Free tool · Cake pricing
Cake pricing calculator — what to charge for a cake
Add your ingredients, packaging and hours. The calculator adds overheads and profit and gives you a price for the whole cake and per slice — free, no sign-up.
Cake pricing calculator
Vanilla layer cake
Ingredients are 10.0% of this price.
The app keeps your ingredient prices. When butter goes up, every dish that uses it updates — no re-typing.
How the cake pricing calculator works
Cake price = (ingredients + packaging + hours × hourly rate) × (1 + overheads %) × (1 + profit %)
The example is a 12-slice vanilla layer cake with cream cheese frosting: $7.54 ingredients + $2.50 box and board + 3 hours at $15 = $55.04. Add 15% overheads → $63.30. Add 20% profit → $75.96, or $6.33 a slice.
Ingredients end up around 10% of a fair custom-cake price. If your price is close to your ingredient cost, you are working for free.
What to put in each box
- •Ingredients: everything in the cake, filling, frosting and decorations, costed from what you paid
- •Packaging: cake box, board, dowels, toppers, ribbon
- •Hours: baking, cooling, filling, decorating, clean-up and messaging the customer — not just oven time
- •Hourly rate: what you would accept for any other job; $15–25 is common for home bakers
- •Overheads: electricity, gas, equipment wear, card and marketplace fees, delivery — usually 10–20%
- •Profit: on top of paying yourself, so the business can grow — usually 15–30%
Cake pricing by the slice
Divide the whole-cake price by the number of slices for a per-slice price. Cafés selling single slices usually charge more per slice than the whole-cake price works out to, because each slice needs its own handling and packaging.
Read the full guide: how to price cakes →Bakers use the free CostMyDish app to:
- ✓Save ingredient prices once and re-cost every cake in seconds
- ✓Price the same cake by the slice and whole
- ✓Add boxes and boards as ingredients so packaging is never forgotten
- ✓See every cake update when butter or eggs go up
Common questions
How much should I charge for a cake?+
Add ingredients, packaging and your hours at a fair rate, then add 10–20% for overheads and 15–30% profit. A 12-slice layer cake that costs $7.54 in ingredients and takes 3 hours comes to about $76 at $15 an hour.
How do I calculate the cost of making a cake?+
For each ingredient: (price paid ÷ pack size) × amount used. Add them all together for the ingredient cost, then add packaging. The calculator converts units (kg to g, litres to ml, dozen to each) for you.
Should I charge for my time?+
Yes. Your time is usually the biggest cost in a custom cake. Leaving it out means you are paying customers to take your cakes.
How much should a slice of cake cost?+
Divide the whole-cake price by the number of slices. For single slices sold in a café, many bakers aim for ingredients to be 25–35% of the slice price.
Free calculators
Ready to cost your next dish?
Download CostMyDish free on iPhone or Android. Type what you’re making, add ingredients with what you paid, and see your cost and a selling price in about 2 minutes.
Free plan: 5 dishes and 20 ingredients. No credit card.
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