious George, and I got $60 for the Princess cake. I know the airplane was undercharged, but it was for a good friendd and I guess I just didn't feel right charging more than that. Sometimes friends and family tip me enough to make it ok. 
WendySue--
For a good friend, I do discounts, especially if they help with getting orders. For really good friends, that help when I'm swamped, usually will do for cost of supplies and experience.
For others, I tell them that sculpted cakes START at $50.00, depends on the design. I will call with a final price once I get a desing and idea of what I need. Generally they run between $50.00 to $75.00.
Topsy Turvy cakes start at $60.00 for BC and up depending on size.
Hi,
Your cakes are lovely and neatly done. You should have a minimum price - that is you do not do anything less than for $30 (that is cheap but then you get more customers than if you made it $40).
The easiest way is to charge three times the cost of the ingredients put in the cake, that way you do not have think if you made George with gumpaste or bought a plastic one. Easy to calculate and you get 1/3 profit if you allow 1/3 for electricity, wear and tear and hours spent on it.
When you become much wanted and cannot cope with all orders then is the time to increase it to four times the cost or more.
This 3 times the cost of the ingredients is exclusive of delivery charges.
Thanks for all the advice! I think I do need to ask for more when I agree to do a cake, because actually I'm not looking to doing this for a living right now. It's really just a hobby and I only want to do a handful a year. I know I'm starting to get a lot of calls, and I just can't take them all! It's just been very recently that this has happened. If I increase my rates then I probably won't have as many people asking for my services and when they do it won't feel like such a burden on my time.
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