How Much Do Walmart Cakes Cost

This cake pricing guide has been a long time coming. I cannot brainstorm to tell yous how many times I've been asked how to price a cake.

Whenever I go that question, information technology takes me back to the beginning of my block journey. When I sold my first cake, I had no thought how much a homemade, custom cake should cost.

I had no idea how much my cakes price to make, and I was comparison my cakes to grocery store cake prices.

Overtime I learned to value my fourth dimension and effort, and began to recognize the type of people I wanted to bake for. But I still undercharged my cakes for YEARS!

The main reason I'chiliad sharing this mail service is to help you value the hours of work y'all put into your custom cakes, and help y'all charge the right price for them.

The goal of this cake pricing guide is to:

help y'all recognize the worth of your time
ensure you are consistently making a turn a profit on your cakes
empower you to properly toll your cakes based on your customers/region

image of a cocomelon cake made by chelsey white of chelsweets

Basic Formula to Price a Block

I like to use the formula beneath to calculate the toll of a custom block. I employ this for smaller custom cakes, rather than wedding ceremony cakes (which are usually priced past the number of servings).

Cake Cost = Labor (hours of estimated work x your hourly rate) + Price of Ingredients + Overhead

It comes down to basic cost accounting, factoring in your directly and indirect costs. And of course, valuing your time!

I want to highlight that this concept also applies to homemade cookies and cupcakes. Information technology actually works for any baked adept that a dwelling house baker can make.

Photo of Chelsey White with pink candy drip cake

Labor: Valuing Your Time

Yup, that's correct. Your fourth dimension is valuable, and you should exist paid for your skills.

Y'all are a cake artist, and the number of hours you expect to spend on a block should be factored in. If someone asks for an intricate cake topper, or frail sugar flowers, it should be built into the price.

Estimating the Fourth dimension a Block Will Take

At present I'm sure you're thinking, "but what if a cake takes longer than I think information technology will??"

And that is where it gets difficult. Sometimes a client might enquire for something that you've never done before. You might take no idea how long it volition accept, or if you'll have to endeavor making something multiple times.

In those types of situations, you just have to make the all-time estimate you can, and promise that you're close. Some cakes will accept longer than expected, and some cakes will take less. I endeavor to tell myself it all averages out in the stop.

I also want to note that I only consider active time for this role of the equation. Inactive fourth dimension similar allowing your cake layers to cool, or a fondant feature to harden are not included in this.

Hourly Rate

The other role that tin exist hard to figure out is your hourly rate. The farther y'all are in your block journey, the easier information technology is to figure this out.

I know when I was first starting, I felt grateful just to take block orders. I also wasn't as experienced or confident in my skills. The thought of paying myself for each cake I made seemed crazy.

But yous know what? If you worked in a bakery, you'd go paid an hourly charge per unit!! You should pay yourself at least minimum wage, fifty-fifty if you lot feel like you lot're however learning.

You tin also adjust your rate to take your experience and skills into account. You might beginning out at a lower rate, but as you develop your abilities over time, you can increase your rate.

Cost of Ingredients: Directly Costs

Now onto the second part of my equation, the toll of your ingredients! These are considered to exist your direct costs.

Direct costs include the ingredients you apply to make each cake. It's incredibly important that yous runway these, so you know how much it costs you to make a cake.

photo of wedding cake ingredients on counter

Most of united states have our list of go-to recipes (like my vanilla cake recipe), and information technology's actually pretty easy to calculate the cost with a little bit of leg work.

This might exist my inner CPA showing, but I created an Excel spreadsheet to help me quickly calculate the toll of each of my cakes. I know that not anybody loves numbers every bit much equally me, but I practice retrieve that most bakers out there bask being organized and precise.

Create a Pricing Spreadsheet

A costing sheet is easier to make than you think, and once it's created, the file does all the hard work for you.

List Out Your Ingredients

I made a master sheet of every ingredient I buy for my cakes, ranging from butter to freeze-dried strawberry powder! After I made my ingredients list, I created a cost column adjacent to it.

Toll of Each Ingredient

I then scoured my grocery store and receipts to figure out the price of each ingredient.

Only you don't need to know how much a container of salt is. Y'all demand to know much a tsp costs, or how much a loving cup of flour is! The next cavalcade I fabricated shares a standard portion size for each ingredient.

For example, I measure baking powder by the teaspoon, and brownish sugar by the cup.

This is my first pricing file I ever fabricated, back in 2014. You can clearly run across from the profit cavalcade I was underpricing my cakes!!

Summate the Price per Unit

This next footstep takes some time. You have to figure out how many servings of each ingredient a container or bag has. For example, a modest bag of granulated sugar contains about 8 cups of sugar.

If yous've made it this far, you're golden. You lot tin at present easily calculate the cost per unit of each ingredient, and link it to your recipes!

Calculate the Cost for Your Most Popular Recipes

I made a tab for each of my most popular cake recipes, then calculated the price of each of my concoction and frosting flavors.

I know this is a ton of work, merely it's worth information technology. Information technology also helps y'all know how much coin y'all're actually making on each cake you sell.

Overhead and Special Equipment: Indirect Costs

Now we're finally to the terminal component of our equation – indirect costs!

