I'm making my firs Vegan cake this month. The ingredients are so much more expensive (because it's for allergy reasons, so nothing processed, even vanilla!). Anyway, I have my normal cake pices solid, this one seems excessive. using my normal formula, I get about $20 for a single layer 8 inch cake... That just seems ! What do you guys charge? The ingredients were about $12, so of which I can use somewhere else I guess.

$999. I price less than Charm City in order to remain competative.



Seriously, though here's ALL you need to take into consideratoin:
1) cost of ingredients including shipping or gas + wear and tear on your vehicle to go to the store
2) cost of utilities used while making and decorating: electricity, gas, water.
3) how long it took you x how much you want to make per hour

If you know that, then you can figure out how much to charge for ANY cake.

Doesn't that figure to $1.66/serving? Doesn't sound like too much to me.

So if I'm reading and understanding correctly your costs are $12 and you're asking if $20 is too much to charge?

You would walk away with $8 before the cost of utilities, box, board, etc?

I say that $20 is not enough. You'd be making less then $1 an hr to shop, mix, bake, fill, ice, clean up, and package.

Is that correct? Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

I'm in one of the vegan organic granola hot spots of the US - Burlington, VT. Charge at least $40 for a specialty ingredient cake - it's worth it. Sourcing the ingredients is enough trouble as it is!

oh, no I was including all costs but labor. for normal cakes I charge a flat $1 per serving for just the cake, nothing else. The rest is additional based on time (I pay myself $20 an hour). so normally a nondecorated cake is pretty cheap. I don't know. I guess it's the price it should be, but I just think of what I would say if someone asked $20 for a little flat pancake of a thing with no filling.

then again, there is nowhere around her that does vegan stuff so I guess they woud probably pay whatever to give their kid a birthday cake. I suppose they MUST be aware of how much these ingredients cost since they have to feed the kid anyway.

Humph...


oh, and I also keep my price under charm city. when someone gasps at $450, I remind them that the closest place is awesome and they can check their prices. Then I attach Pink Cake Box, Carols, and Charm City. It's true, they are all AWESOME, but I'm in a small town where people are poor and we are hours from all of them How about that for a side bar!

No $20 is too cheap. Have you checked out vegan prices? Super expensive.

I couldn't find any local vegan prices because there aren't local bakeries that do it. with cost of living being so different all over country I didn't want to use something off amazon

now I don't feel so bad though since every seems to get that they are expensive. i guess it's just out of my normal because i'm used to seeing a bigger cake for the same amount.

My base price for a BC 8" round is $50.

Prterrell- wow, really! I could never get that much around here. for a decorated one, sure. Is the cost of living high where you are?

see WWWW.babycakes.com


or cafe gratitute.com


I am a vegan and rawvegan and cakes cakes sell for $55-60 in NYC.

I would charge at least $49-$59. It is all organic.

Type vegan cakes in your area and see what other bakers charge.

I start decorated 8" party cakes at $75.00.. so no... I don't think $20.00 is too much at all. Vegan ingredients are pricey... I'd charge more for a vegan version.

Obviously they have know that your equipment has touhed animals products before, but some vegans wouldn't appreciate that fact so it is worth bringing up with them.

You say you are paying yourself $20/hour, but are you really? How many hours does it take you to bake/decoate/clean up? I doubt it's 1 hour, and if you are charging $20 for an 8" cake... even if it takes you an hour, you are not getting $20/hour... you are getting $8/hour after your ingredients. Definitely not enough.

I charge about $60 for a simple 8" round, unless I like you, then I charge $59. For vegan it would be a little more than that if I can use the leftover ingredients, or a lot more if I can't.

I wouldn't worry about them being offended at the price for a "flat pancake." Vegans know how expensive stuff is, and they're going to expect it not to be cheap. You charge $20 and they will rob you blind to make more.
Plus, are you going to be able to use what ingredients are leftover? Do you have a use for chickpea/brown rice flour/agave syrup...etc. When I have to purchase a specialty ingredient for a cake, I charge them for the ENTIRE package, not just the cup or ... I used. I don't think you're being completely honest with yourself about the cost.

Vegan baking is not the same as gluten free. So you can use wheat flour and vegan cane sugar which you can use in your normal baking. Where it will get you is in the fat and egg substitutes. Since vegan "butter" is pricier than normal butter and egg replacers are pricier than just eggs. If you need sour cream ou will have to use the soy version which is more than the dairy version.

Vegan baking doesn't have to be all spelt flour and wheatgrass...

uh, I don't think I should charge anything for this now. GROSS! I made one tonight and the smell was even bad. I think maybe I just hate soymilk???? Guess I'll have to try another recipe.

this isn't for an actual vegan, it's just a little boy allergic to eggs and milk and most recipes avoiding those are vegan by nature. I'm going to have to find another recipe!
maybe I should have used the water instead of soymilk. I thought the vanilla milk would have been better?!

Maybe you should try PM'ing kellertur....she's a member here.

She's a Vegan baker and I know she's very helpful and could maybe share one of her recipes with you. I think she even has some loaded here in the recipe section.

Vegan stuff is not cheap so charge what you have to charge.

the recipe exactly: just said to mix and bake. the batter didn't taste bad at all. reminded me of a blond brownie.
1.5 c flour
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
1 tbs white vinegar
1 inch of seeds from vanilla bean (he's allergic to the color in normal vanilla, so I used this instead of 1 tsp of extract)
1 cup vanilla soy milk.


I thought this sounded good. the smell is just nasty and it's got a meaty taste, don't know how that is even possible!!!????

Meaty taste...wow...not good! Try this one:

4 1/2 c. AP flour
2 1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 c. vanilla soy milk
2 Tbsp vanilla (you can make vanilla by putting vanilla bean in vodka)
3/4 c. veg oil
3 egg equivalents (Try the Ener-g brand)

Line 3- 8" pans, preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients to flour mix. Beat for 2 minutes. Bake for 20-30 minutes, tester should come out clean. Don't overbake, cool on a cooling rack.

Can he eat chocolate and soy? The chocolate vegan cakes taste better than vanilla, IMO.

And don't forget on my birthday to charge $499 and not $500!

stink. everyone on another thread gave me recipes too and they aren't too far off from mine and recipeczar's. I think it might be that I hate soy milk. I'm going to try another liquid. everyone says that they are good. is it possible that I'm just nuts! but I really think they taste bad! SO bad that I would be embarrassed to give them to someone even for free!

Try Scott Clark Woolley's Banana Cake recipe. It's vegan and it's good. My vegan clients really like it.

Vegans also understand how the cakes taste...unless they are new vegans. They understand that the cakes are dense and thick and seem more like a pound cake muffin. We don't like most of the vegan recipes we make, however, our vegan clients do.

If they don't have nut allergies, you can also use almond milk. You can also use rice milk, rice flour, etc.

it's for an allergy kid, so I don't think they'll understand the taste... I will say that I brought a piece to work today to have a former vegan try it. She said it was great, and that the smell is normal...it's just the soy and that is always smells like that when you cook it. Well, that makes me feel better. I guess I'll just think that it's gross! I might add a little cinnamon to try to tone down the soy flavor. he's allergic to nuts too, so almond flavor is out.

thanks for all your help!