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A friend of a friend wanted me to make a cake for their birthday. Something along the lines of this
They complained that the cost I gave them was too expensive. The profit I would have made from it would have been less than £20.
They've decided to do something else so I'm not making the cake. But I was wondering what you would pay for a cake like this from someone who just makes cakes for fun?
I think you can look at this a couple of ways. £20 is a very reasonable profit for the amount of time it takes. Heck, just cleaning everything up afterwards takes a lot of time.
On the other hand, from the customer's point of view, they are looking at what they get and for how much. Your time and costs are not really relevant to them. Making just ONE of something is always far more time consuming and expensive than making a bunch of them.
You aren't set up to mass produce in a professional kitchen. If you count the time you first entered the kitchen until you are done and cleaned up, it's probably 3-4 times as long as it would be if you were set up to do nothing but bake cakes all day.
I've run into this myself. If I'm not set up for something, or not as proficient at doing it, I can still only charge the customer the going rate, even if it takes me twice as long as someone else.
If you wanted to make a business doing this, You'd have to work for cheap until you got the business running smoothly. If it's not a business, I think you need to view it as doing a favor, or doing a hobby that you enjoy.
This is doing it for cheap 🤣
Sadly I’ve been watching a lot of cakes made like this and I watch them for the aesthetic.
(It’s a weird addiction of mine, but) this can definitely reach that quality. It has *great potential* and similar style. I don't know who made the one in the image, but I can personally just tell it’s beginner style. If it was a personal friend of mine doing this as- I don’t know- let’s say a last-minute favor, I’d hope to receive a discount and not have a the friend try to make a profit off of me. If it was payment for the tools and of course the time/effort to make it, then I’d understand that and hopefully they’d explain that too maybe, as I’d probably forget with the party planning.
Store-bought cakes around here aren’t as decorative as the one in the photo. They’re simple but very clean and precise, so I’d expect similar pricing because this is its own kind. Since it’s not as adept as the ones on social media or from those baking for years now, I wouldn’t expect to pay a price similar to their own or prices resembling that of wedding cakes.
An exact number? I don’t know, I’d do my research if placed in the particular situation, but since this is a question I’ll just give an estimate. I’d probably pay anywhere from 15 to 20 bucks (USD). 15 because baking products at a grocery store or dollar store wouldn’t cost more than this. Potentially a little over and 20 because of the time/effort, and because it’s still stylized, and takes skill. Definitely with this range. I think I’d lean more towards 20.
For the image what would make it look more legit I don't know, I think the white drizzle icing could’ve been a solid layer over the top. It looks more tubular since it’s just a rim around this cake and it looks uneven. I think others whenever they did drizzle over the top like that have made the top drizzled icing a solid layer. The colors for me are harsh (pink and blue) but they do go together and match the character so it definitely goes. I think the pink and blue are enough and the gold template atop the cake looks really nice but shouldn’t add more because it could be overdone so the addition of the white/vanilla/beige-ish macaroons seem like it doesn’t go with the pink blue and gold just by looking at the siding and the overall usage of colors/shades.
I think if it was covered atop and either a different color macaroon chosen or taken from, this cake would definitely be worth like I don't know 40 bucks. Even more if the coloring was more blended? That’s just my maybe offensive/unwanted/obnoxious opinion lol apologies to the decorator of that cake. Definitely not for everyone. I don’t think i could certainly.
Girl you're dreaming 🤣 do you know how much eggs and butter are?
Actually I baked two cakes for my family. I made one a double decker. Sadly I don’t have photos and don’t do that whole cake theme but they were pretty swell. Cake mixes aren’t expensive and yeah I’ve paid 3-4 dollars for eggs depending on sale. Although I’ve gotten many accessories and icing from dollar stores. They still have good brands there. Like pillsbury- which I like. Anyways I didn’t pay more than 15 for the two cakes I had done last year and one was a double decker cake with made from scratch lemon butter cream icing and the other had Hersheys brand chocolate fudge filling. A lava cake..
I’m not dreaming. I speak from experience and I can get very real I wouldn’t pay more than 20 dollars for that cake. That’s me I guess you and I would never do business and some of us can bake our own cake.
Your friend didn’t want to pay your asking price? Or negotiate? Then don’t bake her the cake. Move on.
You if you run in to a similar issue a lot? Lower the price and do yourself the favor of learning to budget and use coupons. Get the deals work with what you’ve got. Or keep practicing if you want to sell cakes for a higher price.
