Here's a quote from every post up until the op opts for fun in the name of love.
I understand how you feel
I hope I'm not coming off as beating you up, (cause I'm not trying too),
Don't take me as being harsh please
I have a very hard time with it too.
If your happy with $2.00 thats wonderful
In the central CA valley wedding cakes start at $6 per serving.
Also...
Do you REALLY want to be known as "the one with the cheap cakes"?
Not trying to be mean, just honest.
in my neck of the woods, people can't afford those prices.
I think your time and your skill is worth more money than you think you deserve.
I feel that way too
I don't want to sound mean
OP
Humm, I don't think I've seen this subject get ugly.
OP
Ummmm, yes....
can I ask you how you can make any money at all if you only charge $20 for a decorated 10" cake.
Now I see how this subject could get ugly
it seems like most of your reward is just making people happy
I live in MI and now hardly anyone orders cakes anymore
I'm also pretty sure that your cake was 10X better than Sam's
i feel guilty about charging too much, but now i charge full price
touchy subject for them when they see people selling themselves short
So luv2cook - I totally understand where you're coming from.
Not judging-just saying "Live and let Live!
you'll end up like me, a disgruntled senior that ends up making a bunch of free cakes
Don't set your prices based on other people's budgets,
you are basically running your own sweatshop - and you're the only one working there.
I'm with you love2cook,
I completly understand how you feel about pricing your cakes to high.
Some days it isn't even worth it to have a hobby if you feel this much guilt
Love your cakes by the way
bless you!
Blessings as you struggle with your decision.
Thank You, all for your comments/post it is food for thought.
I wouldn't buy my cakes and cookies, I'm cheap.
Don't undercut yourself because people can't afford it.
Amen to that! .
Dismiss the notion about whether or not you would pay for it,
I don't allow this to influence my pricing at all.
I'm not in the business of shoting myself in the foot for the sake of someone's wallet.
You are worth more.
I don't recall Jeanne ever complaining that she was hurting for business either!
good luck bringing them back up, it's gonna be tough.
don't walk around pretending that you run a "little cake business"
So OP don't sweat your prices
yeah...i'd say your indecison over charging $2.00 a slice is a bit insane.
So do I think the OP is off her rocker for only charging $2...no
mass produced frozen wedge of cheesecake from the drive thru at Jack In The Box is going to cost $2.00 and up.....wow!
I say go for it and good luck!
If you don't think you deserve to be treated with respect
if people want the cake bad enough, they will pay the price.
I wouldn't work for minimum wage.
I absolutely do not feel abused by charging $2 a serving!
Aren't your talents worth more to you?
Perhaps if you don't want to know everyones *honest* thoughts - don't ask for them
Have you ladies actually sat down and figured out how much per serving it's costing you?
Do you think that Jeanne's cake is worth more than yours?
Tell me how you make money again?
A few people have said that she doesn't truly understand what overhead costs are and I agree
I apologize if any of my above statements were construed as "slamming".
I just knew someone was gonna get upset
Nope!
I don't think you slammed anyone Stacey!
Am I straight?
That is dangerously close to price fixing...
I can totally see what you are saying Stacey
Oy to the vey!
It is mentality like that, that fuels the cake muggles ignorance!
Yep! Agree!
It makes some afraid to post their thoughts!
If you want an honest answer, don't get upset when you get one.
How about from now on, if we KNOW we are underpricing for a cake, let's keep it to ourselves.
I had an "ah-ha" moment about this a month or so ago.
I don't respect it when people are offended because you disagree with their opinion
why do some of you here have a problem with me charging it?
Indy, you're my cake idol
Pouchet82-----------Let's do!
so don't play with fire if you don't want to get burned!
The OP was comparing apples to oranges.
I disagree that this post is getting out of hand. It's a very civil debate
Ditto what dkelly said, this has not become nasty at all. But has anyone wondered why the OP has yet to comment further?
just wanted the OP to know that she wasn't alone.
i just wanted to know what you use to figure out your costs?
