This happens to me sometimes...where I spend 15 hours working on a 3D or tiered cake and I barely make $10 per hour! What I usually do is add up about how many hours I spent on the cake and multiply that by how much I would like to get paid per hour. Then add on the cost of supplies too.
Courtney
For a 3d cake you definately need to charge a premium price. : ) BIG BUCKS! Raise your price if you still feel like you aren't making enough. If they want a WOW cake they get a WOW price. : )
But Lorabell I know how you feel, when it's just a regular cake and it should be simple but it takes forever!
I used to obsess over my cake details all the time. I am still a little anal about having all the right details, but I have learned thru practice how to be faster with some things. When I was doing 3 or 4 cakes a month, I was painfully slow and earned a maybe $1 an hour for my efforts. I have worked my business up to 4 or 5 cakes a week and have gotten much faster--around $7-8 an hour now. I am still just as happy with the results, but after some repetition and lots of practice the skill comes much quicker now. There are still some cakes I really put my heart into and then the time ticks by quicker than I realize!
As for pricing, I make calls to the 2 bakeries in my area every few months. We are all the exact same price, but I hear from people all the time there is no comparison for quality. I win that one hands down. It happens to be my cost of ingredients x3 and that's what I charge. I would suggest calling around to find out what bakeries/Walmart are charging. That's a good starting point. You can always adjust your prices to the amount of time or dazzle you put into your cakes. HTH
I was lucky to learn something when I was very very young that prevented me from spending too much time being nit-picky over every little detail: No one else knows how to decorate a cake, so no matter what you do, they are going to think you're a genius!!!!!!!
My cousin's wedding shower had over 75 people. She wanted sheet cakes scored for cutting. THis was like 20 years ago. So what I made her was very very simple...... sheet cakes, scored with lines for cutting, adorned with plastic doves and the plastic bells that were so prevalant in the late 70's.
I kid you not, there were people gasping at how "beautiful" the cake was. I'm standing there looking puzzled as all get out, thinking, "It's PLASTIC! It's all PLASTIC, people! Are you blind!? "
So I haven't stressed over details or spent too much time on any cake and people still think I'm a genius! Ah well, I guess I'll have to let them think so! 
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