Best to you. Like I said… it has potential.
By the way I baked those cakes for free. Moist, vibrant, well complimented, and gone within the hour. My family has exposure to various cuisines- they’re not pigs they have taste as well as honesty so I trust their critiques as well as my better judgement. That’s a little idea of why I said what I said. 👍 best to you
The cake itself doesn't look complex. I think it might go for $50.
You like making cakes for fun so I'm assuming you're not a professional. I don't know how well you can mimick this design. It depends on how the cake turns out. I'm also assuming you'd be a good friend and give them a discount.
So maybe $40?
I asked for £75 which would have given me just £20 ish after cost of ingredients and toppings
m It can be annoying doing ‘favours’ for relations or friends of friends, or even just friends. They do not realise the cost and effort to get everything sorted. You had ingredients, and the costs to complete the finished product, also you had any time and effort getting ingredients, any energy costs, then your costs as a person. When you add it all up it gets to a higher price than they expect, ‘but Margo Tescos sell them for £20 with club card’ , yeah but Tescos supplier makes them by the Ton. Personally if you get a cake of someone that makes them, you pay their rate, so yes would pay around £60 to £90 depending on overall design.
its a cake shop but gives you an example on pricing. Got to say it but you do tend to pay more for more inches 🙄
Yeah, this was a like 10 inch cake. I make my own buttercream, use real butter not shortening. Use quality food colouring. Cake board costs money, cake box costs money, sprinkles (so expensive wtf), the cake toppers are about £4, edible images are not cheap either.
This link has some decent information about hidden costs on cake making, it pretty much backs up your reasoning. chelsweets.com/.../
If you plan on doing more, the spreadsheet idea is the way to go.
Yeah this is how I work out all my costing. I even show people my little spreadsheet of the costs, showing each ingredient and how much I'll need of it etc..
Yeah that’s the way to do it, transparency is key and they learn something. I had a mate complain I would charge him £300 to detail his car, the stuff needed cost about £200 -£250 and I would take me 6-8 hours. This is why it’s hard for start ups to get established, people assume they are getting ripped off, not that the provider is just above breaking even.
Opinion
26Opinion
I don't know why one can't just be happy with cheap cake from asda they have some good ones.
But smart spending mindset aside, my step mum bought me a red velvet cake she's one who just spends money cause she can but that was about £60.
This looks a bit taller than that and more custom, and your doing it not a shop so I would say £90.
The profit been less than £20 ain't worth it. You could do something else within the time and something easier to make more money like you could babysit and make more money. Even if you enjoy it, needs to be more like £40 profit.
I was doing it as a favour. I don't really care about the profit... But figured I may as well get a tiny bit out of it anyways
we have a neighbor who makes custom cakes. Her ingredients are better, her decorating is far superior than any of the bakeries in our area as well. We expect her to cost more.
I think we usually pay her $100 for most of her custom cakes.
That's very fair. It's a lot of work and making them at home means ingredients cost more since can't really buy in bulk
She is a stay at home mom, and often tries not to charge people, but we all figure out a way to pay her. She's got to cover the cost of her ingredients.
I would say in the region of maybe 80-120. I would think. I don't really know much about pricing of cakes but I would say something like that.
And also I don't think that even being a friend means you should drop your pricing. It's a nice gesture for friends or family but it shouldn't be expected to drop the price. It seems like it's always expected that for friends and family you have to drop prices.
Honestly have no clue, I know custom cakes take some work to make and aren’t cheap, so probably more than I’d pay
Similar cakes here in the US are priced at us $30 to $50.
Splitting the difference and converting to pounds, a reasonable price for your cake would be about £30 to £35.
That's unlikely...
@Smashingdoozy What price were you trying to charge them?
£75 which would have been about £20 for my time
£75 sell price with £20 labor price would mean there's £50 of material in the cake, assuming zero profit. If toy assume 10% profit, the material in the cake is about £45. Either of those sounds like a pretty high price for the cake.
I don't know the specifics of bakery costs, but a general rule that applies to most industries today is that labor cost is about 3 times the material cost. Using that formula, if your labor cost is £20, the cost of material in the cake would be about £7, or £27 your cost. Adding 10% profit would take the price to about £30.
I was doing it as a favour. If I actually added the cost of my labour up it would be far more.
I'm saying after buying all the things I need to make the cake, charging 75 I would have had only about 20 left for myself.
