I thought I was doing pretty good, raising prices on my cake and asking for decent amounts...alot of people won't even pay what I ask for some reason. Anyway just finished one wedding cake and am preparing for another one this week. I thought I charged a very decent amount, both cakes ended up around $3-ish per serving.
BUT after I bought all the ingredients for an expensive from-scratch pound cake, scratch fillings, and then a huge thing of fondant for next weekend (wholesale even) and icing ingredients and etc I think my profit margin still wasn't that great. I guess it was laziness on my part, not taking the time to figure out what every single thing costs and make sure I get the profit per time that I need.
Do you guys have some sort of list of ingredient prices or something or ways you mathematically calculate how much you charge per serving? I raised my prices on wedding cakes a little bit because of the experience for now, but I still should probably do a bunch of math and figure out exactly where I"m at.
Here's a link to a pricing matrix that I've read a lot of people use.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-5711-matrix.html
HTH
A friend asked me to help her make a cake for her brother's wedding, and she used my recipes. Because the wedding was in a different state, her father said he would purchase all the ingredients and set her up to bake there. When she returned, she told me that the ingredients and supplies cost $250. I was quite shocked. I have done the same, even using expensive cocoa for $100. (Maybe hers was a few more servings, but still...)
I asked her if her father had bought the butter at costco like I recommended about 5 different times, and she said no. That was probably a big part of the difference. Butter in the supermarket is often up to $4.00/lb. I have been buying it for $1.43/lb at Costco. Last time the price was higher-$1.56/lb. but it makes a huge difference, especially if you use IMBC.
just start saving your grocery receipts - after you have a few of them, start keeping track of how much flour costs, butter, etc. Then break down the prices (i.e.: flour costs $0.xx per cup) Then take your typcial recipes (the ones you make a lot) and figure otu what the recipe costs you to make. At least then you will know what it costs for you to make a particuar recipe.
I have figured out what it cost me to make one cake recipe and one frosting recipe, figured for each flavor, then an average is taken for cost perposes. Costs are figure for what ingredients cost if they aren't on sale (lets face it you can't always find everything on sale everytime you have to make a cake) Then you need to add for box and board. That will give you your ingredient costs then add for a profit, and you have what your price should be. Average cost for a cake from a mix for me is $3.50 for my basic buttercream is $6.10 So add the box and board to the cost and i have to charge up wards to $12.00 for an 8 inch round cake just to brake even.
I revisit my costs every six monthes, just to make sure that i'm still ahead of the game.
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