08/11/2020
💯❤️
“The Cost of Making a Custom Cake”
There is another viral post over social media about a customer who complained about a two-tier cake with cupcakes worth P1400. It’s been shared dozens of times and hundreds of people gave their opinions about it. I don’t know the whole story but based on what I read, the client expected a large cake at that price and the baker failed to communicate the exact dimensions of the cake in the photo sent to her. I don’t want to delve much into it but I would like to give an example for both bakers and customers about the cost of making cakes. Honestly, we shouldn’t even have to explain how we do our costing to clients because each baker is different, but for the sake of awareness and to help everyone understand, I wrote this post.
Disclaimer: this is only a sample recipe, prices may vary based on location and brands used
Let’s look at this photo for example of a 7x7” cake I made with a Candy Crush theme. Actual price and flavor of the original cake is different. Below is just an example.
Yield: 5 layers of cake, about 1.25” thick each baked in 2 half sheet pans and cut into squares = 3 recipes
Chocolate Cake
660g all purpose flour — P30
195g Hershey’s natural unsweetened cocoa powder - P147
1,065g sugar - P57.75
28g baking soda - P8
12g baking powder - P11
18g sea salt - P2
25g espresso powder - P24
***EDITED: forgot to add the complete list of ingredients, sorry have been too pre-occupied lately! Changed and updated the values, my apologies.
360g veg oil - P170
6 eggs - P39
2T vanilla extract - P30
720ml milk - P54
720ml freshly brewed Coffee - P140
Total cost: P712.75
Chocolate swiss meringue buttercream
5 egg whites - P32.5
1 c sugar - P12
1lb unsalted butter - P315.8
1.5t vanilla extract - P8
Unsweetened cocoa powder - P40
Total cost: P408.3 (used 2/3 for this cake) = P272.2
Fondant - 1 kg P280
Ganache - 800 dark chocolate compound P204 + 320g whipping cream P124 = P328
Cost :P1592.95
Other materials:
Cake board - P16
Main cake drum - P98
Food colors
Ribbon
Edible glue
Tylose powder
Kitchen paper towels
Let’s assume the costs add up to P1750
What you don’t see:
*Utilities used: water, electricity, gas, internet for research
*Other costs: transportation fees for getting ingredients, wear and tear of equipment, soap, disinfectants, parchment paper, pan grease, cling wrap, paper towels, toothpicks
*Labor cost - hourly rate of baker x 8hrs decorating time + 8 hrs marketing, prepping, baking, clean-up. Now this depends on each baker, I’m a highly trained and experienced pastry chef and cake artist, I charge a little higher for my time per hour than most people. If you have an assistant, you also need to include her daily pay in the cost.
*My cakes are part of our store MV’s Bakezone and my school ICARS, one is registered as a sole proprietorship and the other a corporation under SEC. We pay taxes quarterly for BIR, and business and mayor’s permits annually. We need health and fire department inspections regularly. I’m lucky my family owns the building where my kitchen is, but if I’m renting somewhere, I would also have to include rent expenses to my cost.
Anyway, going back. There are 2 ways to get the selling price: food cost % and mark-up. I do food cost % but for simplicity’s sake, general tip for the selling price is to multiply the total cost by a mark-up value of 3 for cakes (this covers the overhead and utility costs).
P1750 x 3 = 5250
Note: This is not accurate though because it depends on the decorating hours it took to finish the cake so, it depends on you if you want to follow this.
When you order a custom cake, you are paying for:
* the cake
* someone to buy supplies for the cake
* someone to make your cake
* someone to clean up the dishes after making the cake
* someone who has the tools and equipment to make your cake
* years of practice and experience of the baker
* utilities like water, gas, electricity
* someone who is highly skilled and talented to create your cake and willing to pour hours of her time and effort and even lose sleep just to finish the job
* someone who has a family and needs to make a living to provide for them and sacrificing their time away from their family to make your cake
Now tell me if that price of P5,250 is not reasonable. I called a guy to fix my generator last week because it wouldn’t shut off. He came, cut off the wires and charged me P450, he didn’t fix it and he stayed for 5mins. He was charging me P3500 for half a day’s labor plus more for the parts needed. I couldn’t complain, I don’t know how to fix generators. Do you argue with your hair stylist, your doctor, your mechanic for the price of their services? I’ll bet my money you don’t. We understand you work hard for the money you pay for our cakes, but we also are working hard to earn so we can afford to pay for our everyday expenses.
How would you feel if your employer haggled for a lower salary for you? If you are not willing to work for less, please don’t ask us to do the same.
To bakers:
P1400 for a two-tier cake with cupcakes, no matter the size, no matter the type of cake or icing is not right, it’s charity. I don’t support the idea of keeping a business that’s not financially rewarding. The purpose of a business is to make profit. Yes, doing what we love is emotionally rewarding and makes us happy, but happiness doesn’t pay the bills or buy you groceries. Don’t be afraid to put a value on your work. Just because one person doesn’t agree with it, doesn’t mean you’re worth anything less.
Cheers,
Jamie
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