Why do I have this inability to charge the correct price for my cupcakes?
I started off charging $1.50 each if it was a basic cupcake, then I told myself it needs to be $2. I mean really! Then today I get an order and my head is screaming $2 but I tell her $1.50.
I am annoyed at myself for doing this. I don't have a problem stating that my cakes start at $40 but for some reason I cannot seem to state the price for my cupcakes (or dec cookies for that matter!).
I just need to vent and I know ya'll will jolt me back to reality. 
Keep saying it $2.00, $2.00, $2.00.........and then next time it will fly right out of your mouth!
I do this. In front of a mirror! It really helps!
BTW - I charge $2.25 for a basic cupcake, and have been told a couple of times that I should charge MORE!
Hehehehe...
*THWACK*
I'll throw in a clothes line, a figure 4, *and* a DDT for good measure too.
Remember.. cupcakes are more work than people think. Rather than one big cake to smack some icing on you have 24 little individual cakes to swirl onto... and getting a nice swirl isn't easy either. Tell yourself... "I *will* listen ti the voices inside my head (unless they are plotting world domination)" and "I need to make this worth my time" and "If I don't... some crazy cake lady from NH will come at me from behind with a folding chair if I don't do right by myself"... heheheh.
Seriously though... we have all done the same thing at one time in our caking careers. ((hugs))
Now I don't want to hear you whining in here again about undercharging for cuppies... or I'll come at you with the people's elbow... (and I look no where near as good as The Rock did when doing so). 
(yes... I am a dork who has watched WAY too much wrestling for her own good)
I am not going to slap you, I am going to throw some numbers at you though..The New York Times just did an article on " the entrepreneural fantasy of opening a cupcake shop"... here are some real cost numbers from the article:
For each cupcake she sells, Ms. Lovely figures she spends 60 cents on ingredients, 57 cents on mortgage payments and utilities, 48 cents on labor, 18 cents on packaging and merchant fees, 16 cents on loan repayment, 24 cents for marketing, 18 cents for miscellaneous expenses and 4 cents for insurance. That totals $2.45, leaving a potential profit of 55 cents on each $3 cupcake.
So using those "real life" numbers, ever cupcake you sell at $1.50 or $2.00 is actually taking money out of your children's college funds. Think of it like that....You won't do it any more.
I am not going to slap you, I am going to throw some numbers at you though..The New York Times just did an article on " the entrepreneural fantasy of opening a cupcake shop"... here are some real cost numbers from the article:
For each cupcake she sells, Ms. Lovely figures she spends 60 cents on ingredients, 57 cents on mortgage payments and utilities, 48 cents on labor, 18 cents on packaging and merchant fees, 16 cents on loan repayment, 24 cents for marketing, 18 cents for miscellaneous expenses and 4 cents for insurance. That totals $2.45, leaving a potential profit of 55 cents on each $3 cupcake.
So using those "real life" numbers, ever cupcake you sell at $1.50 or $2.00 is actually taking money out of your children's college funds. Think of it like that....You won't do it any more.
That's an excellent way of thinking of it...
ack! I do the same thing, but I think it's because I don't have a really good cup cake recipe that domes well. My bare cupcakes look kinda lame and flat. If anyone has a good recipe they want to share I would appreciate it. I charge $2.00 also but could probably get closer to $3.00 if I had a good domed cupcake. Pam from Bama
I am not going to slap you, I am going to throw some numbers at you though..The New York Times just did an article on " the entrepreneural fantasy of opening a cupcake shop"... here are some real cost numbers from the article:
For each cupcake she sells, Ms. Lovely figures she spends 60 cents on ingredients, 57 cents on mortgage payments and utilities, 48 cents on labor, 18 cents on packaging and merchant fees, 16 cents on loan repayment, 24 cents for marketing, 18 cents for miscellaneous expenses and 4 cents for insurance. That totals $2.45, leaving a potential profit of 55 cents on each $3 cupcake.
So using those "real life" numbers, ever cupcake you sell at $1.50 or $2.00 is actually taking money out of your children's college funds. Think of it like that....You won't do it any more.
Great article! Thanks for sharing!
ack! I do the same thing, but I think it's because I don't have a really good cup cake recipe that domes well. My bare cupcakes look kinda lame and flat. If anyone has a good recipe they want to share I would appreciate it. I charge $2.00 also but could probably get closer to $3.00 if I had a good domed cupcake. Pam from Bama
I think it's more about the baking technique than the recipe. If you bake 'em hot, they rise quickly and set in the dome shape. Try raising your oven temp a bit. I bake cupcakes at 380.
Just curious, why would you be able to get more $$ with a domed cuppie? Surely once they are iced you can't really tell...? Do you mean a muffin-top shape? One of the local cupcake shops here sells cupcakes that look like muffins with a swirl of icing, but lots of cake still showing round the sides. Personally I think it looks much nicer contained in the paper case with the icing covering most of the cake.
$2! 
just wanted to tell you guys that I did an experiment (cuz I wanna make some ornament cupcakes but don't want to bake the extra sports ball cake to go on top) mainly because I'm boxing them and it would be TOO high for the box......and I don't want to spend the money to get the pan just to do a few cupcakes!
Anyhow.........my thoughts were "my muffins always dome, and my cupcakes don't.......so what's the difference?"
The biggest difference right off the bat to me, was that my muffin batter is always super thick and my cake batter (while pretty thick isn't THAT thick).........so all I did was cut out some of the water in my recipe, left all the oil and eggs and everything else and baked them and they were beautiful!! Nice high dome and no need for the sports ball pan!!!!
I made choc. cupcakes and they were yummy and moist and actually I loved that they were kinda dense feeling like my cakes, not fluffy like cupcakes usually come out (even though the same batter in a cake pan would yield a denser cake)
HTH
It's just a personal choice I guess, I want them to look beefy. I have a perfectionest mentality. I've baked some pretty pittiful looking cupcakes with the same recipe that I use for my cakes. My cakes come out great but put that batter into a cupcake liner and yuck. I recently tried the Magnolia cupcake recipe that uses self rising flour, great look to the cupcake, good dome but taste...sort of thick and bulky. I can't help but think that the recipe makes the difference. I will try lowering the liquid amt and see what happens. Thanks for the advice, this is a good thread. Pam from Bama
COULDN'T HELP BUT OPEN YOUR POST WITH THAT LEAD. LOL I HAVE
THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MY CAKE PRICES BUT I AM GRADUALY INCREASING. WE HAVE TO THINK OF IT AS NOT JUST FOOD, IT'S A WORK OF ART
Pricing is the worst! It doesn't help that I have a close relative who thinks anything over a $1 for a decorted sugar cookie is highway robbery. (So if I can decorate 6 cookies per hour, it's a good deal to get paid $6? Isn't minimum wage up to $7.50 an hour?)
Jaime is good at ((WHAP)) but she'll sink it into you LOL...She ((WHAP)) me too without asking for that one 
Wow! I feel like all these smacks are hitting me too. I have/had the same problem too with pricing. But the ladies/gents just in case here are very helpful. I've learned a lot here
I deserve the WHAP, too! Although, with (almost) every new order that comes in, I've been inching closer to the price I think I deserve and no one has even raised an eyebrow! And now I'm just kicking myself for not doing it sooner! Oh well, lesson learned (and still learning).
PS: I have the "dome" problem, too! Delicious taste but, if naked, they're ugly (only vanilla, though. Not chocolate? Go figure?!!)! haha
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