Does anyone else price by the number of servings a pan could potentially serve? I use the Wilton charts as a guideline and start charging $2 per serving. My questions are:
How do you make sure your client is going to cut the cake to make that serving guideline (at least that much)? Wilton says to cut a circle 2" into the cake, then cut your slices off those circles, but I'm not so sure the average person would do it that way. Typically, you think of wedges.
Do you have clients that get mad at you if they weren't able to get enough servings?
There are SO many variations on how many servings a cake pan could serve, I just went with Wilton's guidelines. I feel like I'm overcharging, though.
Any thoughts?
I round down wilton's servings (only because if I'm paid to cut the cake and I'm off, I still better get the number of servings I said I could) so for an 8" round......I believe wilton says they get 24 servings, I say 20 servings...I round down by fives (hope that makes sense) If they said something was 58 servings, I say 55.
Anyhow, I tell them to cut a cake like indydebi shows on her site
http://cateritsimple.com/_wsn/page10.html
and I am proud to say I've never had anyone say they didn't have as much cake as they thought they would.......in fact most people have some extra!
Include a cutting chart with each cake you sell, you can print them off of this site. That way there is no confusion.
I made up dummy wedding/party size pieces of cake that I also plated to show the client exactly how big the pieces will be. I offer 3 different serving sizes and charge accordingly. (The bigger the serving obviously the more it costs)
I use Debi's cutting method too and print off a sheet explaining "how to cut your cake.. and get the correct amount of servings".
I do what KHalstead does with the wilton serving chart too.. I round down to nice round numbers.. if it says 54 I say 50.. if it says 38 I say 35.. it's easier math.. 
You can't guarentee that the customer will get the number of servings you say it will .... you can only provide them good information to "help" them get the number of servings the cake is designed to serve. I do like many said above ... chart says 38, so I tell them it will serve 25-35, "depending on how you cut it" ... but my PRICE is based on 35 servings.
KFC says their bucket of 16 pieces of chicken is "designed" to serve 8, but if everyone eats 4 pieces of chicken, it will only serve 4 .... they're not going to go back to KFC and complain because 4 people didn't get any chicken. (well they might, but that's a story for the "here's yer sign!" thread! 
)
I always give out a cutting guide with my orders.
I actually calculated our cakes to price by the cubic inch ( yes, I know...weird), and then calculated in a small discount for larger cakes, because it doesn't really take any more time to ice a 12 inch round than it does an 8 inch round.
Think about the last cake you made. At $2 per serving according to Wilton, how much would that have cost? Probably seems like a lot. BUT now figure out, roughly, how much your ingredients cost (I usually just think about the big things like butter, icing sugar, flour, eggs) and how much time you spent making the cake (include baking, decorating and clean up). Assume you make at least minimum wage (or whatever you think you are worth), and I bet the price doesn't seem so outrageous. Then remember that you also had to shop for ingredients, power your oven, and you used equipment (pans, mixer, measuring cups) that you had to pay for. Maybe you are also paying insurance, rent and license fees. Bet that price doesn't look so unreasonable now, does it?
I actually calculated our cakes to price by the cubic inch ( yes, I know...weird), and then calculated in a small discount for larger cakes, because it doesn't really take any more time to ice a 12 inch round than it does an 8 inch round.
It's good to know i'm not the only one! I figure my servings on a 1x2x4 size, or 8 cubic inches. So I figure out the cubic inches per size of cake and then divide by the 8 cubic inches. I have been accurate so far when I go to do a cutting chart using Indydebi's method. So I must be on to something (at least it sounds good in my head)
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