Guide · Cake pricing
How to price cakes (including your time)
A simple cake pricing formula for home bakers and bakeries: ingredients, packaging, your time, overheads and profit — with a free cake cost calculator.
The cake pricing formula
Cake price = (ingredients + packaging + your time + overheads) × (1 + profit %)
Most home bakers undercharge because they only count ingredients. Ingredients are usually the smallest part of a custom cake’s price — your hours are the biggest.
Step 1: cost the ingredients
Use the calculator to cost the cake and frosting from what you paid. In the example, a 12-slice vanilla layer cake with cream cheese frosting costs about $7.54 in ingredients — about $0.63 a slice.
Step 1: what your cake costs in ingredients
Vanilla layer cake
Enter your price to see food cost % and profit.
The app keeps your ingredient prices. When butter goes up, every dish that uses it updates — no re-typing.
Step 2: add packaging
Cake box, board, dowels, toppers, ribbon, cupcake liners. A box and board might be $2.50 per cake. In the CostMyDish app you can add these as ingredients (for example “Cake box, 10 for $12, use 1”) so they are always counted.
Step 3: pay yourself
Track the real time: baking, cooling, filling, decorating, cleaning and talking to the customer. If a cake takes 3 hours and you pay yourself $15 an hour, that is $45 — already six times the ingredient cost.
Step 4: cover overheads and add profit
Overheads are electricity, gas, equipment wear, card fees, delivery fuel and marketplace fees. Many home bakers add 10–20% for these. Then add profit on top so the business can grow — 15–30% is common.
Example: $7.54 ingredients + $2.50 packaging + $45 time = $55.04. Add 15% overheads → $63.30. Add 20% profit → about $76. Ingredients are then roughly 10% of the price.
Pricing by the slice vs. whole cake
Slices take more handling and packaging, so they usually carry a higher price per portion. For a café, cost per slice is often priced at 25–35% food cost; a 12-slice cake costing $0.63 a slice suggests at least $2.10 a slice for ingredients alone at 30%, before labour.
In the app you can add both ways to sell the same cake — by the slice and whole — and see the profit on each.
Checklist before you quote
- •Did you use today’s ingredient prices (butter and eggs change often)?
- •Did you include frosting, fillings and decorations?
- •Did you count packaging and delivery?
- •Did you pay yourself for every hour, not just baking time?
- •Would you still be happy at this price after 20 orders?
Bakers use the free CostMyDish app to:
- ✓Keep ingredient prices in one place and re-cost every bake in seconds
- ✓Price by the slice and whole cake from one recipe
- ✓Add packaging as an ingredient so it is never forgotten
Common questions
How much should I charge for a homemade cake?+
Add ingredients, packaging, your hours at a fair hourly rate and 10–20% for overheads, then add 15–30% profit. Ingredients alone are rarely more than a quarter of a fair custom-cake price.
How do I calculate the cost of a cake?+
Cost each ingredient from what you paid: (price ÷ pack size) × amount used. Add the cake, filling and frosting together, then divide by slices for cost per slice.
Should I charge for my time when baking at home?+
Yes. If you don’t, you are paying customers to take your cakes. Track your real hours for a few orders and set an hourly rate you would accept for any other job.
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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