I've been getting so many calls for small cakes, like 6-inch cakes or a smash cake and a few cupcakes. One woman even just wanted a 4-inch smash cake and that was it! I price by the serving, so if someone calls and wants a 6 -inch cake only, I'm not making that much money, and I really truthfully would rather not even do small orders.

So, do any of you have minimum order amounts and if so how do you work it? I really don't want to bother with an order for less than $75.00. How can I do this and still price by the serving? Do I just say something like my smallest cake starts at x amount? Help! I'm so done with these tiny orders that are just as much of a pain as some of the larger ones and I make no money on them!

TIA!

If Duff can have a $1000 minimum, then a $75 minimum sounds very reasonable

Amen Texas_Rose!

$150 for party cakes, $500 (just temporarily lowered from $600) for weddings is what I require.

Okay so I'm not being unreasonable! LOL!

How do you work this with you customers then? Say they call in and want an 8 inch party cake that costs $55 and my minimum order is $75.00, do I tell them that they will have to order a larger cake to equal $75.00 then or tell them that I will do that 8 inch cake but it will cost $75.00 even if I add it up by the servings and it comes to $55.00?

I just don't know how to work that with customers so they don't think I'm trying to rip them off. Thanks!

You make the smallest cake size that you offer $75, or tell them you can do it, but it's still $75.

I have a 250 shekel minimum (I'm in Israel). I tell them that they can have a smaller cake for 250NIS or they can get a bigger one for more.

I agree, there is definitely a price below which it's just not worth turning on the oven!

My minimum is $100. I have had that on my web site for awhile now, mostly to cut down on new customers. But I have just started to apply it to my regular clients. I got a call for a soccer cake for 16 on a Monday, and they asked me to deliver it at 6PM to a restaurant 40 minutes from my home. That would be a single batch of batter, and I have been charging $35 plus tax for that, with free delivery.

I hadn't worked the numbers in awhile, plus a Monday order is rare. I bake everything fresh, but usually it's 5 cakes at at time. So I worked it all out. It takes 4 hours to bake a scratch cake from start to finish, then in this case another hour and 20 minutes for delivery. I discovered that after paying for my ingredients, plys $3 gas, plus 20% overhead, I was paying myself $2.63 an hour.

OUCH! So I explained to my customer that I would have to pass on the order. She offered me $50, and would pick it up at my home on Sunday. I did it, but this was the last time. It;s $100 from now on. Somebody here wrote that she'd rather sit in a clean kitchen and dream about cakes that mess it up for no profit. Amen Sister! That's me from now on.