Supplies and ingredients are expensive
I’m not knowledgeable on custom cake prices cause I usually just buy cakes from the grocery store and call it a day lol.
if I had to take a guess, I would say $100 (£92)
I say it should be about $200 if $250 if it taste good
You could make that cake
I could make that cake yes
Wow your very talented you'd make a lot of money doing thst here in the states
There isn't a lot of money in cake making
@Smashingdoozy If you're Carlos from Cake Boss there is lol
https://youtu.be/JZ35CqniW98?feature=shared
@PrettyCrumblBb yea of course if you're famous...
@Smashingdoozy
No he's talented. Only way he got famous.
@PrettyCrumblBb many people are talented. For the average person cake making is not very profitable. Especially when people aren't even willing to pay the bare minimum for a cake. That cake would retail for $180 at least.
Girl, did you see the cakes Cake Boss and his crew make? Top tier cakes. 👌🏻
The one you posted looks easy to mimick. And is it really supposed to be a Lilo and Stitch themed cake? 🙄You stick a fondant Stitch and call it a Stitch cake. Okay girl, bye. 👋🏻
@PrettyCrumblBb I'm not denying his talent? I'm telling you how much it actually costs to make cakes like this. It's hours of work and a lot of money in ingredients alone.
@Smashingdoozy I agree that's what people don't understand the time and effort you have to put into it that's why the cake boss has a whole team and that why these custom cakes cost so much. If I did that type of work half the money would have to be paid up front cause you still have to buy the stuff to make that cakes as well
Cake Boss makes massive cakes and has loads of orders. This cake doesn't look that expensive tbh. I make cakes too. It's not that hard to mimick a cake like this.
You don't know what he does. You just know what they show you on t v and as you know, everything you see on t v isn't real
Bro he gets a bunch of orders. He's famous AF. And his cakes are extravagant. Now those cakes are worth money.
Unless you've ordered a cake from him. Then you don't really know that. I've never heard of him until I've seen him on TV
😂 I have to order a cake from him to know how extravagant his cakes are? Okay bro. 👋🏻
No, that's not true. You could have seen it on tv like the rest of us
@PrettyCrumblBb nobody is saying the stitch cake is difficult. It still costs money and takes time to make especially as a home baker where you cannot buy in bulk and don't just have everything pre-made and ready to go. The cost for a cake like the stitch one is nearing on £50 in just ingredients and decorations. Could I make it cheaper and say no fillings? Absolutely, but it would taste like absolute shit and I would rather charge more for a nice tasting cake with flavours a person wants than a cake that looks nice but tastes bad.
Or you can buy natural ingredients instead of fake strawberries etc...
If you use natural ingredients it will cost even more and after you buy the ingredients you still have to buy the utensils to frost it properly cause you want it to look nice
Ok buy your shit on Temu. Leave me alone already. 🙄
Damn you mad and blocking people over cake. This is why I don't really interact with people on this site nobody wants the truth they just want you to agree with them
Boy I didn't block you. 💀
I'm not mad. You're just stubborn. Go buy your cake supplies at Temu and stop complaining about cost💀
I don't make cakes my mom use to cater on the side. That's how I know how much work goes into it
Yeah and I make cakes and can tell you this cake is easy to mimick. 👋🏻
@PrettyCrumblBb yeah I'm sure you can mimic it with your dollar store frosting and dry ass box cake... Have fun with that, I'm gonna stick to quality ingredients and work and charge what they are worth 😌
Girl I'm telling you to go buy your cake accessories at Temu since your vampire tranny ass keeps complaining about cost. 💀🤣 I buy only fresh quality ingredients. 👋🏻
@PrettyCrumblBb I agree with you tbh. Even if the procedure and their sweat is what makes the price people don’t care and only pay for the quality of a product. The product design like you said can easily be mimicked and I had that assumption as well before reading your comment and it doesn’t look professional. The men on here will probably say otherwise because it’s colorful and more than they could do with 10 hands or so they may assume and the guy above you is speaking not from his own experience with shopping for ingredients and baking but observing his mom. 🤷♀️ I agree with you. I tried to remain polite and say it had potential. She made this question because she was upset her friend wouldn’t comply. She seems to be looking to make a profit and living off of baking and is running into some roadblocks. No need to get mad at the customers for being “difficult.” There are cakes that sell well and it’s indeed because of quality. It’s not difficult to improve the quality. I even tried to give suggestion but she said I was “dreaming.” She’s dreaming of making a profit with something amateur. Maybe she should just sell cakes to all the men here saying they’d pay high prices for that 🤷♀️. I wouldn’t be good for business. I try to save my money not throw it away on styled sugar. And I love the arts of baking and decorating.
