Hi guys, I am just curious how much one person should be able to handle in 40 hours... How many cake/cupcake/dessert bar orders can you do a week, from start to finish, baking to delivery, setup and pics in 40 hours? Let's say the average servings is 100. Would love any input. Getting crap from work for working too many hours but when i'm doing 3-4 events a week and it's just me doing everything, it takes time. Wondering if i'm just slow? I've done up to 5 wedding cakes in one weekend (10 if you count that each one ordered an additional sheetcake to go with) But that was with a slow week the week before and lots of planning and pre-production work. Thanks guys!

What's a 40 hour work week? Haven't had one of those in years - lol.

I have an open shop and work 70-90 hours a week, have a full time assistant that works about 45 hours, a part time barista (28 hours) that takes the customer load off, and a part time dishwasher (24 hours) that takes care of most of the cleanup. We can do 800-1000 servings of wedding cake and up to 12 birthday cakes in one week.

bakingkat: no, you are not slow, they are just cheap and wanting to not have to pay you what you are really worth and I am wondering if you are working in a franchise type bakery?

many years ago I worked for such a place and while I was not one of the bakers, I had many responsibilities and instead of a 40 hour work week which didn't start till 1:00pm and was supposed to end at 10:00 pm everynight I had a 48 hour week and they were complaining about that. Getting my duties done after the normal(supposed)closing time was a joke. you might not be super busy all night, but just steady enough you couldn't do your nightly duties ahead of time and then when you were supposed to be closed and get your duties done you still were required to watch the front anyway and wait on customers if they walked up and wanted something and still be done and out of there by 10:00. The bakery was supposed to close at 9:00p.m. then you were to do your nightly duties of cleaning up. Well that was a joke. instead of coming when the bakery was open we would have at least 10 customers or more walk up to be waited on after hours and we could tell them the bakery was closed, but if they wanted something we still had to wait on them and still get out of there by 10:00. Do you think they made their decisions quickly even though they knew we were closed, of course not. We stiill had to wait till they had made their decision and take care of that customer courteously. On top of this I went to school full time and would fall asleep on the couch every night trying to study. So I know what you mean. They want quality, but you must do it w/in the 40 hours no matter how much other junk we want to pile on you. I kept telling my boss that I was not fooling around, but when you can' get your work done after hours because you still have to watch the front while you are trying to clean up and wait on anyone when they want something that takes time from cleaning away. I told him I am going to school full time a well and how do you expect me to have time to study when I have to go through this every night? It is a certain mentality, called greed.

I am not in a franchise type bakery. It's kinda my own bakery, but with owners who think they know things. First off, they started our pricing way too low, which makes sense why they don't want me working too much because we're not getting paid enough for what I do. They have venues and are used to their chef being able to put out 10 parties a week, so they wonder why I can't also. I've told them to just make me salary because I care more about making my bakery succesful then I do getting paid for those extra 4 hours a week. (Yes, this came about because of 4 extra hours!) They told me they'd like to see me at 40 when it's slower but I can get up to 44 before being in OT, so that's what I did. I already treat it like salary, if i'm working too much I clock out and make up for it sometime else. I guess I just have to manage my time better and do more "cheating". Soon I'll end up with a whole week off in make up time. Vacay for me! lol

Perhaps they'll appreciate you more when you go on vacation!!
Some people don't appreciate what they have, until it is gone.

bakingkat: were they pricing things low until you had a reputation? If you now have a good reputation why not suggest that they hike the prices up a small bit and you still work what you all agreed on. say maybe in a year or two then up the prices again till where they are fair for both of you. the owners and you. just another idea. I think that I agree with someone else that said sometimes people don't know what they have until they don't have it any more. well that won't be the case as you will just be on "vacation", but if it has to come to that before they realize your value than that is a good thing.

If I worked 40 hours, I could probably do four average weddings. If I had to make a living out of that, it wouldn't be easy!

Thanks guys! We did start pricing low since we were new and had no reputation. But I consider the venue to be very reputable and with built in clients they're just going with the convenience of getting everything in one place. It's in my contract that I can only take vacation when there is nothing in the books (obviously since i'm the only person making the cakes) so they won't notice anything, lol. We only started back in February so maybe come feb we'll talk about raising prices. We'll probably be pretty slow until then so my time won't be an issue.

bakingkat: so then how do you get to take credit hours if you can't take off if there is something on the books? I wasn't talking about Vacation earlier. That is why I put quotes on it. I was talking all your accrued over time. Well, I will leave it at that. I can see that you have it figured out and that is good.