What would you charge for this cake?

[bustedwomb]

Ok, so I do a fair about of cakes from home and I feel I am very good at it. The problem is I never seem to charge the right price. My DH always says why do you bother, you are working for 8-12 odd hours on a cake and not even making minimum wage. I have just had two more requests for cakes this week. Both buttercream and one of them is two tiered (I've attached a pic) the other one is the very popular unicorn head with the horn sticking out and rosettes for the hair. You know the kind, I've done about five of them so far.
So please tell me what I should be charging for each of these cakes.
I use quality ingredients and I work very hard on them. DH says if they don't like the price then they can go elsewhere and I must stop undercutting myself on all my cakes.
Thanks guys! 👍🏻

Had a quick look on Facebook - there’s a similar one to the unicorn one near me for £45. How much are ingredients? Does it really take 8 hours to make? I’d ensure you’re covering costs and go from there.

I think you need to work out the actual cost of the cake, and then add what you feel is worth it to you on top of that.
Might be relevant to see what other cakes like yours go for. I imagine there is a range from £40 to £100 for a cake.
What "profit" would make it worthwhile for you?

How big are the cakes?

I'd expect £10 ph for anything I did at home.

When I used to do it I would charge ingredients as if I was buying everything from scratch, plus £20, no matter how long it took me to make. I think the most I ever charged was £40, for a cake that took me nearly 8 hours to complete. People still used to complain that I charged too much (although never to my face ) So I stopped and now I only make cakes for family.

Sorry, I meant I'd want £10 ph on top of the cost of ingredients.

I thought £55-£60 for 2 tier
£40-£45 for Unicorn

Those are beautiful cakes OP.

That first two tier cake would cost around £120.00 in London and that Unicorn cake would cost about £95.00. Though, these are London prices.

DH
Says at least £75 for first and £25 😮 for Unicorn.

General rule of thumb is triple the cost of the ingredients.

There are so many amateur bakers flogging cheap cake around now. Not registered with the council, no insurance etc that it’s not worth it.

How much do ingredients cost and how long does it take you to make each cake?

Plus a proportion of the time it takes to do your accounts for your tax return should be factored in too imo.

Yy I forgot the cost of insurance and any other associated professional costs.

I don’t know how the tax treatment for running a home kitchen differs to running a home office. I know about the latter.

I say 8-12 hours as I sometimes make toppers ahead of time and I include the shopping for ingredients and ordering supplies, delivery etc.
I always calculate what I spent on ingredients and then usually add a £10 which when i sat and worked it out made me realised I was earning less than £1 an hour
The two tier one needs about 40 servings. So I was thinking a 6" and a 10"
The unicorn would be a stacked 10"
Thanks for your responses so far.

Home kitchen - you can calculate cost of using ovens and dishwashers etc.

Awkward if you use personal equipment to make products to sell.

Agree with notgivingin (London also).

Are those actually pictures of cakes you have made or just internet pictures you are using to illustrate the type of cake?

Unicorn - £50-70 depending where you are in the UK
2 tier £60-80

Don't sell yourself short!

“Unicorn - £50-70 depending where you are in the UK
2 tier £60-80

Don't sell yourself short!”

60-80 quid for 10 hour’s work and the materials for a two tier cake is selling herself massively short!

It would help to see examples of your own cakes.

Yes it would help to see pictures of your own work as you say you have made some before.

You also say the orders are for buttercream but the pictures you have supplied look like there’s butter cream piped onto royal or fondant icing??

Unless you are registered with environmental health and inland revenue etc you cannot legally charge any more than the consumable ingredients cost.

I'm in Scotland so definitely not London prices. Those are the examples the customer has sent me. This is a unicorn one I did a few months ago.

Oh yes, you should have insurance too. I'm a long time cake decorator who gave up similar to the pp up thread due to so many 'hobby bakers' that are unregistered etc undercutting and illegally charging. There's no money in legit caking anymore. Strictly family and close friends on a pro bono basis now.

Sorry not what you asked, and if you are all properly registered then you need to work out your basic costs then settle at a figure you are happy with that is also competitive in your local area.

£80-£100

Wow! You’re really talented. They look beautiful. I’d probably pay about £40-£50 for something that good, but I don’t really know what the market price is.

Don't sell that for less than £90, seriously.