to ask how much you would pay for homemade Christmas cake

You could get paid to make cakes for family and friends but I wouldn’t try to sell to the general public. They won’t go for it.

I make my own, the ingredients cost about £10 so I’m not sure you’ll be about to make money back

I used to have a cake business and in order to sell homemade cakes in the UK you have to be registered with your local council and they may or may not need to do a home check to give you a hygiene rating. You also need a certificate in food hygiene and to have public liability as a food business too. Your bakes also have to be labelled with all ingredients and allergens.

It may seem a lot for "just a few cakes" but you would hate to be in a situation where someone gets ill or worse from eating your cake and you end up in court. I know that sounds extreme but these things sadly do happen.

Look after yourself and if you want to go for it then why not, but do it properly x

I used to have a cake business and in order to sell homemade cakes in the UK you have to be registered with your local council and they may or may not need to do a home check to give you a hygiene rating. You also need a certificate in food hygiene and to have public liability as a food business too. Your bakes also have to be labelled with all ingredients and allergens.

It may seem a lot for "just a few cakes" but you would hate to be in a situation where someone gets ill or worse from eating your cake and you end up in court. I know that sounds extreme but these things sadly do happen.

Look after yourself and if you want to go for it then why not, but do it properly x

I'm sorry to say, but I wouldn’t buy any homemade cakes - I would happily donate to school cake sale, but I wouldn't eat any one else's donations. You just don't know what their hygiene is like (not talking specifically about you, OP - just explaining my position).

You'll need various insurances and for your kitchen to be hygiene rated before you start. I also think that there are few people who would pay what the ingredients and your time are worth.

I wouldn't even take one for free and if given one it would go straight in the bin.

Unless I know you are in a pet free, child free, smoke free home with impeccable hygiene at all times and nobody else ever entering the kitchen it's made in, I'm not eating anyones home made cake except my own.

I make Christmas cakes. They are expensive to make at home. Yes, homemade are a lot better than bought cakes. But people don't want to shell out £40 for a homemade cake. I'd say there is no profit to be made in them.

About £25.

I would not buy a cake from a member of the public who I didn't know. Goodness knows what might be in it. And the ingredients are expensive so I don't think you'd make much money if you found a few customers.

I wouldn’t buy one OP, if we were friends IRL I would be delighted to receive one as a Christmas gift, but if I was buying one it would be from a bakery or home baker with all the right certificates

I don’t think the rather random collection of Christmas figures do the cake any favours, nor does the skimpy bow.
As someone suggested, try a wide red ribbon around the cake and whisk up the icing to look more snowy.

I'm not surprised they sold well! The point people are making is that it's unlikely you would even cover ingredients at that price.

If you donated your costs to the charity then happy days (like me with my brownies for the bake sale obvs); tho I do sometimes wonder if I would be better off just donating the money I spent haha.

Plus insurance.

Ps, pre packaged food has to have ingredients, allergens and nutritionals on too.

Op don’t forget to sell to the public you need to be registered with the council, be inspected and have a level 1 food hygiene certificate. All easy to sort and doesn’t take too long. The council tend to class cakes as low risk. Ingredients have to be labelled with dates and temperature logs of the fridge etc.

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 just wondered what price to put on them. I was thinking £5 so the fact the majority have suggested £10 seems pleasantly surprising, considering I wouldn't be spending any extra time or money.

People (i think) are saying £10 for full size, not mini ones

You really should have your hygiene certificate and environmental health certificate to sell food as well as insurance. Cake is a safe food but fruited cake less so and you are taking risks selling it to the general public without appropriate hygiene training, certificates and insurance. You are taking business away from people who have done everything by the book and depend on this for their livelihood. Absolutely get yourself registered and do it properly and give it a shot but unless you are competent on allergies,shelf life and safe food handling I wouldn't be selling these out of your car boot for everyone's safety. Also there isn't much margin in these cakes unless you can add value with extremely elegant decor

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 just wondered what price to put on them. I was thinking £5 so the fact the majority have suggested £10 seems pleasantly surprising, considering I wouldn't be spending any extra time or money.

People (i think) are saying £10 for full size, not mini

I work in a cake bakery. A 1kg Christmas cake with marzipan and icing on the top sell at £22 to retail. They sell at wholesale fir around £17. And we just and so cover all costs with that. (Christmas can be a big turnover, low profit time).
All the fruit, alcohol, butter, nuts, marzipan, soaking and baking time really eats into profit. You won't have the same over heads, but realistically, youre not going to make much at all.
Sorry.

I’ll be honest and say I never, ever buy anything homemade in someone else’s kitchen. I have no way of knowing how clean it is. Even when it’s a charity event or a bake sale… if it’s homemade, I avoid it 😬

Yes but there's cake and cake.

Lots of people here are saying you can get a "lovely" one from the supermarket but they really are not the same thing.

Yes the icing looks as regular as though a robot did it (it almost certainly did) but they don't have the same cake quality as a proper brandy-fed traditional Christmas cake.

I'm in the US, and I didn't know what it was. But looking up a recipe, all those dried fruits are pretty pricey, at least here. I think you'd have to sell them for a lot of money, or make enough that you could but ingredients in bulk.

Honestly I wouldn’t pay for that. I think the cakes look homemade by a decent home baker, but they don’t have that sharp/professional finish I would expect. I also don’t really like the non-edible decorations stuck on, I think the decorations should be edible and maybe more artistically arranged.

That’s not to say your cake doesn’t look/taste amazing, obviously we cannot see the inside of the cake in these photos or infer the taste. I‘m sure your cake tastes lovely, but from the limited info I wouldn’t pay for this.

Personally I’m not massively interested in Christmas cake, it can be polarising, maybe your niche could be offering different flavours or combinations for customisation? As to be frank, the shops likely sell decent and polished traditional Christmas cakes at an affordable enough price, that you might not have much demand.

Calm down Lady Catherine de Bourgh

I second the ideas to sell slices, I think it will be a lot easier to make money that way. A lady round the corner from me sells slices during December and January, individually packaged in little cellophane bags, and she does well. It’s very time consuming to get the decoration very polished and people won’t appreciate it.