My round cake prices are as follows:

6 in. round $15.00
8 in. round $25.00
10 in. round $40.00
12 in. round $45.00

These prices are just for buttercream cakes. I am just starting to get into fondant decorating so I will probably have to raise the prices for fondant cakes. The majority of the cakes I make are sheet cakes for some reason.

I also do a lot of cupcakes. I charge $1.00 per cupcake.

[quote="indydebiI quoted a lady $105 for a 10" round today. She never even blinked. ($3/serving). Buttercream is all I do.[/quote]

Just out of curiousity what are you doing to this 10" round cake?!

You may not be able to even pay for the supplies, if you get a lot more orders at that price, and it would be hard to charge double that once your customers are accustomed to paying that price, bradleycake. You do want to take a class or buy new sets of cake pans, cake boxes, business cards, crisco, rolling pins cutters-AND THE LIST GOES ON It costs ALOT to be a cake decorator, you have to figure out at what point you can make a profit. But certainly a bump in prices might help you out ????

I charge what brady cake charges. I also have just started and don't feel right charging more. I only bake for family and coworkers, and most of time I am trying new things. I actually usually charge 20.00 per receipe. Just went to 25.00 on the last few cakes. We are going to put our house up for sale and move. But my husband has already said when we look for house, we are looking for one in which I can have a seperate kitchen. I know it will take a couple years but I am excited that he is thinking about it for me. (now he wants a shop on the bottom part, I would be in a loft) But hey he is still thinking.

Indydebi - Do you bake from scratch?

Good point iamlis. It is frustrating just 'breaking even', but when your competing with such low prices for cakes it's hard. How would I go about raising prices. Should it be a gradual thing?

Also, do most of you charge per serving? I'm still pretty new at this. So far I have only been doing cakes for family, friends, and co-workers. I am thinking about branching out though. I suppose I should come up with a better method of pricing.

Is there a chart you guys are using for servings per cake that I should know about???

Indydebi - I've gotten brave and tried some 'scratch baking' too. I tried some recipes from the Whimsical Bakehouse Book and also Elisa Strauss' book. The cakes were tasty, but the texture is not the same as the good old doctored mix. My customers always like the mix better. I work full time during the day, so needless to say the mix is easier for me. Seems like scratch baking is more time consuming and like you say a tad more expensive.

Indydebi what do you do to get people to pay $105.00 for a 10 in. round cake with a ribbon only???!!! , you are my new hero . I think if I would even try to do this my customers will go to any bakery and I will loose the sale, any tips on how to do it?, please share....

Remember guys, my biz is 99% weddings. The call I got yesterday was a one in a million out of the blue calls for a single cake for an engagement party. Normally that 10" tier is in the middle of a 3-tier wedding cake. I am a specialty cake place ... I'm not a bakery. I RARELY do onesey-twosey cakes. Most of the non-wedding cakes I do are for 75 or more people.

Prices have gone up! I'm redoing my price list too especially heading into First Communion and Graduation season. I'm a small town, home baker and find it hard to compete with the grocery store-slap on the icing variety. But the friends/family/church folks I bake for want my cake and not wal-mart. My prices have been in line with other small towners on this post, but I'm going to have to charge more if I'm going to make anything.

Paula

bradleycake, you know it was interesting when I made those scratch cakes. I always assumed scratch baking took longer, too, but I really didn't see that much more time was needed. Yes, it takes a few minutes to measure the sugar and flour instead of just dumping in a box of mix, but it was literally just 'minutes' difference.

I was apprehensive about the texture ... I think that's the part I dont' like about scratch cakes ... they are just too heavy for my taste (since I grew up on mix cakes, I guess). But this particular recipe had box mix texture! I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a brown sugar chocolate cake ... used brown sugar instead of white ..... very moist, very light, very good!

So I'm motivated now! I'm sure that pretty soon, when those mix vs. scratch debates come on here, I'll be a fence straddler!