Cake if you MUST!

I'm no expert but if you calculate how much time it takes to make the cake, the time spent to make the flowers.  I'm assuming  this is a scratch cake not a box, so add up all of the ingredients and multiply by 2, or, if you charge by the portion at approximately $3.50 for a buttercream cake without flowers, and add 20% extra if it has fondant.  Count the portions and I'd say somewhere around $350.00 up.  I have friends who charge anywhere from $3.50 to $10.00 a portion with fondant and flowers.  Do not underestimate you're worth.  Also, it depends on what the going rate is in your area.  I live in California and things are pricey.  Hope this helps.  By the way your cake is gorgeous, I love the flowers, are they gumpaste?

Hi Carol, thank you for your response. Yes, the flowers are gum paste. It was my first try at it, I got lucky. They turned out pretty nice. The bottom tier is a dummy layer. The cake is from scratch, pink champagne cake with raspberry mousse filling and buttercream frosting. 

Good job!  Now...  I am not being demeaning by asking if you know Culinary Math.  You have to take cost of goods, break them down to how many ounces etc. - eggs, milk, etc., add in your fee per hour, how many slices in each tier...  Once broken down then you add it together.  Salt and small amts., to me, are immeasurable.  Do an Excel chart or, if time is of the essence, do by hand.  It seems time consuming to do this but you cannot sell yourself short.

You also have to calculate Markup - usually 25-30 percent.

You'd cost it out the same way you should cost out cookies, by building up the labor and materials costs from bottom up; then typically applying a mark-up to cover overhead and other indirect costs and still leave you with a profit. Check out Aymee Van Dyke's post on pricing: http://cookieconnection.juliau....com/blog/from-dough

She provides a link to a useful costing/pricing model.

BTW - It's typically not enough to mark up cost of materials x 2 if you want to make money on labor-intensive products, as it's the labor cost which will drive your costs and thus the end price. You really need to know both; then apply a markup that's unique to your overhead situation and market pricing. I applied a 2x markup to the combination of labor and food costs when I ran my business.

Do an Excel or Access spreadsheet to calculate...   It is best to have everything you want to include in your spreadsheets.  Access can get "hairy" trying to add...  (Well, unless they have updated...  Years ago it was that way.)  Do a hand chart before creating the spreadsheet.  It's worth your time/effort. 

Also, don't forget to add in transportation costs...on both sides of the equation--I.e. What it costs you to pick up supplies or have them shipped to you as well as your costs of delivery/packaging if you are responsible for them. Small, peripheral costs can add up!

I believe in the restaurant business, which somewhat parallels this business, the pure cost of supplies is *loosely* multiplied by 3 to cover costs of labor and overhead. That would, I suspect, cover things such as electricity, equipment depreciation and the like.

As the others have said, don't sell yourself short. It may be a labor of love...but it's also a business!

Good luck!

Even though the bottom tier is a dummy cake, you still have to count the cost of the dummy, the buttercream, and your time.  Some customers think if a tier is not real cake it must be free.  Not so!  If you say these flowers are the first you've made you have quite a talent.  So pretty!

I agree.  All components in the making of this cake are chargeable.  (I may not use the correct wording...)  You also have to be careful not to price yourself out of the market.  As for the cake, you price as to how many slices for number of people, the cake cutter (unless they do it themselves).  This could mean thin slices or thick slices...  No harm when I mention doing the spreadsheets is worth your time and effort (something I started to do long ago and because of other factors I myself have failed to do).

I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to respond to my post. I'm SO new to all of this. I did cakes YEARS ago, when my children were growing up. I hadn't done a wedding cake in 25 years until now. I got HOOKED on making cookies (THANK YOU JULIA USHER!!) and that's was all I was planning to do and then I started getting requests for cakes, cupcakes, etc. I really REALLY need to get all of my ducks in a row!!! Thank you all again!!!