AHi guys can you tell me how much should I charge for a Chicago bulls jersey shaped cake I'm carving it out of a two layer 12x18 sheet cake and covering it in fondant
AOk so first you need to figure out how much the cake will cost you in ingredients. You can do that by finding the cost per oz(or unit) or each item that goes into the cake and then multiplying that by the amount that is in your cake.
For instance, a 1 pound bag of flour may cost you $4. So one ounce of flour costs you 25 cents. Hypothetically the recipe you are making calls for 5 oz of flour. So the flour in your recipe will cost you $1.25.
Then after you have done that for each ingredient you will be using you need to factor in several other things. For instance your pay rate. How much would you like or expect to make an hour and how long do you think it will take you to complete the cake. If you think you would like to make $12 multiply that to the number of hours you think it will take you to complete the cake. Example - 12.00 x 4hrs = 48.00.
Also you need to take into account how much it costs you to run your business. Liscense fee, electric bill, water bill, advertising, rent, cost of equipment (all of it). Add all of those costs for a month together and then divide that by how many orders you think you will be completing that month.
After you figure out all that, add it up and then add some more if you choose. Good luck.
Ok so first you need to figure out how much the cake will cost you in ingredients. You can do that by finding the cost per oz(or unit) or each item that goes into the cake and then multiplying that by the amount that is in your cake.
For instance, a 1 pound bag of flour may cost you $4. So one ounce of flour costs you 25 cents. Hypothetically the recipe you are making calls for 5 oz of flour. So the flour in your recipe will cost you $1.25.
Then after you have done that for each ingredient you will be using you need to factor in several other things.
For instance your pay rate. How much would you like or expect to make an hour and how long do you think it will take you to complete the cake. If you think you would like to make $12 multiply that to the number of hours you think it will take you to complete the cake. Example - 12.00 x 4hrs = 48.00.
Also you need to take into account how much it costs you to run your business. Liscense fee, electric bill, water bill, advertising, rent, cost of equipment (all of it). Add all of those costs for a month together and then divide that by how many orders you think you will be completing that month.
After you figure out all that, add it up and then add some more if you choose. Good luck.
Do you use a program to figure your ingredients cost?
AIve tried a matrix before, but I am an excel dummy. Im still trying. To figure out the ingredients cost find out how many oz are in one package of an ingredient. And then divide the cost of the whole product by the number of oz to find the cost per ounce. If your recipe is in cups a helpful tool to converting to oz can be found on the king Arthur website. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/master-weight-chart.html
I set up an Excel document earlier this year to finally be able to price my recipes much easier. It was a lot of up-front work, but now it's simple to use and as the ingredient prices change, it will recalculate all the recipes automatically. One sheet is the list of ingredients with their price per ounce, then I have one with the approximate oz per cup/Tablespoon/teaspoon of each ingredient, then I have separate sheets for each category of recipe. All the candies on one, fudge on another, cakes on a third, etc. Then each recipe has the ingredient amounts listed, and I inputted the formula so it would multiply the number of cups by the number of ounces in a cup, by the price per ounce. Then I have it so it adds it all up, adds tax, and gives me the final ingredient cost. So if the price per ounce of white chocolate changes, I just change that on the first sheet and every single recipe that has white chocolate in it will be updated with the new total. Very handy.
Most stores have the price per ounce on the price label already, so you don't have to divide it out yourself. Of course, that means you have to take around some paper and jot down the price per ounce of every ingredient. 
I got some odd looks when I was wandering around with my clipboard...
ASomeone gave me.something like that. They worked really hard on it and it was beautiful. But I messed up the ingredients list some how and messed the whole thing up and confused myself. Now I haven't been able to get back to a computer to try and work on it.
I am not an Excel expert at all, and I know my document could probably be better if I was more familiar with Excel. I had to search the help files and Google questions trying to figure out how in the world to use it. Haha! 
AAs long and it works and ia useful! That's all you need!
I do use Excel, not to it's full potential but I can do simple formulas -
This is from another thread that I bookmarked - you can change amounts, prices and add ingredients - http://bakecalc.com/
AThere's a program called cake boss I know like the show lol but its on you tube and it has everything u need to calculate prices and ect ect I just saw it
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