-I used to charge 1.50 per serving 1 year ago. 3.00 is sounding crazy now to, when I look at the itemized list, and think of my huge messes and time I spent. Sorry sooo long!
I just don't see why we should be trying to picture her as the bad guy
Agreed that it has not become nasty at all (and I truly hope it stays that way)s
...Still reading through but i think this advice is golden!!!!
I have learned HUGE amounts from all my fellow cc'ers.
What a great example of why we can NOT all charge the same...Each area is different!
Well, I'm definitely not picturing her as the bad guy, nor do I think anyone else is.
I'm still catching up
When reading the OP's post her tone is that of "shame on all you who charge more than $2 per serving"
You're not on my bad side!
edited to say....nevermind. This is getting beat to death.
And you can whip out that waggling mom finger anytime lady
Just because the OP hasn't posted again in less than 24 hours is no reason to consider her a troll.
I see what you're saying...I just didn't see it that way. I guess it all comes down to interpretation...
Definitely...
I am going to say something that is going to get me into trouble here, but I don't care.
I understand - that all makes a lot of sense!
I totally see how that could be offensive.
What you perceive may not necessarily be what it is.
this topic is ALWAYS of interest to me
It only causes drama, and rightfully so, because....shame on you!
I see your point
Just because it may be a sensitive topic doesn't mean we can't all have a good discussion about it.
Just a good old excel spreadsheet!
I agree with you 100% We think a lot alike ,
It's how I learned! I thought my pricing was fine ... until I learned from the pro's on this site.
Price is better justified in a cake than it is a cup of coffee.
I'm asking because i didn't understand exactly what you were saying.
When did low prices become a bad thing?
You want Walmart prices, then don't commission a custom piece of art work.
Low prices aren't bad and I shop at Walmart
What I wanted to say is that just because YOU wouldn't pay those prices, don't assume that others won't.
The point I was trying to make is that it is not shameful or wrong to sell cake that cost $2 a slice.
I mean what are we doing creating a Black Market for Cake. I am sorry if I offend anyone
this is a very interesting topic.
custom cakes should not be expected to cost that little.
I can't afford my mom's cakes either
FINALLY, an explanation that makes sense to me
If you are being competitive for your area... then you aren't hurting anyone, but do stop and ponder the possibilities.
I'm not as experienced, but my time is worth something
I'm just writing some things to consider while you ponder all these pricing points of view.
idon't think any bakery in my area can compete with that!
She's running a charity huh.
There are many facets to price fixing (which is illegal)
Sounds like this law is dealing with the loss-leader practice heralded by many appliance stores 'n such
Omg! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry I even asked! And I think this has gotten out of hand. I simply wanted to know from some other people like me, who are not running a business what they are charging. I have surveyed people around me and $2.00 a serving makes eyes bug out.
Just to let you know, the angst and aggression in response to my query have made the decision for me. I shall not charge at all, it is ruining my fun. Let them reimburse my supply costs and tip me if they so choose, but I will only do cakes based out of love.
I have never encountered anything like this on this site. Wow, you guys can be pretty tightly wound. Hope I don't tick you off again in the future. Sorry for that.
Y'know what I did? I re-read the thread up to this point and I copied one quote from each post that kind of highlights the care, the quality and the passion involved in responding to your question. Yes a couple of the posts are direct and there is disagreement but other civilly but there's no anger.
This thread is awash with incredible information that a lot of people put a lot of effort in to provide for you so you can have reasonable and credible recommendations with which to fashion your own beliefs based on our legacy to you. You're welcome.
And now I'm gonna shoot real straight so fasten your seat belt. I don't know where the angst or anger was up to this point but here it is for real right now but also in a professional manner.
How dare you dismiss this volume of hard earned advice offered to you for free how dare you dismiss this "in the name of love".
