I will be opening my new storefront in early May. I plan to have dessert cakes to be purchased by the slice in store. I use the Wilton chart now for my pricing for my "regular" order cakes. I am thinking of slicing the in-store cakes a little larger and charging more per slice for them. Anyone else do this? Any ideas or comments? I will have sit down with drinks also. Thanks for any input.

Joanne

[quote="SpudCake"]I will be opening my new storefront in early May. I plan to have dessert cakes to be purchased by the slice in store. I use the Wilton chart now for my pricing for my "regular" order cakes. I am thinking of slicing the in-store cakes a little larger and charging more per slice for them. Anyone else do this? Any ideas or comments? I will have sit down with drinks also. Thanks for any input.

curious... what is the wilton chart?

I'd find out what a slice of dessert cake costs at the restaurants nearby and price accordly! Accordingly!

An 8" round cake, sliced is usually sliced into 8 wedges (at least that's what we did at the Publix bakery when preparing the "cake by the slice"). Depending on the kind of cake (gourmet or not) you should be able to charge around $5-$7 or so per slice.

HTH

My local custom cake shop also serves lunch and cake slices to go.

The cake slices are 1x4x4 and they sell for $5.00 slice (any flavor).

HTH

If I were cutting the cake in cessert sizes like that, I would do a wedge cut instead of the squares. So I would say do an 8in cake and cut it in to 12 slices.

I think off the top of my head the 8in servings 24, so if you normally charge $2.50 a serving then I would charge $5 a serving for the wedge, since they are getting twice as much cake.

3littlebees, personally I wouldn't charge less for a carrot cake with cream cheese icing because in the long run you are usually spending more on the ingredients. I would do a nice border on it, and you can always do some simple decoration or cover the sides in chopped nuts to 'dress it up.'

I recently stopped a successful cake shop in a town about 150 miles for me (we dont have any near by). For their cake by the slice they had 4-5" high, i would estimate about 6" across rectangle cakes. There were 2 layers of cake and 1 layer of filling. I'm sure i'm not describing these well but they were long rectangles. It was so easy for them to slice off a piece at the end with the rest staying very much intact. Only one surface to cover to avoid it drying out.

TexasSugar, that is exactly what I was thinking of doing. An 8" cut into 12 slices. I normally call an 8 inch round 20 servings but for by the slice size I thought about cutting it into 12 instead. Guess I wasn't too far off track.

Joanne

I think the wedge vs squares is a nice way have them different. Other wise you may get the why am I paying 50% more for this slice than a cake kind of questions.

Just figure out what your price per cake is using the 8in. If you normally charge $3 a serving for it, then it would be $60. Take that and divide it by the number of slices you cut. So the wedge cut would be $5 a serving.

Are you putting this cake on a plate and serving it at a table? If so, remember you had to buy those plates and if they are not disposable you will have to wash the plate and fork or pay someone to do it. Also, if you have a place to sit, you are paying rent on that space. It isn't just the price of the cake you have to consider. Don't forget your overhead.

On the other hand, if you just give them the single serving in wax paper and a bag and they go away, it is just the time it took to serve them, which may be less cost to you. There still is the cost of stopping work on an expensive wedding cake so you can sell a $5.00 piece if cake, but that may be less of an issue, unless you are paying a counter person and then you still have to factor that in.

Yeah I am working on figuring that in. That is why I will charge more per serving when sold individually, even though that slice will be slightly larger I will still make more money on the cake that is sold by the slice. It will be a learning curve for sure.

Joanne

I'd cut them in wedges, I think that looks lovely plated as a "dessert". I think rectangles look more "catered".

Maybe you can figure how much you need to profit off the entire cake...and then after that decide how many slices you need to cut it into, and how much to price them.

I'm working with a restaurant right now to possibly sell them dessert cakes...its hard to price my own work with enough profit but that they can raise it even more to cover THEIR overhead and have both of us happy. haha. I think it will work out okay though! I'll be making 9" cakes and they will be slicing them into 10 pieces....possibly 12 I guess, that's up to them. I suggested 10.

I do plan to cut into wedges. I think that looks much nicer. My cake prices vary from just standard flavors starting at $40 for 8 inch and up for carrot, etc.

Joanne

That being said my $40 (8inch) I call 20 servings as a decorated whole cake but as a cut cake, cut into 12 slices I should be able to make $4-$5 a serving and make about $20 more per cake when sold by the slice. Kind of like when you buy in bulk it is cheaper but by the slice it will cost you more.

Joanne