I recently started my own Cake Decorating business at home, I’m new at this and I’m curious about pricing and how much to charge my customers.I have request for a birthday cake.I dont know how to price this cake.The cake is a 3 tire cake with14",10" and 6" and the decoration as it is on the attached cake,three layers with 3 different flavors.Please help me on this :-)

This question has been asked hundreds of times on here.  Did you do a search?

Hi! Welcome to CC.

The best way to find the charge for this cake is to Figure out the costs of your ingredients and hourly rate for a regular recipe of cake, add it all up, divide it by the number of servings in that recipe and you will have your cost per serving.

After that consider how many servings this cake serves and multiply that number by your serving size. That will most likely give you your base price. Then, add on according to how much time it takes to produce the gumpaste flowers (including the cost of materials ie. cake boards, base, ribbon, external fondant) multiplied by your hourly rate.  

Don't forget to do this for each flavor if your ingredient  cost changes. And also count delivery charge if this is a business transaction. 

Basically, this is something you will need to do for yourself because most  bakers can quote a 3 tiered cake from anywhere between $300 and $1000 depending on ingredients and serving size!

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3203797/width/200/height/400[/IMG] I was wondering how much this would cost?

I have just recently came up with a pricing chart for myself with calculating my ingredients and average time.  I always seem to go over the time estimated but that's usually because I'm trying something new. 
For 6,10,14 inches I would start at $247.00

Welcome to CakeCentral everyone!  Since you are new to the forum, you have no way of knowing that "How to Price this Cake" is THE #1 asked question on this forum. 

Here is a link to a  superb article (and an excerpt from that article).   I also strongly suggest you do a forum search for pricing threads.  (There are literally 100,000's of threads and millions of posts.)

http://www.cakeboss.com/CakeStuff/Articles/HowMuchShouldICharge.aspx

"This is one of the most frequently asked questions by cake decorators when they begin to sell their cakes.  The simple but frustrating answer is that no one can tell you how much you should charge.  Setting a price structure is one of the most difficult parts of any business.  As with real estate, the price of cakes varies widely by location and is largely determined by your local market.  Finding the right price point requires research of your competitors' prices, and a solid understanding of your own costs."

Happy research (and baking!)

I just posted this on another thread. it's long and I suppose most people won't read it :)

Read as much as you can. Beware that a large part of what you will find is a lot of stuff about how to know the cost of your cakes. It's indeed necessary to know the cost in order to know whether it's worthwhile to bother making cake. However, price is determined by the market value of similar work. Just that alone. Period.

But it's important you learn market prices by using the right examples. Often a free standing bakery is charging in line with what you should be charging. But not necessarily. If they are using premade cakes and icing out of a bucket, then you would charge more.

It's very important to avoid using prices from people who haven't done the necessary homework and are charging too little. I'm not saying they don't effect the market, but it's everyone who sells cakes responsibility to charge appropriately. It's also possible that people not charging enough have created a situation in your area where, because prices are so deflated, there's no point in turning on the oven.

Market price is how McDonald's, Macy's and probably the local taco stand do it. This is what you'd find on any business site addressing the subject.

When you only consider your cost and then tack on a wage, it creates a mess for you and anyone trying to make one's livelihood in cakes.

It can be helpful to understand that most of us who endeavor to sell highly decorated cakes are not typically people who can afford this product and those in our social circle are not likely to be either. Therefore, you have to seek a way to identify and reach your true customer. In my experience, they tend to be the same ladies whose closets are lined with $700 shoes. Not that I'm looking in their closets

This may sound like a lot of work, but it's not nearly as much as slaving away for too little pay.

Quote:

That's a great article by Kelley Masters. She and I had a few discussions on the subject of pricing. And the place where we disagree, may be that in my opinion, cake prices should vary, but not as drastically as it's commonly assumed. There's a limit to how little one can charge for cake and still make a living and a limit to what a sane person will pay. The cost of living varies across the country, but cupcakes. for example, don't tend to vary greatly. If you look up the price of  the same cupcake by a national chain, you'll see they charge about the same as they do on Rodeo drive as they do elsewhere.

Now I'm not saying there aren't people charging drastically different prices, but that's happening because people don't know what to charge or because they live in an area that can't support a custom cake business. I definitely have people say they'd rather have one of my cakes, but so-and-so down the road will do the same cake for half to a third of my price.

So here's another beware... beware of falling into the "cakes don't sell for much in my area" trap.  Maybe they don't, but if that's the case, best to stay of the cake biz in that locale. Lamborghini doesn't put a dealership in rural areas - not enough rich people to buy those cars.

Please note, my comments are aimed at highly decorated custom cakes. You can sell "eating" cakes pretty much anywhere.

AVeronica, that's less than $2 per serving. I certainly hope that was a typo.

AThen stop selling yourself short, for Christ's sake. Your posts make me want to slap you.