K8, I agree with you, but I just want to throw in, I created a "home & hobby matrix" based on the professional matrix by Alice Keeler specifically to help people determine what their cost is for decorating. I teach Wilton classes here in town (Im your neighbor!) and am always asked by students what their cakes are worth. I always tell them about licensing, who to contact for the State of Tennessee, Dept. of Agriculture and the HD website, but I also tell them about Cake Central so they can start to look at how others are doing things.
Hobbyists have to take the leap at some point to make cakes they plan to sell in the future. Hopefully its "plan". But still, some people who just completed a few Wilton courses will eventually want to sell cakes. Those are the kind of people the "Home and Hobby" matrix was made for.
Basically what I am saying is, I agree with you. I just think that in addition, hobbyists need a starting point to figure out what they are spending to create that 3-tier-cake for their cousin's wedding. I think CC is a GREAT resource for hobbyists as well as the professionals. I just think we need to cut the hobbyists a little slack like jkalman said when he said "I've been there too".
Hey--as you know no one can do this legally in our county. Do you come to the cake club meetings?
I've been saying two dollars a serving give or take for tier cake as a place to start. Less than that is working for cost of ingredients just about. This ain't rocket science.
edited to fix a typo
Hey K8! I have been teaching class the last two meetings which were on Tuesdays (of course it had to be the only weeknight I am busy). I'd love to meet you if I can make the next meeting or Day of Sharing. I'm about 5'4 with curly brunette hair.
Hey K8! I have been teaching class the last two meetings which were on Tuesdays (of course it had to be the only weeknight I am busy). I'd love to meet you if I can make the next meeting or Day of Sharing. I'm about 5'4 with curly brunette hair.
Cool. But fyi I've never made it to a Day of Sharing yet--four hour drive is too much for me when I can get an occassional cake outing in Little Rock at Sam's which is only two hours away.
So but looking forward to it!
Hey K8! I have been teaching class the last two meetings which were on Tuesdays (of course it had to be the only weeknight I am busy). I'd love to meet you if I can make the next meeting or Day of Sharing. I'm about 5'4 with curly brunette hair.
Cool. But fyi I've never made it to a Day of Sharing yet--four hour drive is too much for me when I can get an occassional cake outing in Little Rock at Sam's which is only two hours away.
So but looking forward to it!
Cool! I was thinking about visiting Sam's next time she has a seminar. She is so talented! You didn't come last year to my house when I showed a DVD and we had dinner, didja? I only hosted once, but I thought maybe I got to meet you then! Do you know Joann Thweatt? She and I are good friends 
Hey K8! I have been teaching class the last two meetings which were on Tuesdays (of course it had to be the only weeknight I am busy). I'd love to meet you if I can make the next meeting or Day of Sharing. I'm about 5'4 with curly brunette hair.
Cool. But fyi I've never made it to a Day of Sharing yet--four hour drive is too much for me when I can get an occassional cake outing in Little Rock at Sam's which is only two hours away.
So but looking forward to it!
Cool! I was thinking about visiting Sam's next time she has a seminar. She is so talented! You didn't come last year to my house when I showed a DVD and we had dinner, didja? I only hosted once, but I thought maybe I got to meet you then! Do you know Joann Thweatt? She and I are good friends
Oh shoot! Was that you?? No I did pay Leah for my meal but at the last minute they scheduled an important meeting at church (I'm a deacon)
Yes I know Joann--she's a very sweet lady.
Isn't it interesting how that one Tuesday night gets so much conflict when 99% of other evenings like you said are free free free--crazy!
I don't even remember where the next meeting is going to be...hmm...glad someone will jog my memory about it before too long.
Have you met Elaine the new meeting coordinator? Now I met her at the competition Sam hosted where I did not win anything???? 
Hey K8! I have been teaching class the last two meetings which were on Tuesdays (of course it had to be the only weeknight I am busy). I'd love to meet you if I can make the next meeting or Day of Sharing. I'm about 5'4 with curly brunette hair.
Cool. But fyi I've never made it to a Day of Sharing yet--four hour drive is too much for me when I can get an occassional cake outing in Little Rock at Sam's which is only two hours away.
So but looking forward to it!
