5 Considerations for the Per Serving Cake Rate

In the past two blogs we have gone over overall pricing when starting your cake business and in the last blog we went over the 'Just the Cake Rate'.  In today's blog we are going to go over the 'Per Serving Rate' which is a rating system that I used specifically for multi-tiered wedding cake orders.  Here are 5 main areas of consideration:

1. Your Base Rate

Decide on what is your base rate.  If you are new to cake making and still developing your client base try setting your rate slightly less than the market.  For instance, if the going per serving rate at a bakery in your area is $5 per serving try setting yours to $3 or $4 depending on how much experience you have with such orders.   

2. Tastings 

There are various ways you can treat tastings.  At my established cake rate ($5 per serving) tasting rates were included.  When I first started out my cake tastings were free, however I quickly realized how much time cake tastings took and their rates went from $20-$40 as I progressed.  I treated cake tastings as built-into the per
serving rate.  However, there were occasions when folks ordered with 'Just the Cake Rate' and also wanted a cake tasting (which is when I gave them a set rate just for the tasting itself).

3. Flavor Options

When it came to flavor options I quickly noticed that the most common cake flavors always ordered were Chocolate, Vanilla, and Red Velvet.  Because of this I decided to focus specifically on these flavors plus Lemon (to keep it a little more interesting:)).  This is not to say that I didn't at times provide other flavors (for instance occasionally I made carrot cake and had a fair share of funfetti requests).  However, this was the best way to provide my customers with what they wanted and helped keep production costs down and efficiency up.

With the most popular cake flavors AND the most popular filling flavors as part of my standard rates.  Any other exotic flavors were quoted separately and I usually added the difference in time and materials (for instance $10 extra for a special flavor).  

My base rate for the per serving cake rate included one cake flavor AND one filling flavor.  If the cake was super simple I sometimes allowed flavor changes for the same base rate.  However, if the cake decor was quoted accordingly with one cake flavor, additional flavors raised the per serving cost by $1.  

Also, at times I found myself quoted just flavor changes for smaller cakes and each flavor change would be an additional $10.  Also, with wedding orders brides liked adding sheet cakes.  To allow brides to get the different flavors they wanted, preserve productivity, while keeping rates lower, I provided retail sheet cakes in other flavors.  For instance, the tiered cake might be vanilla, and a sheet cake of chocolate and red velvet for no 'additional' flavor-change cost.

4. Delivery Terms

With the per-serving rate I built-in delivery costs for up to 30 miles from my location.  Any additional mileage was an extra $2.  For instance a 40 mile delivery feel would be an extra $20 with the first 30 miles already covered in the quoted fee.

5. Cake Stand Terms

For my 'Per Serving Cake Rate' I liked including the cake stand rental.  There was no extra fee to borrow cake stands.  The terms were to return the stand by the following weekend.  However, with the 'Just the Cake Rate' stand rental did come with a fee.  

And that's it!!  Hope that helps when setting up your wedding cake rates!!:-D