But how do you figure out pricing? I was talking to DH the other day about making my friend a red velvet cheese cake... like the cheesecake factory’s...and he asked me hypothetically how much I would charge for it. Told him I didn’t know and would have to “research” (read play on my cake site lol) and ask the wonderful cake gods how they go about doing it- ESPECIALLY  I’m home bakers...

I know a lot of you charge per slice. But do you charge for ingredients individually or is that just factored into the price per slice? And if you do charge per ingredient do you charge for the ones you already have? Do you factor in labor-as in baking decorating etc.? Do you add a separate delivery charge? (I won’t have one she wants to do it at my house-this time). Also do you do discounts for friends/families?

again just kinda curious how you all do it. TIA

Read eveeeeery pricing thread on this site lmao  I am a home Baker, I do not charge per ingredient; I don't think that anyone does. I do charge per slice, for flowers, for figures, fondant etc. I know how much each of my recipes cost to make down to the teaspoon of baking powder. One thing though, in the state that you are in, if you're a home baker (licensed? Or under cottage food law?) if you're under cottage food law, are you allowed to sell cheesecakes? That is another thing you'll need to pay attention to if you work under cottage food. I do pay myself an hourly wage; any time my hands are working on anything for the cake, not including baking time. I do charge for delivery outside of a certain amount of miles, and i absolutely do not discount family or friends....it can becomes one of those expected things and can turn ugly fast. If I choose to gift something, I don't ask for anything, but I will not discount a $380.00 cake down to $75....this just happened over the weekend

I agree, reading all the previous posts would be best for this question, especially if you know it’s been asked a million times.

Like stated abouve also, check your state’s law.  I don’t have to to be licensed, but I can’t sell anything ‘perishable’.

I used to charge per cake, but I have recently updated to per slice, to match with the standard as well as give myself consistent pricing.  I recently sat down and figured out how I want to price everything, and really, I’m still learning about it, and may change it as I go.  I can post pictures of my list if you like.

here's a great way -- find out the highest priced place in your area -- get their per serving price -- then figure out how to smash the costs of your ingredients, hidden expenses like utilities, paper towels, hot water etc. and your time -- smash all those costs down down down to as low as you can get and still make a decent profit as well as put out a great product -- a lot of home bakers' profit flies right out the window because of inefficient time management --

i hear people on here say give your self a decent wage of blabla per hour and I just laugh to myself -- if those people really charged that per hour the cake would be priced out of credibility --

so I would suggest that you should start out pricing just above the highest price -- if you can't do that -- then start out just under and make it your goal to be charging more in a year --

if the highest price is thirty five cents a serving then no, don't do that, bad idea kate!  tier cakes should be  anywhere from $4 on up

when I say a cake would be  priced out of credibility I mean for people just starting out

but even still -- it's more profitable to make a couple cakes at one time than just one -- so if you are out to make money which a lot of cakers are not -- they are out to be creative -- if you are out to make money then plan on doing a few cakes at the same time -- determine your servings per week or every other week -- like 300 servings -- so you could do two 100 serving tier cakes and two ten inch cakes or whatever -- think of your capacity -- but you need to allow some wiggle room if one of those tier cake brides decides that 400 peeps are showing up -- buy a freezer and tap a friend or teenager to come help -- easy peasy

I would have to agree that sometimes trying to factor in an hourly cost could be crazy! Especially since your skill level has a lot to do with how quick you are! I do still think it’s importabt to do, and I still like to ballpark an estimated amount of time to charge for.  I have, however, found it easier to just focus on an average per serving cost.  I have gone through on a couple of my recipes and pieces together everything that goes into them, and they do average out to about the estimated ‘per serving’ cost.

I would have to agree that sometimes trying to factor in an hourly cost could be crazy! Especially since your skill level has a lot to do with how quick you are! I do still think it’s importabt to do, and I still like to ballpark an estimated amount of time to charge for.  I have, however, found it easier to just focus on an average per serving cost.  I have gone through on a couple of my recipes and pieces together everything that goes into them, and they do average out to about the estimated ‘per serving’ cost.

that's very cool kitchen6 --

and my posts here are like for base prices -- if you're doing a castle or a pirate ship, designer purse, or something sculpted, or a ton of flowers or whatever -- you have to know how much time it will take you in advance and price it that way too -- and that comes with experience --

but like if you have a bunch of cake fiends on fb -- you're doing a 200 serving wedding -- 150 white cake bride's and 50 choco cake groom's -- and you're capacity is 300 -- well how hard is it to make some extra choc batter and white batter and toss out a few canasta cakes and a few white or yellow 8" cakes -- notify your fb sugar toothers, instagrammers, you tubies, whatever --  and away you go -- so easy to slap on some icing toss 'em in a box -- done -- extra few hundred dollars or so -- why not --

but like I said the goal of most home cakers, I feel,  is to be creative, not make money -- but just some pricing thoughts --

The one ? in your post that I haven't seen addressed is delivery charges.  I never did charge because to me that is included in pricing a tiered/wedding cake.  I mean you would not ask the customer to pick it up - because you know it would never arrive at venue in one peice!  And anything simple - like a non-sculpted bd cake was customer p/u so I didn't concern myself w/delivery charges.   You are going to have to decide how you want to handle that.  I believe a decent charge is something like $5 per mile and that is *both ways* if you do deliver.   You also have to remember if you do the delivering as to where they go; how far apart.  You can't do 5 wedding cakes in one day if they are each 50 miles apart and have to be set up between 3 & 5 p.m. so you might loose a few orders.