 OP and Veronica1203 don't be afraid to set standards for your work. By selling your cakes at those prices you are doing yourself a great disservice. You may lose a few customers by changing your prices but you will have your peace of mind knowing that your prices reflect your talent and hard work. So please set your prices accordingly, you're worth it!

Okay, say that you cost out what it takes to make this cake covered in fondant and it comes to $6.00 a serving. You could use the Wilton's or Earlene's serving chart to assist you with pricing your cakes.

 Wilton's                     Earlene's

6"=12                          6"=8

10"=38                        10"=30

14"=78                        14"=65

128                              103

128 X $6.00 =             103 X $6.00= 

$768.00                      $618.00

Then you have to factor in the sugar flowers, what it cost you to make them, and the time it takes to make them.

These are industry standard charts. To say which one is better or worse is another argument. The Wilton's chart is what's used in most bakeries. Most bakeries can afford to be cheaper than you because they buy large quantities of ingredients at a much lower price than you would. You could use that fact to your advantage by saying that you give each one of your cakes individualized attention and detail opposed to a bakery pumping out the same cakes handled by multiple people.

Personally, I would want my wedding cake done by one cake artist in a cake shop or cake boutique that specializes in one of a kind, unique cakes.

Your cake prices should reflect what it actually cost you to make it and your time. If you don't at least charge for that, you are basically cheating yourself. That is why I said you are worth the higher price. You didn't just pull those ingredients out of thin air, you had to pay for them. Your time is worth something too!

Make a sign that says, "My time and ingredients are not free, so why should my cakes be" or "I'm not Walmart, I sell real cakes with real ingredients at real prices".

Let um suck on those lemons!

PS sorry, I see that you posted back

"I think I have a problem with your math, Enga. A 6", 10", 14" cake is going to cost $768 regardless of whether it is 128 Wilton-sized servings or 103 Earlene-sized servings. 128 x 6.00 = 768.00 768.00 / 103 = 7.45 Why? Because larger serving size = larger price."

ummmmmmmm..... Okay Elcee. But the cake is not going to cost 768.00 if a person doesn't understand how to price a cake. I was just trying to help the OP by offering examples  using 2 different serving charts. I use Wilton's chart for serving sizes. I didn't know that if you use Earlene's chart that you charge more for a bigger slice of cake.

Where I live, a fondant covered cake in that size would be around $625.00 and $650.00. I don't know where the OP lives or how much her ingredients cost. Her variables would be broken down completely different than mine.

Good luck with your pricing everyone, remember that you are worth it and price accordingly!

A

Most people do not do it that way...it's great if youve figured all that out. But most ppl just look at the chart and just multiply. Most people, especially new ones do not know earlenes cake chart is more generous, aand will not do the math you did

I don't get it. I know Earlene's servings are more generous but she is saying " I use her serving size of 103 and divide the 103 by the Wilton's serving size amount 768.00". Am I understanding this right?

Wow what a concept, I think I will stick with Wilton's chart.

AI thought she was saying she adjusts her per serving price based on which chart she's using....???... idk lol. Math isn't my strong suit! They just pay me to do cakes hahaha

lol, that did not come out right, this new computer keeps jumping to another page. I meant,  is Elcee taking Earlene's chart amount of 103 and dividing the results from the Wilton's chart ($768.00) to come up with $745.00 or $768.00?

"cake is going to cost $768 regardless of whether it is 128 Wilton-sized servings or 103 Earlene-sized servings."

That sounds like you are making up for the loss of fewer cake servings if you are going to charge $768.00 too.

edited because this windows 8 is new to me.

Thanks Morgan, I had to tighten up my light bulb. Elcee, you are saying that you would charge (7.456) $7.46 per serving if using Earlene's chart.

I don't think there is anything wrong with my math if I stick with Wilton's  

Elcee is right.  Think about it this way.  My 10-inch round cake is going to cost $114 regardless of whether it is cut into 38 Wilton slices or 30 Earlene slices.  You find your price based on the cake in it's entirety, THEN divide by the number of servings you think the customer will get from the cake, regardless of what chart you use.    

I don't know if it matters to anyone,  but Earlene's chart is not based on larger serving sizes. She says she made the chart because she thinks the Wilton chart is wrong. She also discovered this cutting square cake. I can see how a person might have trouble cutting a round cake, but a square? She also qualifies the numbers on her chart by saying she did not draw the pattern on all the pan bottoms and just estimated.

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

In my opinion her chart is helpful in the sense that it brings up the fact that sometimes customers are not going to be able to cut the cake like a pro. Allowance for that should always be addressed. But I would never sell myself short by using her chart to quote a cake. Earlene's cake business was in a relatively small town, Lubbock, Texas, population, 236,000 and she probably dominated the wedding business when she was doing cakes. I'm guessing her competition had to use her chart..

Not the case with most of us.