Cool! I was thinking about visiting Sam's next time she has a seminar. She is so talented! You didn't come last year to my house when I showed a DVD and we had dinner, didja? I only hosted once, but I thought maybe I got to meet you then! Do you know Joann Thweatt? She and I are good friends
Oh shoot! Was that you?? No I did pay Leah for my meal but at the last minute they scheduled an important meeting at church (I'm a deacon)
Yes I know Joann--she's a very sweet lady.
Isn't it interesting how that one Tuesday night gets so much conflict when 99% of other evenings like you said are free free free--crazy!
I don't even remember where the next meeting is going to be...hmm...glad someone will jog my memory about it before too long.
Have you met Elaine the new meeting coordinator? Now I met her at the competition Sam hosted where I did not win anything????
Haha! Ya, dat was me Thanks for donating towards dinner. I owe you a big slice of lasagna and salad now I haven't met Elaine yet but I hear she is really sweet. Yeah, I'm hoping the next few meetings we could do on, say a Thursday night. Wednesday is "church-night" in our area as you know. I love our cake club. Lots of nice folks. I look forward to meeting you at some point 
luv2cook721 wrote:
I shall not charge at all, it is ruining my fun. Let them reimburse my supply costs and tip me if they so choose, but I will only do cakes based out of love.
Please let us know how it goes Honestly, not to be mean, but people will wear you out... and not on purpose. Maybe then you can reread this thread and hear more of what was being said to help you. You don't sound like a mean person at all- you just sound like someone new to something, is really loving it, and doesn't have the experience to be talking business. Enjoy the honeymoon.
when I first started reading this I to thought there is no way anyone in my area would pay that for a cake but each of you have given me alot to think about I would like to get into making money for my cakes I have only made a few for family and friends at a very low price. I think I deserve more I took classes and I am proud of my cakes. It's hard when your a big softy. But now my prices will be higher. Also can anyone tell me what all you have to do to start a cake business to make it legal? God Bless each of us. I love this site[/img]
when I first started reading this I to thought there is no way anyone in my area would pay that for a cake but each of you have given me alot to think about I would like to get into making money for my cakes I have only made a few for family and friends at a very low price. I think I deserve more I took classes and I am proud of my cakes. It's hard when your a big softy. But now my prices will be higher. Also can anyone tell me what all you have to do to start a cake business to make it legal? God Bless each of us. I love this site[/img]
Thank you five million times.
Nobody has to or is going to agree with anybody on everything but dang that's a wealth of information and I'm happy you see it as such unlike some other people...
Are you in the US? what state?
I don't know off hand but there are many West Virginians on here & if they don't notice this request here--try a new post & you'll get some answers.
<high five>
In West Virginia it varies by county, so give your local heath department a call. They will point you in the right direction. You may be lucky and be able to operate a bakery out of your home kitchen. Good luck.
12 pages in less than 36 hours?!
The answers may not have been intended to be condescending to the OP, but the tone from some of them certainly did. There is no point yelling at her any more, as she told me in a PM she will not be reading this thread any longer.
I do not blame her.
She was made fun of, accused of being a troll, accused of stating those charging more were gougers, belittled because her only training is Wilton courses, and then oh my god - daring not to take the advice that was screamed at her?!
I thought we were supposed to help each other here.
-- I can quote some too...
If you are ok with just getting your cost covered & a tool out the deal knock yourself out. But for those who make cakes and charge their cost and labor to survive & pay bills, how do you even think to ask why not charge $2.00. How are we going to survive off charging $2.00 a serving. You really think thats fair to us? Pricing varies area to area, you do what you want, but it may be unfair to those who do this for an actual living, unlike you, who does this as a hobby. I hope I'm not coming off as beating you up, (cause I'm not trying too), but with the controversial subjects that have been coming across the pass couple of days, and you obviously knowing how people feel about low balling on pricing, it seems your trying to stir up the mixing bowl to me.
