MDMLFree calculator
Cake pricing calculator. Pay yourself, then price it.
To price a cake, add your ingredients, decorating and box, your hours at a real hourly wage, and a share of overhead. Then divide by one minus the margin you want. Dividing by the servings gives the price per slice to quote.
The cake
What it costs you
- Supplies
- $49.00
- Your time
- $132.00
- Total cost
- $199.00
- Cost per serving
- $5.10
- Profit on top of your pay
- $50.00
How to price a cake
The step most often skipped is your own time. If the price doesn't pay for it, the cake isn't making money, whatever is left over.
Price = (supplies + hours x hourly pay + overhead) / (1 - margin %)
- Add up the suppliesWhat this cake used of each ingredient, plus fondant, toppers, dowels, the board and the box.
- Count all your hoursBaking, filling, decorating, cleaning up, the customer's messages and the delivery. Multiply by what you'd pay someone to do it.
- Add a share of overheadTake a month of rent, power, insurance and fuel, and divide it by the cakes you make in a month.
- Add your marginMargin is a share of the price. A 20% margin means dividing the cost by 0.80, not adding 20%.
- Check the serving priceServings come from the size of the cake. Slice size makes a real difference, so say which one you're quoting.
A worked example
A made-up two-tier round cake, 6 and 8 inches across and 4 inches tall, cut into wedding slices. These are the numbers the calculator opens with.
| Ingredients | $28.00 |
|---|---|
| Decorating | $12.00 |
| Box and board | $9.00 |
| 6 hours at $22.00 | $132.00 |
| Overhead | $18.00 |
| Total cost | $199.00 |
| Price at a 20% margin, rounded up | $249.00 |
| Price per serving | $6.38 |
Servings are the volume of each tier divided by the volume of a slice, rounded down: 8 cubic inches for a wedding slice, 12 for a party slice. Check them against how you actually cut.
Cost your recipes once and keep them. Free recipes, plate costs and menu pricing. Automatic sales costing when you upgrade.See recipe costing
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