Silly question, how much do cakes sell for these days?

[Crocodilehunter]

A local business is selling an 8" cake for nearly £40, i'm not sure but is it a good, competitive price for that size?

Its sponge, fondant icing and flowers decs, it looks well decorated, but think i may be a a bit naive when it comes to pricing & under value the product!
I'm just interested because i'm looking to buy a cake later in the year for a couple of big b'days and wondered what normal prices were!

A supermarket sponge cake with fondant icing and a printed decoration will probably cost under £15, such as Peppa Pig Celebration Cake.

So compared to that £40 is expensive but is it a fair comparison? A cake which is decorated as a one off design is going to be a lot more costly than something mass produced.

Well quite Pay your money take your pick.

How about going around a few bakers and asking about party cake prices - get a feel for the market locally. If you are wanting something with a specific design, have a drawing of the design so they know roughly what you are wanting.

TeamEdward - how much do your cakes sell for typically?

I suppose these kind of cakes are for occasions so you pay extra to make it special! (good job they are that price or I'd be getting chubby)

Children's birthday cakes have been £50 or more, so £40 sounds reasonable if it's a cake for a special occasion and done to your particular requirements. So yes, you pay extra to make it special... plus save the hassle of doing it yourself, plus for the skill involved in the sugarcraft.

TeamEdward - those cakes are great. Love the castle with flames.

Wow you're really talented, and v reasonably priced by the looks of it, thanks guys, I'm saving my pennies for november then, got ds 1st and DP's 30th in the space of a few days, thought of getting a 2 tier cake big bottom tier for dad and smaller top tier for son, to make it extra special!

I think you are by far underpricing TeamEdward.

£40 is the lower end of what you should expect to pay for a 'quite plain' 8" sponge, IMO. Even a plain cake will take at least 3 hours (usually more) to make when you take everything into account such as time spent liasing with the customer, researching and designing the cake, mixing and baking, cleaning up, decorating the cake, then the cost of the ingredients, board, box etc, insurance, a proportion of equipment costs etc. Even at minimum wage, you've soon got your £40.

Sugar flowers can mean a lot of different things. A simple cut out sugarpaste flower takes seconds to make, a realistic looking large wired rose can take an hour to make, or more, so flowers could add a lot onto the cost too.

There are some cake pictures on my profile if you want to look, but I am 'only' a hobby baker at the moment, although I'm considering making it a business.