I had a friend from my Anatomy and physiology (pre-med whop whop!) email me last week asking if I could make an anatomical skull cake for his birthday cake! I am so excited to do it, but I was wondering how much a cake like that would sell for in a bakery? Its going to be very cool, I am going to cover it in a combination of modeling chocolate and fondant so I can easily sculpt the bones of the face and all of the suture lines in the skull, as well as all the little teeth I will post pictures later once I finish it...but how much would every one on here charge??

Thats going to depend on how complex it is and the size. Personally I price all my sculpted cakes individually (as opposed to a per slice price) because each one is so unique. My sculpted cake base price is $95 (meaning even the simplest 3D cake will be at least $95) and then I add $25/ hr to that based on the time I anticipate the project taking beyond 1 hr and also any extra for particularly large cakes or extra support pieces or ingredientd (ie Modelling chocolate). Assuming the skull is a smaller piece I would guess, the way I price, that I would charge about $225 rough & tumble. Everyone charges differently though and a lot has to do with your area and what the going rate for cakes are where you live. Some areas tollerate much higher prices than others.

The cake I will prob start out with 4-8in round cakes, but after sculpting, I may end up with a much smaller cake! Our area can't handle say NY prices, but I live in South MS with all the casinos and "gourmet" bakeries surrounding, so prices around here are much higher than I expected when I first got into this! I know that for a designer purse cake to feed around 20, I could expect to pay $325-$350 at a local bakery...Is that about what others around the country charge? The hardest part about trying to start up a business I think is the pricing! Thanks for your reply

I know when I moved from Chicago to Greensboro, NC I had to tweak my prices (downward unfotunately). You may want to contact some of your competition in the area for a cake quote. I do this periodically to make sure I am staying within a reasonable distance of the competition price wise.