Help!! Pricing - Serving Question!
Decorating By jessieb578 Updated 22 Jan 2007 , 9:27pm by jessieb578
OK, so I have a cake for 40 people, chocolate with amaretto/mocha icing. I'm thinking of doing two tier 14" round or an 11X15 size. It's for a retirement party. Is this enough cake and where the heck do I start to charge?? Keep in mind, I'm in an area that is not the cake mecca of the world....the only place people go is Price Chopper.
I'm thinking of charging $40?? Is that too low?? A full sheet cake here at Price Chopper would be $35....any suggestions??
Everyone always says the x3 method - multiply your cost x3. But it also depends on how you will be decorating it. If you stack and 11x15 with filling, the serving size should be OK. If you want to get your name out there keep the prices as low as you can go to start out too. $40-60 sounds right to me. We charge $65 for a basic decoration on the 2 layer 11x15 - thats with BC icing - fills/flavors more.
Where are you located?
Thanks so much!!! I'm in Catskill, NY. A small town in the Catskill Mountains. I'm the newest to baking in the area and there is not one single baker in the area, only something like a WalMart or Price Chopper and while I know that I shouldn't compare to them, I know what people are used to paying and I don't want to price myself out of the market! If I were in NY City, there would be no problem, but here it's tough.
OK, so I have a cake for 40 people, chocolate with amaretto/mocha icing. I'm thinking of doing two tier 14" round or an 11X15 size.
Wow, those seem like two different size cakes. When you say "two tier 14", do you mean a 2-layer 14" round (like a full bottom tier of a wedding cake)? A one-layer 14" pan takes 2 to 2.5 cake mixes, so a two layer would be 4 or 5 cake mixes. An 11x15 pan takes 2 cake mixes. So if you're doing one or the other, it sounds like you're making cake for either 25 or 60, depending on how big the pieces are.
(An 11x15 cut into 2x3" squares would be columns/rows of 5x5=25 pieces.)
$40 is definitely too low for a 2-layer 14" round.
Ohh boy, am I lost. I mean two layer 14" round or a two layer 11X15 - wouldn't these be sufficient to feed 40? All of the information I'm finding is contradictory! One site says a 14" round feeds 30 and another site feeds 40 - where is the continuity??? It's very hard to learn if you're just starting out! Oh and I'm baking from a box.
OK! A 2-layer 11x15 makes sense to me now! I miss read your first posting, then! 
I tell my folks that a 2-layer 11x15, cut in 1x3" pieces, will serve about 50-55. (columns and rows of 11x5).
I have one chart in my file that says a 14" serves 56 pieces, but they are figuring 4"(tall)x 2"(wide) x 1.5"(deep). I cut wedding pieces 4x2x1, so I tend to get more pieces from one of these.
So your big question may be to find out what size pieces they are expecting.
Thanks so much....I don't know what size they'd expect, but hopefully I'll come up with a good guideline soon!
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