I’d guess about $120?
How much did you charge?
Id think a professional made it. Looks super cute.
I was going to charge £75 which is well under what it would be worth. But they thought it was too expensive...
It shouldn't be any less than what they would pay a bakery for it. It is beautiful.
I bought a similar cake 20 years ago for my son. I paid $125 for it at a bakery. I'm sure it would be more than that now with inflation.
My son's last birthday cake was around R1200 - roughly £60 - and not really more complicated than that one externally. In England I'd expect it to be more.
My friend's wife makes cakes like that and they aren't cheap. I'm not sure what she charges for them, though. Don't let anybody take advantage of you. The cost of the supplies and ingredients plus whatever you want to get paid to do it.
This is a perfect example as to why as an electrician I don't do residential side work. People want to pay $0 for quality work, and want it done in 5 seconds.
Looks kinda fancy. I dunno much about cakes, other than I like eating them. I also don’t know what your pounds are to our dollars. But I’d say that would be like a $70 cake. I dunno.
Probably somewhere between 30 and $50. It would have helped a lot if you had told us how much the ingredients cost. That would have allowed me to calculate a reasonable profit for you.
Ingredients including toppings, filling, cake board, cake box etc would have worked out close to £50
Thirty-Five Tops. Takes Effort and Ingenuity. xxoo
It depends on what is inside, but similar hand-made cakes in our café start from 80€
$20 is too low. i was thinking somewhere between $30-40. plus tip since you two are friends, you know
£20 would have just been my profit after the cost of ingredients
Bruh how stingey are they... £20-25 is nothing ☠️
Asked you to make a cake then legit said no?
Asked for a cake, gave me inspo which was more or less the same as the image above. Wanted a caramel filling between the layers etc. I said it would be £75 (would leave me with 20-25 ish profit). They said that's way too much. I said that I could probably do a laminated print of stitch instead of an edible image and the price would drop by 10 but they still weren't happy so they said they'd go somewhere else 🙃
😂 douchebag move from them
You would pay more than 20 dollars just for the cake and not the extras on the cake at Walmart here?
£20 would have been my profit. I was charging £75 which is basically the cost of ingredients
Seems like it lol
For friends it's cost plus 10%
For associates cost and a half
For commerce double cost
My Mom used to charge $25-40 for a cake like that but that was a lot of inflation ago.
£20 is very good price for that cake even cheap for that kind of decoration...
That's because it's not £20. I said 75 and 20 of that would have been the profit after all the ingredient, and decoration costs
Did they try to give you £20?
u Where I live, a cake like that would be $200-$250
that's a $900 cake
but i have to ask where the fukch are his feet?
Infront of him?
ok. i see them now. beautiful cake by the way!
Not mine. Was just the inspiration
how much was she trying to charge you?
Approximately US$40.00
Depends how think the frosting is
Thick*
Thickness of frosting makes no dramatic difference in cost. But I usually ice my cakes with 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick with real homemade buttercream (not the American buttercream crap). Plus with a filling in the middle.
It does to me, if it's got too much frosting I despise it, ever had those cakes usually from big supermarkets that's 2 inch thick frosting and the bit of cake on the inside, it actually also seems that whip cream is best for desserts, frosting is more sweet than the cake itself, you frost them thin which is a perfect balance, you are getting into baking now doozy? 😆
The buttercream I use isn't as sweet as the standard American buttercream. It's also not grainy
Oh then that sounds much better
I’d estimate $350.00 dollars
@Smashingdoozy Thank you for the Like
£75/$100 is an extraordinary good value.
Definitely is. I think they're going to try go to an actual cake place and be shocked at the cost of a custom cake 🤣
Absolutely! Wouldn’t be surprised if they come back to you begging at the last minute…
I don't know probably $60 - $70
150$
Hard to say tbh, 30-40?
In what world 🥴 that's the cost of ingredients alone
Friend of a friend... If they wanted a cake for 30-40 i would have done the most basic cake possible it would have 0 decorations. But no they wanted an almost exact replica of that cake with different colour schemes.
I would easy pay 50 cad for it
Free
Time is money. Ingredients is money ,
Not for my friend. It's a friend of a friend
My point is I don't know them so why would I do it for free and lose £30-£40 and 5 hrs of effort
$50-75 USD
Like 60$
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