Hi all

Brand new at selling and I could really do with some advice!

How much should I charge for a standard Christmas cake - on average?

Fruit cake, with marzipan and royal icing - plus decoration.

Not sure what size to offer people - what's the 'standard?'

REALLY hoping you can help as I've got people asing and I'm stuck!

Thanks all

Vicki

How much does it cost you to make them? How much time does it take? How much is your time worth? And how much do you want to make off of them?

This is the problem I'm having - actually working out the costs!

Think I'm going to have to sit and price everything up and work it out from there!

Not bothered about charging for my time - it's a hobby for me and if I can help monthly bills get paid a little easier then great, but no overheads or anything to worry about.

I'd like to make as much as possible from each one without going overboard - so I'll have to sit and do some maths I think!

Every Christmas I offer Christmas cakes in light or dark fruit, apricot raisin and cherry flavours. I only make 6" cakes (3" high) because I can get two cakes per batter. I've been charging $20 each for them decorated. I only offer them in a simple buttercream finish, not fondant. (I'm thinking about raising that to $25 this year so each batter earns me $50) Expenses run about $10-15 per two 6" cakes depending on the flavour. The design is my choice and "as is" with no input from customers. They are not custom cakes!

The very first thing I do is premake some buttercream or royal icing poinsettias and leaves and I pre-make a batch of the red and green icing so I have access to it for the full Christmas season. I just pop the icing in the freezer and take it out as needed. Flowers and leaves are premade as well so I just use them as I go along.

With all these things, it's a quick and simple product to offer. I do have some pictures of these cakes in my photos if you want to take a look.


Good luck!

Yep you do have to figure out what it costs you to make it, other wise you can't charge correctly.

Hobby or not, your time away from your life, your family and so on is worth something. I don't give up my free time for nothing, and since I work a full and part time job my free time is already limited.

And while you may not think you have overhead there are still things you need to take in account for. While you may not have a seperate energy or water bill, you are still adding to your regular bills when you do cakes. So not taking that into account when you charge is costing you more money than it actually is helping you bring in money to pay the bills.

save your grocery receipts and create a file and start entering how much eggs, butter, milk, etc. cost. Divide it by 12 for eggs, oz. or cups, tbl, tsp, and such for other stuff. then I write next to the recipe how much it cost me to make (don't forget frosting or icing for your cakes) and double or triple your cost to make your money. add in costs for your baking and time too.

Colleen

Saving your receipts is a good idea, but you should also make notes of items that were on sale when you bought them if the receipt only shows the sale price. You want to base your numbers off the regular prices.