to ask how much you would pay for homemade Christmas cake

As stated by PPs, rules are different for charity events. Donating a cake to the Macmillan bake sale at work doesn't mean I need my kitchen inspected. But if you are selling cakes for personal profit (as the OP wants to) then yes you need the certification etc as mentioned.

Think of all the Xmas fayre and school fetes where people bake , you don't need a certificate for occasional events.

I might buy one from a friend (actually my friend makes one for me as a Christmas present). But I wouldn't buy a random one and as pp you'll be more expensive than a supermarket and their quality is good enough for me.

My 20Cm Christmas cake takes £6-worth of marzipan. Nigella’s classic recipe uses half a bottle of brandy…

People saying £10 or £15 for the cake the OP pictured – that wouldn't come close to covering the cost of the ingredients! That’s a big cake (looks about 20cm to me). OP is hoping to make a profit. I guess that shows it's unlikely.

Christmas cake is relatively expensive to make. Assuming you aim to cover more than the costs of production with your sale price, I’d be very surprised if you could sell Christmas cakes at a car boot and make any kind of meaningful profit. There is also almost certainly some health and safety consideration you’d have to take into account if selling to the public, eg do the council have to sign off your kitchen as meeting hygiene standards or something like that? There will be a cost attached to that too.

Hi OP. If I were you I'd sell them for £15 each or two for £25 x

The ingredients cost a fortune so what you should charge is different i would say to what people will buy for, but you would have to be careful of allergies etc. But I presume to make something and sell it is a business so you would habe to have all the paperwork behind you

They look like lovely cakes, can't beat homemade. If paid about £10/15, you would probably spend that on ingredients so wouldn't make much profit. Would you maybe consider making smaller cakes? Personally, I am more likely to buy a smaller cake so we would have a slice with a mulled wine on those evenings between Xmas and New Year. Good luck, wish you success with the venture.

I don’t like Christmas cake. Never buy or eat it. This seems to be quite common.

Now Festive Yule log……..

Not wrong,you don't need a certificate for an occasional event. You need one as you're a business.

Op I doubt you would make a profit but you might actually be out of pocket if for whatever reason your cakes don't sell. In my opinion the problem isn't that your cake doesn't look professional but it is that you don't know in advance if anyone coming on that day wants to buy a cake.

Having said that I do think your cake looks absolutely beautiful and I'd be happy to buy it for £10-15 if I needed or wanted a cake.

I think a pp had a great idea: give people your cake as a gift and save on buying them a present from the shop.

Edited to add that I just read your other reply so yes go ahead and small individual cakes are a great idea.

I wouldn't buy a home made cake from a random person at a car boot sale.

I would buy a home made cake from someone I knew to be a decent baker. Your target audience is the people who know you already, @TheHopefulBaker. They don't need to see paperwork to trust your kitchen hygiene is good and they'll enjoy eating your bakes.

I just won't buy edibles from a car boot sale.

Yes all mine is given and for charity too. Also grow bedding plants and have made £2000 for charities this year.

Every year I have lots of mixture left over and usually end up making a mountain of Christmas cake buns that we just eat throughout the season, so I thought this year I'd use the left over mixture to make three or four extra small cakes and see how they sell.

I don't get this.

The ingredients for Christmas cakes are expensive. How come you are estimating so badly that you end up with so much spare mixture?

:) if that's to me – I don’t sell my baking, I just donate to charity events. My take is that my time and the ingredients are a donation from me. I am guessing the brownies were sold at maybe £1.50-£2 a go (people are generous at my work) so x 20 that's more than if I had just donated £10.

I once made some cornflake Easter nest cakes for a nursery fair and was horrified to see the staff member selling them for 10p each (20 years ago but still). And some other really beautifully made cakes (not mine!) also at 10p. I queried it and the staff member said "well they are selling quickly!" I mean they would eh? 10p a cake even in 2005 didn't come close to covering the cost. I probs spent about £3-4 and they were sold for £1.20 in total. I was annoyed about that and since then if I am on a stall or donating to one have always priced donated homemade cakes at a decent price. People are happy to give a couple of quid to charity in exchange for a nice cake.

In 2021 these mini Xmas cakes cooked in individual baked bean tins were costed out by Nancy Birtwhistle at £1 each.
I bet they’d be double now…
10-hr slow cooker Xmas cakes

but even with the COL increase you could sell them for £5 and make a good profit.
Or just give them as presents.

Do you ever cover your outlay and time spent with homemade things .... I doubt it but surely the pleasure in the making counts for a lot. Otherwise as you say a straight donation may be a better idea!

Gosh!

It’s not as simple as making cakes and selling them!
You have to be registered with your local council, you have to have a visit from environmental health, you will have to have a food hygiene certificate and be registered as a business!

I’d pay £40 for a nice homemade Christmas cake like that.

Do you have food hygiene certificate? Otherwise I don't think you can sell them.

I don't buy things make in people's homes as a general rule, unless I know them very well!

Hi , I had my own business making celebration cakes for a few years when I retired early and it is so hard to make any profit , but I wouldn't consider Christmas caje as far too expensive to make, the ingredients alone are pricey, but you also have to consider the other costs.. boxes, assorted cake tins , boards ribbons as well as be certain you have enough skill to do them professionally and factor in the other costs , ie shopping time, washing up, gas or electric ( fruit cakes take hours) and cost your time.
You also cannot just sell cake , you must be registered , have hygiene certificates and show that you understand how to store not only the ingredients but you need to do allergy training, add stickers to your boxes to inform people of the ingredients that may be allergens etc. It's a hugely complicated set up and not something you can just sell at a boot fair, abd the local councils abd trading standards would be all over you , quite rightly .I hate to put a downer on this but id think again, it's not a thing that makes much money .

I’m not a fan of Christmas Cake but I love the cute decorations. They make me feel nostalgic.