This is a continuation of the tutorial on how to price wedding cakes. Note that these same types of add-on costs could apply to any kind of cake including a stacked birthday or special occasion cake.
How to Charge for Add-On Decorations
Below are a list of edible decorations that are commonly requested by customers. These are considered extra, beyond the base cost of a wedding cake since they involve extra time, resources, and skills.
Edible Bow & Ribbon Pricing
- Large 8” modeling chocolate, gumpaste, fondant bow & ribbon $10
- Small 4” modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant bow & ribbon $5
► Follow this link for a free tutorial on how to make a modeling chocolate bow.
Edible Flower Blossoms Pricing
- Small (1/2”) modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant flower buds $5/dozen
► Follow this link for a free tutorial on how to make modeling chocolate flower buds.
Edible Roses
- Large (4-6”) modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant rose $7/each
- Medium (2-3”) modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant rose $5/each
- Small (1-2”) modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant rose buds $10/dozen
► Instructions on how to form these modeling chocolate roses are in the book, Cake Decorating with Modeling Chocolate.
Edible Leaves
- Large 6” modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant leaves $5/each
- Medium 4” modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant leaves $3/each
- Small 2” modeling chocolate, gumpaste, or fondant leaves $8/dozen
► Instructions on how to form 3D modeling chocolate leaves are in the book, Cake Decorating with Modeling Chocolate.
Flower & Leaf Combo
- Small spray of modeling chocolate, fondant, or gumpaste roses (includes 1 large flower, 2 medium flowers, 3 buds, 2 leaves) $25
- Edible bouquet made of modeling chocolate, fondant, or gumpaste (includes 4 large flowers, 4 medium flowers, 8 buds, 3 medium leaves and 3 small leaves) $50
► Instructions on how to form tri-color modeling chocolate petunias are in the book, Cake Decorating with Modeling Chocolate.
Chocolate Seashells
- Mini 1/2” chocolate sea shells 15 for $20
- Medium sized 2-4” chocolate sea shells, $15/dozen
- Large 6” chocolate sea shells, $4/each
► Follow this link for a free video tutorial on how to make modeling chocolate seashells, 5 ways.
Custom Monograms
- Hand-piped chocolate monograms $5 per letter
► Follow this link for a free tutorial on how to pipe with melted chocolate.
Standing Letter & Number Toppers
- Standing chocolate or gumpaste toppers (4” – 5”), $7.00 per letter or number ($6 for the number 1 or lowercase ‘l’)
Edible Figurines
This category includes edible figurines made of modeling chocolate, gumpaste, sugarpaste or fondant.
- Sitting or lying down figurine $25
- Standing up figurine $40
- Standing up figurine holding something in one hand $45
- Standing up figurine holding something different in each hand $50
Return to the beginning of the article
Cake Sales Kit – Professional Forms and Materials
New to Wicked Goodies? Start *HERE*
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing. My bakery has been doing a lot more custom cakes in the last couple of years and pricing is so difficult. This is very helpful, the first time I’ve seen it spelled out like this. Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I’ve been baking for a few years now, sold most of my baked goods during the major holidays, to raise funds for missions projects at our church. I’m now taking orders that do not revolve around holidays. Like most of the posted comments have mentioned, its hard to price our time!! Your information here, will help tremendously in pricing a wedding cake that I’ve been asked to make for an April wedding. Thank you so much!!!
Great info and interesting read Thank you!
I’ve been making and decorating cakes for 4 years, and I’ve made price revisions slowly over the years.
Yes, there’s always a ton of other homemakers who will undercut prices just to get a deal. I spend a lot of time & effort on each and every cake so I don’t lower prices anymore just because someone is unaware of what goes into the cake. Much happier now too!
Christina,
That is some varsity level home baking sales tactics that you’ve got going there! Good for you. Protecting your happiness is the key to longevity in this sport.
This article is wonderful…I so often feel like I am overcharging people for my cakes when u get so many who turn me down saying, “that’s too expensive! I can go to a grocery store and get cakes half that price!” When I’m barely making $2-3 per hour that I work on each cake. It’s hard when you live in an area that is not very wealthy. Just curious though, are you looking for an apprentice?? I would love to study under you and further my education in this field!
Kelsey,
I think customers complain about price primarily for one of two reasons: either they just don’t know the market value and are caught by surprise or they are a haggler. Check this out: 10 Solutions to Price Complaints.
I appreciate your interest in an apprenticeship position. However I am a full time consultant, no longer baking professionally. Most of my working hours are spent on the computer. It would be a total snooze-fest for you.