When I joined CC and saw the prices people charged, I didn't turn into a whiny wallflower, wringing my hands and mumbling about how "gosh, no one would pay that HERE!" I didn't spend one second worrying about trying to make everyone LIKE me and not wanting to hurt people's FEEEEEEEELINNNNNNNGS with a "high" price.
If you don't want to charge people what a cake is worth ... fine.... then just give them away. But don't walk around pretending that you run a "little cake business". Because unless you are pricing appropriately to cover ALL of your costs, then you're not running a business.
I believe in the *get what you pay for* addage -
If you want to be reimbursed for ingredients for cakes to friends & family then fine, have them buy you the ingredients and you make the cake, but don't come on a cake forum trying to imply (which she blatently did) that others charging more are just gouging the public.
But has anyone wondered why the OP has yet to comment further? Do I smell a pot stirring troll?
When reading the OP's post her tone is that of "shame on all you who charge more than $2 per serving"
It was condescending to legit businesses, regardless of her comments of the fact that she isn't a business, but selling her cakes anyway for a few bucks and a new cake toy.
Her cake pictures are very nice and she is OBVIOUSLY very impressed with herself because she learned to decorate cakes in a Wilton class. Hundreds of people take cake decorating classes every day that doesn't mean they should start selling cakes. If she isn't a legal home baker She shouldn't be selling cakes at all .
I mean what are we doing creating a Black Market for Cake.
How dare you dismiss this volume of hard earned advice offered to you for free how dare you dismiss this "in the name of love".
The answers may not have been intended to be condescending to the OP, but the tone from some of them certainly did.
I agree. Whew - was starting to think I was the only one noticing that. I am glad OP started this thread, I think there's no reason to be afraid of discussing pricing, and I have seen a lot of points explained in ways I hadn't really thought of before. But I definitely picked up on a tone in a few of the posts also.
Come on you guys it's ridiculous to put so much energy into picking apart each and every response here. Do you really think that's productive? All it does is fuel the fire and continue with the bad feelings.
I think we need to keep in mind that the only "tone" that's found in written posts is the tone that we ourselves read it with. 5 people can read 1 post and all interpret it differently.
Isn't it possible to disagree and move on?
Dwelling on it is unhealthy........let's all just get along and forget about this stupid thread.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Okay I didn't read all of this, and I didn't get to where it got ugly but I can offer some friendly advice on pricing.
1st cover your ingredients/ supplies will cost you more than a bakery who buys wholesale.
2. Take into account all of the tools, and your electric/gas that you use, even if it is just in your house.
3. Your time is worth something. You should be paying yourself at least minimum wage per hour for your time, you owe yourself that much for your skill, talent and time. Really you should budget much more in for your time but this should be a starting point.
4. If you can accomplish covering these costs at $2.00 a slice then kudos to you. From my own personal experience, that is impossible for me to do. I'd be losing money at $2.00 per serving.
good luck
O.k. I am a home baker and I started out selling cakes to family and friends at low prices just to get extra money to buy supplies and get experience. I felt kinda bad at first charging more than my local stores because, I felt my work was o.k. But, now since I'm in school spending money to upgrade my skills, I have doubled my prices I was charging at first. I think I charged a little low in the beginning because I didn't think I was that good and I wanted people to try my cakes. But, now since I know and other people know my cakes are great tasting, they're getting a fresh homemade cake and they know my work they're willing to pay whatever I charge. Now, don't get me wrong I'll get some people who think my prices are exspensive, which is o.k. they can continue to go to Walmart. They're happy and I'm happy! But, when you factor in your time, skills, labor and ingredents you'll see things different. I now feel I can charge a higher rate because I'm confident in myself and I have the skills to deliver an awsome cake. But, over time you'll see that you will need to raise your prices or you'll think back to this post and realize that we were right.
I think its about time to put this topic to rest. This is a free country and people can charge whatever they want.If you can get 2.00 and up then thats wonderful if not than you have to decide for yourself if making a cake is worth what you get out of it. God Bless each of you and may your cake business continue to grow.
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