Indirect costs include annihilation you pay for to make a block, other than ingredients.

This can include variable costs like cake boxes, cardboard cake rounds, parchment paper, or even specific cutters or molds that you have to buy to complete a cake social club.

It besides includes fixed costs, similar hire, electricity, or big baking purchases like ovens or stand mixers.

Most of us home bakers don't rent out a dissever space, simply I think nearly all of us accept invested in baking equipment!

Whether it'south an edible printer, or an air castor, you should calculate the depreciation of those tools over their expected lifetime, and add together them into your overhead.

This way, you lot've truly included in all the costs y'all incur to brand cakes. These types of costs tin can actually add upwards, so it'southward important you consider them in your pricing.

Recognizing Your Clientele

Similar I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest mistakes home bakers can make is trying to compete with grocery stores. I recall we've all done information technology at some point in time.

But the people who run to Walmart last infinitesimal to selection upwards a sheet cake are not the same people who are reaching out to yous weeks (or months) in accelerate to create a custom cake for someone special.

Grocery chains use cheaper ingredients, and bake in majority. Y'all are using top of the line ingredients, and creating special flavors and cute decorations.

Your toll should not be anywhere shut to the price of a grocery store cake.

You Should Exist Too Expensive For Some People

Dorsum in 2016 (when I still sold my cakes), my average rate for an 8-inch layer cake was $100. I had more need than I could handle, and people are willing to pay a pretty penny for custom things here in NYC.

And fifty-fifty then, people still told me I should charge more than for my cakes. It blew my mind.

People ofttimes spend $100+ on a custom cake. Your charge per unit should be high enough that information technology causes some people to walk abroad. If no one is telling yous that you're also expensive, you're probably not charging enough.

If y'all're unsure how much people in your area are willing to pay for a custom block, it'south ok to ask effectually.

You can get a read on prices in your surface area past reaching out to other custom bakers in your area. It's also a great way to network!

Don't Try To Undercut Other Bakers / Bakeries

But be sure you lot don't attempt to undercut other local bakers or cake shops in price. The block community is small, and you want to support your fellow bakers.

If you become a cake social club solely considering your charge per unit is cheaper, you lot might not be gaining the clientele yous want. The type of person who shops around for the cheapest custom cake they can discover is usually not someone y'all want to be a repeat customer. Trust me on that!

Yous as well tin can devalue custom blistering in your area if you set up your prices too low, which hurts everyone in the terminate.

Understand That Other Bakers Aren't Competition, They're Fellow Artists

In the offset of my cake journey, I naively saw other bakers as competition.

In reality, each cake maker has their own unique style and offerings. It might accept a bit of time to develop your style, but you will naturally the more cakes you make.

I establish that I loved working with American buttercream, and enjoyed colorful, playful cake designs!

What Goes Around Comes Around

I rarely work with fondant, and whenever I'd get a request for a fondant intensive cake, I'd happily refer them to my other block friends who specialized in those types of cakes.

Or if my cake schedule was fully booked, I'd send people over to other local bakers I knew and respected.

They returned the favor when the same matter happened to them, and information technology created a peachy relationship betwixt all of us.

Delivery vs. Pick Up

Another rookie mistake I made in the outset? I DIDN'T CHARGE FOR Commitment. I cringe saying that out loud.

Ever charge a fee if someone wants you to deliver a cake. Y'all can choose to have a fixed rate for deliveries inside a sure radius, or you tin charge based on the distance.

Either style, be sure to consider the price of gas, the wear and tear on your car, and the value of the time it takes y'all to deliver the cake.

image of Chelsey White delivering a cake — I live in Manhattan, so I actually delivered cakes on foot back in the day! This photo is from 2014, when I had just started selling my cakes.

Strategies for Friends and Family

Now y'all know how to cost a block for clients, but what practice you practise when friends and family ask for cakes??

In that location is no right answer to this, and it'southward a personal decision. I've heard of bakers doing a variety of different things, including:

Setting a specific discount (i.e. l% off)
Merely charging for ingredients
Making cakes for gratuitous, but only for immediate family unit members
Charging full price

Whatever strategy yous choose, get in very articulate in the offset. When yous explicate how much money and fourth dimension go into making a cake, well-nigh people are very agreement.

I enjoyed making my friends' birthday cakes for free, and always looked at it as my gift to them! They never asked or expected me to bake for them, so I never felt any pressure around it.

Only I also didn't have my extended family asking for baptism and anniversary cakes.

Still, a lot of people are in a different situation. If you accept demanding relatives or friends who expect y'all to drop everything and make elaborate cakes for them, I recommend setting ground rules upfront.

This will aid temper expectations, and prevent futurity conflict.

image of chelsey white, the founder of chelsweets, in her original kitchen making cakes for her blog and social media

Key Takeaways on How To Toll a Cake:

Value your fourth dimension
Closely rail the cost of your ingredients
Build additional costs (for cake boxes, special equipment, etc.) into your cost
Sympathize the clientele you're after, and work hard to grow that base
Network with other local bakers
Charge for delivery
Set a standard expectation for friends and family, to avoid uncomfortable situations

Let Me Know Your Thoughts!

If you lot have whatever boosted tips on how to price a cake, or whatever questions I didn't respond, please leave a comment below 🙂