You can’t and shouldn’t price yourself with the retail grocery stores. All their cakes come in frozen and frosting in tubs. You are doing all the prep work to make a beautiful work of art. Your time has to be worth something. Price other speciality bakerys. See what they charge. You can be between the everyday Walmart cheap and the super expensive bakery and make some money. Good luck going forward to you
this information is juct what im looking for,i have been baking for a couple of years andstill have a hard time pricing my cakes.thank you thank thank you. Almost forgot, can i price a cake one year in advance, what about future increases in the cost of ingredients,how is this incorporated.
Merlene,
Great question. As you aptly point out, ingredients do fluctuate in cost. The best way to set up a contingency plan with advanced cake quotes is to add an additional disclaimer line to your quote that goes something like this:
This cake quote is only valid for six months from the date of issue. Prices may be subject to change in the future.
It helps to also mention this verbally to the customer. You may consider making an exception for customers who are willing to pay the full price upfront, although that is up to you.
How would you Charge for a cake covered in modeling chochlate and also a 3D cake? Thanks for the info I have been working and loosing money as a home baker.
Stephanie,
The 3D cake pricing is included in the ebook that comes with the Cake Sales Kit. I suggest reading the first page of this article about cake pricing that lists the price of cakes covered in all kinds of things, including modeling chocolate.
Thank you so much for all of this info.! I am located in a suburb of Detroit MI. Always struggling with pricing. I work at my own pace ( slowly), so if I charged by the hour no one could afford me! This gives me a great price structure to work from.
Hi Wicked Goodies,
I honestly can’t thank you enough. I’ve been baking for 3yrs for nothing, having spent many hours with sleepless nights couples with not been there for your loved ones when they need you because you want to finish a cake. Buying the ingredients is not a joke and your time. I have been underpaid for years. Imagine, someone wants a cake for $40 want it to be bigger. I really appreciate your efforts and time in putting all this together. Thanks and God Bless!!!
Hi Esther!
It’s wonderful to hear from you and I agree that it’s not worth the sacrifice if you can’t turn a profit. I’m so glad this article has been a help for your home business. – Kristen
I can’t thank you enough. The time and thought that you put into all this info is phenomenal ! Love this site.
Thanks you so much.For years I have been under pricing my cakes.
This article is amazing thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I have done jobs where I have had no idea on how to price, and I ended up super tired and underpaid. Example doing a petal cake a 8 inch I thought was gonna take no time took about 200 petals and hours to make. Thanks again.
Yikes! I feel your pain. Petals take a long time. These are the kinds of things we learn late at night with bleary eyes! Glad I could help 🙂
Great article, would like to know how others respond when a bride/groom asks why wedding cakes are so much more expensive than say a birthday cake. Pricing in this article is about what I charge as well.
Hi Vista,
Here are the explanations that I would give a customer when confronted with that question:
#1 It requires special equipment to make larger wedding cake tiers. Your ownership of the pans, machinery and tools that make it possible to build cakes of this magnitude increases the value of your product.
#2 Wedding cakes require a more robust support system including dowels, extra cardboard and a hefty platter. The dowels in particular involve extra labor to measure, cut and insert.
#3 Nobody wants their wedding cake to collapse on their big day so it’s worth the expense to hire a pro. Tiered cakes require more skill and experience to make, decorate, and transport safely compared to ordinary cakes.
#4 When you go out to a restaurant and order dessert, it’s usually at least $5 per plate. Remind the customer that basic wedding cake prices are not exorbitantly high compared to restaurant desserts.
#5 If the customer is on a super tight budget, first see if you can accommodate them with side cake and a simple design. If the quote is still too high for their liking, kindly refer them to a cheaper bakery or grocery store. Making referrals is common practice in this business.
great article! These prices are pretty spot on for my area. Unfortunately some of the local home bakers severely undercut their prices by charging only 1.50 or $2 a serving, I don’t know the quality of their work but it’s always hard to explain the price difference, this will definitely help!
That sounds rather low! I wonder how they could be making any money? Thanks for writing in and I’m happy to hear this helps!
They don’t make money- but they don’t realize they aren’t making money! They just make it harder for those of us who have built a building, pay taxes and insurance, and have health inspections! They don’t have the overhead we do!
Thank you so much for a great breakdown of your pricing structure. So helpful.
First off, thanks so much! This is a great guideline. I gladly pay to have this in book or booklet format! I have your first book and love it!
I love you!
Thank you so much. I’m just starting out and your site has helped me tremendously.
I had told someone the other day that if I only knew how to charge for the decor.
Wende, I wish you great success in your new business!
Might I have permission to post this bravely on my website?
Hi, Harriet, Thanks for asking about this! You are absolutely welcome to link to this article and/or take the pricing elements from the article and plug them into your own pricing policies. Please make sure to use your own words and photos though otherwise we’ll both get penalized by the search engines!
PS Your website has a lot of great information on it for your customers. I was just checkin’ it out. Kudos!