How do I decide what to charge people for regular cakes vs. wedding cakes?  I'm still pretty new and don't feel like I should be charging what top bakeries do (my clients are mostly friends of friends who, like me, can't always pay top dollar) .  However, I don't want to under charge too much and be disrespectful to the local bakeries.....

ADefine regular cake.

I'd advise you to type that question into the search bar and read the millions of posts on the subject rather than start a new thread on it. Best of luck x

sorry, regular meaning not wedding.  Birthday, graduation, work event, etc.  I was told that those are considered "party" cakes and you charge less than for a wedding cake so I didn't know if you use better ingredients for a wedding cake, or why it would be different and how to determine pricing.

Ah, my first couple of threads would tell me if it was a question that had been asked a lot before before submitting so I assumed since it wasn't doing that that maybe it hadn't been.  I did go ahead and try "pricing" in the search and yes, there are a ton so thank you for that helpful hint cakebaby2!

ASo in your experience, have those party cakes been easier to make? Used less ingredients? Less time to make details?

I am a self employed florist who works out of a room in my own home,  I don't care for clients who don't pay top dollar, those are the clients I send to Tesco for their flowers.

I don't charge less for my creations than another florist with a storefront because I cant buy flowers cheaper than they do.

My business is legal and I pay my taxes on my income just the way storefronts do, why would I be cheaper?

No, they take the exact same amount of time.  The only thing that I could imagine taking more time is all of the flowers if they wanted fondant/gumpaste flowers instead of real ones.  That would take longer.  That"s why I was asking, to me they should cost the same because I do them with the same amount of time and effort....

Thank you cakebaby2, Good point!

AThen there's your answer. They don't cost anymore or less, simply because the party has a label of some sort. And most of us don't say an eight inch serves different amounts for different occasions either. My eight inch serves what it serves regardless of occasion.

momo4s, that's right, cake is cake, I don't care what you are celebrating it does not change how I make the cake.

My cake prices were the same, I charged more for tiered cakes.

I charge more for wedding cakes (torted cake with four layers or cake and three layers of frosting) per serving than I do for party cakes (my definition is two layers of cake and one layer of filling) for the following reasons:

1)  Torting - it takes time (albeit not much) to torte(sp?) a cake, but if you want it done right, you must pay attention.

2)  More filling - I've weighed out the amount of filling I would use for an 8" party cake vs. an 8" wedding (or torted cake) and I do use more filling for a torted cake.  You also have to consider more material cost for the dam.

3)  Frosting - There is definitely more frosting on a torted cake vs. a party cake simply for the height of it all.

4)  Weighing and Trimming - Dealing with one bulging layer of filling vs. three bulging layers of filling after weighing down the cake is more work.

Individually, these all seem like small amounts of time, and they are, but add them together, thrown on some fondant and decorations, and your material cost has definitely increased.  I've taken that into consideration and added what is appropriate for me to the per serving price of a torted cake.

Something to take into consideration that I'm thinking about these days is to actually start using 1" tall pans and just making my wedding cakes three layers tall with two layers of filling.  I have to consider that with this configuration, there will be less cake batter used (3-1" pans vs. 2-2" pans), but I suspect more filling will be used; however the labor hours spent torting a cake would no longer exist.  I'll be posting a question here pretty soon to get feedback from bakers and designers who have way more experience than I do.

AIf you legitimately do more work for a certain cake, then by all means, charge more. To make my point as simply as possible, a three tier cake with three gumpaste roses on it, costs the same whether the person who ordered it calls it a wedding cake, or a birthday cake.

A

What AZ said.....pricing is not some random option that depends on the label given to a cake....it depends on the materials, the amount of labour, and even on your market forces!