I need help deciding what to charge. I live in TN and I made a 3D teapot cake with teacups and I don't know what to charge for it. I had about $30 and way too many hours in it!!! What do you all charge for your time??? What do you charge for specially decorated sheetcakes??

I live in TN, too. I charge 1.50 per serving on plainly decorates sheet cakes. On a 2 layer cake with more decoration I charge at least $2 per serving. Anything with fondant or sculpting I charge at least $2.50 per serving. I'm going to guess that you spent at least 8 hours on that cake??? If you charge for Ingredients then $8 an hour for work that comes out to about $95.

this is always an issue especially if you are baking for friends and family like most of us.

A half sheet cake for us ( central Ohio) is 45 dollars, full 90. We tell everyone that our prices are high because of the quality of our cakes and our homemade buttercream and lots of handmade flowers and fondant decorations. I'm tired of eveyone wanting "Us" to do their cakes cheap. Wedding cakes are 2.75 to 3 per person for basic. I am very up front with people on prices, I don't have to do the cakes for a living, I enjoy doing the creative cakes that make people happy, however not for free.

I have had a few people say our prices are high, however the majority of people say , I don't care how much. On the guitar cake posted on my cakes, the woman paid me 100 dollars, I didn't even notice till I went to cash the check.

They didn't even want to cut the cake, they did do a neat thing. When the cake was delivered, they took a picture, printed it out 8 x 10 and framed it next to the cake on the table, this way anyone coming after the cutting could see the cake before the cutting took place.

The cakes most of us do are far better than the local grocery stores which send out copycat cakes with messy borders and flowers.

All our cakes are individualizes and we spend many hours making all those special touches, handmade pearls, colorized flowers.

Don't give your work away, you are all artists.

Thank you guys!!! Pricing the cakes is the hardest part!

Hi there tonia! I'm also a TN gal. Pricing has always been the hardest part for me. I have given too many cakes away and finally decided that if I was going to stay in the "business" I'd have to start charging what the cakes are worth and make it worth my time. Since I started doing this I've even received some "tips". That never happened when I tried to be "Nice" and "cheap" (my cakes that is ) Do some marketing in your area & see what local shops are charging. This will give you a yardstick to start with. Alot of websites include charges & you can check them out too. Hope this helps.

3D cakes are the only cake i do not charge per serving as how do you work it out? with all different shapes and pieces and the effort in them my 3D cakes start at $200 for basic characters, bags etc and i have a general rule about the height or width (whichever is greater) that it is up to 30cm (12") anything above that is more expensive. generally my prices start $3.50 a serving plus delivery charged at $1 per kilometer (remember to charge for your return trip home also) if pick up i charge a standard fee of $50 for materials (this is also added to the delivered cakes) the higher degree of decoration the higher the price $4 a serve gets you cupcakes or medieum decorated and simple madhatters $5 gets you most madhaters and very detailed cakes and $10 a serve gets you minicakes (I love them but i hate doing them ) even after all this i am still a couple hundred dollars if not 1/3 of the price of my competitors! hope this helped