to ask how much you would pay for homemade Christmas cake

You can't sell food without meeting all the hygiene regulations - which are extremely onerous.

There was a lady selling home-made Indian snacks at the local market , they were very popular.
I witnessed her being accosted by the Market Inspector & 2 PCs.
She was treated like a terrorist suspect.

Yes, they are really costly - especially Christmas cakes.

I think as this thread has proved people underestimate the cost of ingredients and time required to make a cake regardless of the aesthetic.

It brings back childhood memories for me too op - and doesn't even make me think of the chicken pox!

I dont like Christmas cake, but your cake brings back so many childhood memories for me! So i would def pay over the odds for it and would sneakily pass it off as my own!!

Oh but now we do!

And that, @OhDear111, confirms that taste is personal and it never does to be haughty.

It’s honestly pointless, you need a health and safety certificate, insurance etc and the ingredients are expensive plus time, electricity, washing up and packaging.

I'm sorry to say that I think this is a non-starter. I agree that there's very little profit (if any) to be made from selling Christmas cakes at a car boot sale.

I've been making celebration cakes for 25 years, and in all that time, I've been asked to make a Christmas cake just once - because it's cheaper to go to M&S and get a decent, generic one from there. It's not like wedding, birthdays and christenings, where people want a unique, personalised cake, and are prepared to pay for this.

There might be some profit to make in small, individual, well made gift cakes, if you find the right place to sell - Christmas markets would be good for this. You could also do things like mince pies to sell alongside. However, this all costs to set up, you would need to also need PL insurance, and to have your kitchen inspected by environmental health.

It's way more complicated than just selling or gifting to friends.

Oooh no! Bet her fingers were tripping over the keys to tell op that! And yet, we don't seem to have a photo yet ...

Not really sorry though 😬😂

These were photographed before final finish. We like something different! But they would get noticed. DDs prize winning one was cascades of snowballs. Looked beautiful.

The last time I made a Christmas cake was two years ago and the ingredients cost me just over £25 in total, so you I think you would have to charge more than most people would be prepared to pay

I agree with PPs that in all honesty the standard of presentation is not good enough to sell - not to people who haven’t already tasted and liked it anyway.

I also agree that you will not be able to make any profit on them as the ingredients cost so much that you will probably make a loss, without even accounting for all the time it will take you to make them (which will be a long time!).

If you did do it, I would say to improve the appearance you should probably have some piping around the bottom, or at the very least you need to make sure there is no yellow marzipan showing through.

The icing on yours is neither one thing nor the other - I think it either needs to be the thickness you have but smooth, or you need it to be thicker and spikier for a proper “snow” effect.

I would lose the decorations on top and tie a proper thick red ribbon all around it, rather than just the bow stuck on the front.

That’s just my opinion though.

You could offer to make one for the people who have said they liked it before and say they would need to pay for the cost of the ingredients, but I don’t think in that case you’d be able to add much on for your labour or make much of a profit.

I think it will turn out really expensive for you to make, and with the time and effort, you'll end up making a loss for the price you'll be able to sell them for. Add on the issues if you accidentally give someone food poisoning (you never know!) -I'd stick to making them at home for friends and family. I know a lot of working bakers giving up recently as they just don't make a profit anymore.

People at a car boot will want to pay a fiver max. It will cost far too much to make to make a decent profit. I make cakes for family and they take hours of my time. I do it because I love my family. If someone was going to pay me I would want at least 70 quid but people just don’t like paying that for cake. You can get lovely ones at Waitrose for a fraction of that price.

Yeah come on @OhDear111! Show us how it's done and what a "far superior" cake looks like!

I think op's cake looks far more delicious than those supermarket things.

I don’t think it’ll be a runner.

You’d probably pay more for ingredients than they’d sell for.

And it’s not quick and easy money - making a Christmas cake takes ages and you’ll end up getting pence if anything for your time.

Selling home made cakes only really works for charity when the maker is donating their time and the ingredients to the cause in question.

Shops have huge economies of scale, machines to make the cakes and can guarantee the hygiene!

I don't like Xmas cake so I wouldn't be buying it, but if your actual cake tastes nice people will buy it. Your decoration looks very drab though, I'm sure you can jazz up your figures and make it look really good too.

I also agree with PPs that people are just being polite.
There are lots of options around for a cake whatever your budget is plus you can make one as a family activity with kids so I don’t think you stand a chance.
And I personally would never ever buy cake at a car boot sale.

🙄

The truth about baking these days op is it is more expensive than bought items which are costed to scale.

On top of that, Christmas cakes are particularly expensive in terms of ingredients, and I'm sure yours are so lovely because you don't skimp on the ingredients.

I think your cakes have an aesthetic that many people WOULD prefer over a smooth-skinned factory cake from a major supermarket, and I actually think you might tap into that aesthetic even more by leaving off the decorations entirely and using something simpler - just an edible/marzipan holly sprig or similar perhaps?

But the real issue will be the complications of marketing them and ensuring you meet all the requirements re hygiene etc, depending on where you wish to sell them.

I would start by asking friends and family who would like one bespoked for them. No alcohol for DM? A snowman decoration for the GC? I think you would get around some of the allergen etc issues etc that way, and would probably be tapping into your most receptive audience. Alternatively, could you bake them for local cafes and let them deal with the allergen etc side of things? They might pay you more for a cake as they sell per slice.

It's sad that the world veers toward factory made these days, but for all those reasons, it does.

Combining other posters’ ideas, I think you should make small ones with ribbons and a box for friends and family to give as gifts. Put the ingredients on the box. Then you could take orders/payment upfront and these are the people telling you that you should sell them anyway. I wouldn’t buy a cake from a car boot unless it was from a proper cake making business, coffee truck etc.

Oooh get you 🤣

OP I wouldn’t buy a cake from a car boot sale! I make my own

I wouldn’t. I make my own homemade Christmas cake, but if I didn’t I would buy a nice one at M&S and pay no more than a tenner.

With the cost of ingredients and your time per hour it won’t be profitable for you to charge less than £10-£20 per cake unless you make huge quantities at scale. People won’t pay that for fruit cake nowadays when it’s so cheap at the supermarket.

I appreciate you want to make extra money but this won’t do that and very few would buy them.

Post a picture then.