I've set a minimum price point but I can't seem to settle on what to offer for that price. Most of the time when someone requests a cake for 10 people I suggest an 8" cake, but that usually ends up in a lot of extra servings. However, a 6" just seems so small for the price! Do you offer 6" cakes? What would you offer when someone requests 10 servings? The price difference between a 6" and 8" by my calculations is pretty small, since they take about the same amount of time to make/decorate.
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Original message sent by Shortkaik
However, a 6" just seems so small for the price!
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Practice repeating to a mirror" I am not my customer"
You have set a price minimum for a reason. Not to be a good value.
However you could add extra to the decoration, premium ingredients, or as you said, the extra cake in the 8".
Or not.
I think lovely decorated 6" cakes are the be all, end all. I love them.
Thank you, that's a good point! The last customer I had I told her I could do a 6" with extra decorations or an 8" with fewer decorations - she initially picked the 6" but changed her mind and went with the 8".
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Yes, definitely 2 layers! I really need to pick a serving chart and stick with it. Every time I get an order I go back and forth on how many servings to quote. Better yet I just need to bake a cake of every size for myself and "test" the serving charts to see what works best! :)
I decided that it's not worth my time to sell single 6 inch cakes, so my policy is that my smallest single cake is 8 inches, and that's that. It's at a very attractive price point, too. I've never had anyone complain.
AI have a minimum order $. I don't care if the person wants a cupcake if they are willing to pay I am willing to make it.
Just make sure your minimum amount covers your time. It takes me just as long to mix, bake, clean up, make filling, make icing, fill and ice a 6" as it does a 10" (okay, baking a 10" takes 20 minutes longer - close enought). So I want that 6" cake to pay as well as a 10" cake because my time invested is the same for the basic work (decorations aside).
Like ellavanilla, I too no longer sell just a 6". Totally not worth it to me.
AI don't sell any single tier cakes anymore at all. It's not worth it for me anymore.
But when I did the smallest I sold was an 8" like you. i always charged for the servings in the cake and told them it was the smallest they could get, and that it's good for 1 week in the fridge. Most people didn't think twice after that lol
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I don't sell any single tier cakes anymore at all. It's not worth it for me anymore.
But when I did the smallest I sold was an 8" like you. i always charged for the servings in the cake and told them it was the smallest they could get, and that it's good for 1 week in the fridge. Most people didn't think twice after that lol
Oh, yeah, definitely charge for the full cake, not the smaller number of servings.
You have to look at your market too. I'm in a birthday party market. A LOT of families with kids here, so the single tier is a big part of my biz.
I just need to bake a cake of every size for myself and "test" the serving charts to see what works best! :)
I don't know what the "industry standard" is in Ottawa, Ontario. Since Ottawa is a large city, there should be enough custom bakeries to determine if the Wilton Cutting Guide is used the most, or if there is another cutting guide that is most commonly used.
From reading thousands of cake posts over the past four years, the industry standard in the USA for pricing purposes seems to be the Wilton Wedding guide. (Please chime in, professional bakers! Is the Wilton wedding guide the industry standard in the USA?)
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-serving-guide.cfm
I would suggest that you determine what the industry standard is for your city, THEN "bake a cake of every size for myself and "test" the serving chart".
When I started this cake hobby in 2010, I ROFLMAO when I was "told" that an 8" x 4" cake will yield 24 servings. Are you kidding me???? was my overall response. Then I was "told" that a 6" x 4" cake will yield 12 servings. That's when I knew for sure that people were funnin' me.
It took some practice to get 22 servings from an 8x4" cake, and it took 4 years before I was able to get exactly 72 servings from my first 12x4" square cake. (Personally I still think that 12 servings from a 6"x4" cake is bogus, but that's just me....)
Telling customers (like I was "told" by instructors and charts and blogs) that a certain size cake will yield XXX servings, and having those same, regular-non-cake-people-customers, actually get that # of servings are two different things. The customer will probably require some education unless a professional venue is doing the cutting.
When I deliver a hobby cake, I provide a copy of a cutting chart diagram and a copy of Indydebi's "how to cut a wedding cake". I also provide 2 food safe, non-latex gloves (which I use instead of a cake comb).
http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/search/label/cake%20comb
In some cases, I also provide a paper or cardstock example of a wedding serving, 1"x2"x4".
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=142470&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
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Yes, that is basically the standard here. I don't care for the look of four inch high tiers though, mine are never any shorted than 5, so they're getting a little more from me already.
and 5 inches is a TALL slice. more than a lot of people will eat, even if it is amazeballs delicious. which, all of ours are, naturally...
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