Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Hi,
I made a two tier book cake recently, although I am only a home baker. I added lots of detail and charged £40. It all depends on what type of cake you use and filling etc…
I am sure other members will be able to advise you as well.
Im a home baker and would charge around £40-£50 for a single tier, and would charge between £70-90 for two tiers. Prob £70 for a book. first work out what the the bits n bobs and costs are then you need to decide what profit you want. do you want so much per cake or so much for each hour you spend on it. its that simple.I think we all struggle – i think lots of us dont like asking a fair price for the cakes we make,especially when we work from home even though hours of work go into each one. You will always get those that want a cake for £20 and wont pay-let them go. also look around at what others are charging in your area to, that helps as a guide. hope my waffle helps. good luck
sharon x
Hi sinfullyd
It would depend on what size the cakes are and whether you are baking them as a business or hobby. Custom made cakes take time to bake and decorate so you wouldn’t want to undersell yourself. First have a look around online or in your local bakeries to see what they charge. Price up all the ingredients, board, ribbons and dowels and add to that how many hours you think it will take you to prepare, bake and decorate each cake. The hourly rate you pay yourself may have to be determined on your skills, but £20 an hour is not unreasonable because you are producing a cake to order. Add to that your running costs in electric/gas and any delivery charge if the customer isn’t collecting. If you just want a straight forward one off price I would search in google to see what other people are charging for a two tier decorated cake. Hope this helps a little.
this cake pricing question is very interesting for me and I must say very helpful. There is no way do I charge £20 an hr, and I always forget the electricity etc etc,much to my accountants protest. Recent 10in sq fruit cake with hand made sugar flower arrangement and I charged £45 …. madewithlove am I well out ? appreciate your advise… you have been mentioned on a few tutorials so value your help if you don’t mind.xx
Hi cjhar7
Yes you have grossly undercharged for your cake. Have a look at this http://www.refreshce.co.uk/weddingcakes.asp, scroll down to the single tier elegant fruit cake and you can see what other people do charge. While I’m not suggesting that you charge the same, £45.00 is not a realistic reflection of today’s prices. If you look here http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/how-to-decide-on-the-cake-portions you can see from the chart the amount of portions your cake would have given the customer, so they had a very inexpensive cake indeed. Another example I can give you happened to me seven years ago. For my hubby’s 60th birthday I had an 8″ square fruit cake baked as I wasn’t well enough to do it myself. The lady baker charged me £75.00. It was iced, no decorations except for an edible image which I provided and she stuck on. I don’t know where you are located but I would really recommend that you have a scout around to see what your competitors are charging. I feel you’d benefit from the Pro courses which are designed to help people in business ‘how to’ with confidence. I feel a little sad to think that all your hard work wasn’t properly rewarded. If you want to discuss the possibilities of joining the Pro course ,drop David Brice an email here [email protected]. David’s such a lovely, calm man, he’ll be more than happy to talk you through everything you need to know. Finally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to offer that price again to anyone else, it isn’t what people expect to pay, it’s what they’d like to pay. Have a think about it any way, would love to hear how you get on. x
Hi madeitwithlove, thank you so so much for your very helpful advise. I realise I have to address my pricing as you are right its what people want to pay not what they expect. I will keep you posted on how I get on, thank you again really appreciate the time you have taken to help me. xx
